David Douglas football sticks together to earn first win of 2026 over Centennial

For the first time in over 350 days, David Douglas High School won a football game, besting Centennial 49-6 at home on Thursday night. It was head coach Tyler Maes’ first career win.

“I'm just proud of our team,” Maes said, soaked in a Gatorade bath. “I feel like they've had a lot of opportunities to pull away or separate (in games this year). Our seniors have had three head coaches in four years, and so it's been really hard for them. And I'm just trying to have them savor every moment that they get doing this, because it's such a short time.”

Thursday served as the culmination of the Scots’ efforts and attitude adjustment over the last half year. David Douglas forced a turnover-on-downs on Centennial’s opening drive, and four plays later — bolstered by 34 rushing yards from Malakai Fong — the Scots led 7-0.

On the ensuing Eagles’ drive, David Douglas senior Macshawn Hardaway recovered a fumble just two plays into the possession. With the Scots taking over on Centennial’s 8-yard line, Fong soon punched it in for another score.

Forcing a Centennial punt afterward, David Douglas’ next drive showcased its resilience in full force. The possession featured two fourth-down conversions and a play where the Scots faced a 2nd-and-21. Reaching the sticks to close the first quarter, TC Carroll connected with Jacob McGrew on a 21-yard completion to open the second. Fong followed it with a grown man 30-yard rushing touchdown, breaking multiple tackles, muscling his way to the endzone.

“Our (offensive) line were giving us good blocks up front,” Fong said. “Running hard downhill, not dancing in the backfield. Just going straight at them.”

Centennial’s woes continued, committing another turnover-on-downs on its next drive. Fong, meanwhile, kept cooking, exploding for a 21-yard run on the first play of David Douglas’ ensuing possession. One play later he trotted for another eight yards. A dead play followed, but Fong made up the difference, running for a 24-yard gain that set the Scots on the Eagles’ 10-yard line.

“I know no matter what, I can hand him the ball (and) he’s gonna get some yards,” Carroll, a junior quarterback, said.

Carroll capped the sequence with a 10-yard completion to Zashawn Perez for the score. David Douglas’ defense kept humming, Centennial again turning it over on downs. Seven plays later and 45-rushing yards by Fong and the Scots led 35-0, ensuring a running clock to start the second half.

David Douglas kept to its rushing attack in the second half, spreading the love around. The Scots needed just four plays and 55 rushing yards to score, this time courtesy of rushes by Fong, McGrew and Matthias Hilton, with McGrew scoring. Hilton recorded the Scots’ final touchdown on a 20-yard rush.

Overall, David Douglas totaled over 300 yards rushing. Fong finished with 195 yards rushing and four touchdowns.

“It’s been our bread and butter all year,” Maes said. “The first game of the year, Malakai gets hurt on his third carry, and we rush for 150 yards in a loss. But it's been what we wanted to be… so we knew going into (this) game, we felt like we were more physical. We felt like that's what we wanted to do and we were going to do, and we kept it simple.”

Starting the year 0-5, it’s no secret David Douglas is a rebuilding program. Maes told Portland Preps back in April that he thinks there’s a belief that the Scots are “not a good football program.” The last time the Scots tasted consistent success was when Maes himself was behind center nearly 20 years ago. It served as a good motivator to return to his alma mater.

“When the job came open, I knew that it was a great opportunity for me to be at a place where I went to school, where I've worked, where I've grown up my whole life,” Maes said. “Just exciting to give these kids an opportunity that they haven’t had many… of, and trying to make this program a little more relevant than it’s been.”

Relevancy is restored overnight, however, especially when there’s been a revolving door of faces at the helm. It’s meticulous and intentional. Shifting a culture requires growing pains. And while the first-year head coach and his Scots have experienced their fair share, they’ve also come awfully close to victory, losing by a point to Class 6A McNary (2-3) on Sept. 11 and by a touchdown to Putnam (3-3) on Sept. 25.

Against McNary, David Douglas failed a two-point conversion. With kicker Lucy Kimball going 4-for-5 on extra point attempts against Centennial, it’s likely she would’ve nailed the would-be equalizer, but that’s a risk teams simply charge to the game. Versus Putnam, the Scots seemingly stuffed the Kingsmen on a fourth down, but were flagged for a hand to the face. Putnam scored on the next play.

“I told them… that we were two plays away from being 2-2,” Maes said. “And so I said, we can’t take six months worth of progress and growth that we’ve made as a team and just throw it away because our record says 0-4, whereas if we had won those games we’d feel pretty good about being 2-2.”

The other three losses weren’t entirely to scrubs either. They fell to Class 5A No. 12 St. Helens (4-2), Class 6A Reynolds (4-2) and league foe Gresham (2-3).

Losing isn’t fun, but it’s often necessary. It’s all a part of the process, and a rather important step in that process is becoming a program that emphatically shuts the door on lesser teams, like David Douglas did against the Eagles.

“We’ve worked so hard these past six months coming out of spring break,” Carroll said. “(The culture) is a lot better. Guys wanting to work, guys wanting to show up, guys trying to do their best.”

“Everybody feels more together,” Fong added. “A lot of games this year, when we were down, everybody would have gave up (last year). But as you see, even though the scores didn’t (show) it, we (have) all kept pushing our hardest and playing.”

The Scots have a tough final stretch to end the season. Next week they hit the road to face Class 5A No. 11 Sandy (2-3), a program Maes spent the past couple years earning his stripes as an assistant. Then it’s a home game against Hood River Valley (2-3) before ending the year with a road matchup against La Salle Prep (4-2).

“Our goal is just to get better at football every single day, regardless of what the outcome is,” Maes said. “And embrace every moment that (we) get, because this is just a short moment of time that you get to play this game here.”