After a tough loss to McLouth in week eight, the high school football team turned around and played a playoff game in week nine for the first time in school history thanks to a new playoff system. With the new format, teams only played eight regular season games instead of the nine that it had played for decades. It was designed to eliminate league schools or schools in close proximity to each other from eliminating themselves from playoff contention, and to help prevent them from having to play each other in the early rounds of the postseason. So Onaga entered the 32-team playoff bracket as the #14 seed out of 16 teams on the east side and who did they draw? Centralia, located a whopping 15 minutes down the road. But regardless of the opponent, the Buffaloes went into the game with high expectations and played hard against the Panthers, who entered as the #3 seed in the east.
Onaga got the ball first in the game and senior quarterback Jackson Kolterman ran 37 yards on the game’s opening play, the first of several big runs that would lead to a career-high 223 rushing yards for the signal caller in what would end up being his final game. But after the run, the Centralia defense tightened up and forced a turnover-on-downs.
The Buffalo defense did the same on the Panthers’ first possession, allowing no yards on three plays and forcing a punt. But the offense couldn’t get rolling again and punted it right back to Centralia four plays later.
After the back and forth possessions to open the game, Centralia finally scored the first points of the on a 44-yard pass from Jacob Flentie to Tyler Jones with 5:16 left in the first quarter to take an 8-0 lead. Another three-and-out by the Buffaloes turned into another Panther touchdown, this time on a 59-yard run by senior Henry Heideman. That gave Centralia a 16-0 lead with less than three minutes remaining in the first period.
The Buffalo offense would then take over and start a drive that would go into the second quarter. It went 63 yards and took 12 plays, the last of which was a 17-yard touchdown run by Kolterman. That was his 15th of the season and would cut the Panther lead to 16-6.
Fumbles would be a problem in the second quarter as Onaga put the ball on the ground three times in the period, losing one of them and stalling another drive. Centralia would capitalize, finding pay dirt three more times before halftime to take a 37-6 lead into intermission.
The Panthers kept their starters on the field in the third quarter and scored on their opening possession to put the game out of reach at 44-6. The Buffaloes would put together another drive against Centralia’s first team though, marching 71 yards in 13 plays to score less than a minute into the fourth quarter. Kolterman would add another touchdown to end the drive, his second score of the night.
Centralia put in their subs for the remainder of the final quarter, and Onaga would tack on another touchdown with seconds remaining in the game. It was Kolterman again, this time on a career-best 70-yard run. His third touchdown of the night was also his 17th of the season, the third most by an Onaga quarterback since 1978 when such stats began consistently being tracked.
Despite the 4th quarter points, Onaga couldn’t overcome the second quarter they had and would fall to the Panthers 44-20, ending their season at 3-6.
The 2024 season had some highlights to it, led by Kolterman. The senior signal caller went out with a bang, rushing for a career high in the game to give him 1,068 yards on the season. That is just outside the top 20 list in school history since 1978, but is the second most during that time by a quarterback, trailing only Craig Boswell’s 2004 season. He finished third for single-season touchdowns by a quarterback behind Boswell’s 2004 season and Mark Elder’s 1987 season, but was able to score his 17 touchdowns in just 9 games compared to Boswell’s 11 and Elder’s 12. He also finished with 124 points on the year, tying Brian King’s sophomore season from 1997 for the 9th most in school history since 1978.
On defense, Dylan Magnett finished the year with a team-leading 11 tackles for loss. That tied him with Jeff Cornelius, Jon Renfro, Brett Schwartz, and John Wisdom to land him on the top 20 list for a single season since 1978. Fellow senior Wyatt Boggs also had a standout season on the defensive side of the ball, amassing 79 tackles on the year to lead the team, with Jackson and Gavin Kolterman’s 51 being the next closest totals to his.
Looking ahead, the team loses five seniors from this year’s squad with L.J. Koelzer and Jacob Ronnebaum joining the three mentioned. They’ll need to replace the three linemen, Boggs’s defensive presence, and Kolterman’s record-setting abilities at quarterback next season. On the bright side, they will return seven starters on offense and six on defense, and had numerous underclassman that played roles and should be ready for bigger ones in 2025, as they’ll look to improve on the three wins from 2024.
For a look at the stats from this season, school records, All-League history, and everything else Onaga football related, head over to the district website (usd322.org) and go to the team’s page under the “Athletics” tab.