Centralia had its district No. 1 seed locked up going into the regular season finale on Friday, but they still had goals to accomplish.

The Class 2 No. 2 Panthers secured their first undefeated regular season and first outright Clarence Conference title since 2019 with a 48-16 win over South Shelby (4-5, 2-4 CCC) at home. They have a bye this week and then host either Monroe City or Clark County next week.

Head coach Tyler Forsee said Centralia (9-0, 6-0 CCC) wanted to start quicker than last week at Palmyra. He said the Panthers scored on their second offensive play, the fourth play of the second drive and fourth play of the third drive for a “pretty” win versus an “ugly” 48-42 win at district foe Palmyra.

“We got off to a faster start than we did the week before,” Forsee said. “That was our focus. On Monday after last week, we sat down and said we got smacked around last week in that first half. I was thrilled to see our kids respond the way we did.”

Forsee said Centralia has a lot of kids who can carry the ball, so it used its team speed as an advantage over South Shelby. The Panthers finished with 336 rushing yards to give them over 300 rushing yards in all nine games this season. Ethan Ross led with 140 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries, Oliver Bohlmeyer had 64 yards and one touchdown on five carries, Cooper Gehring had 56 yards and one touchdown on two carries, Louis Suddarth had a 57-yard touchdown and Charlie Robinson ran three yards for a touchdown.

“They’re a little young at spots, and their skill kids are not overly fast,” Forsee said. “They have tough kids. South Shelby kids are always tough and good-natured kids who play the game hard.”

Knox Lawrence led the defense with nine tackles and three tackles for loss, Robinson had five tackles and four tackles for loss, and Suddarth had five tackles.

After sharing the conference title with two others two years ago, Forsee is glad Centralia has it to itself. There was a team every year that prevented Centralia from standing alone at the top of the standings, mostly Monroe City.

“It’s one of our goals for sure,” Forsee said. “It took a lot of kids to win all the games. It takes offense, defense, special teams, line and skill guys. Any time we get a win, a lot of hats go into it.”

Centralia wanted that goal but has its eyes on another goal, Forsee said. The Panthers want its first district championship since 2016 and know they put themselves in a good position with the No. 1 seed. However, Forsee said Centralia has to avoid the game two weeks ago at Palmyra.

After coming back down 27-6, Centralia won that game. The Panthers believe that can help them improve.

“We saw a lot of things we need to do a better job of,” Forsee said. “We’ve got to coach harder at the little things like moving our feet on contact on offense when we’re trying to block. We were doing a lot of position blocking, but that’s not going to get it done against a team that’s as good as us or better. We’ve got to be able to tackle and stay on our feet when we try to tackle and not dive and ball security.”