A huge second half propelled Central Washington to a 46-3 defeat of Western Washington Saturday in Bellingham, Wash.

Up just 10-3 10-3 at halftime, the Wildcats scored six unanswered tries in the second half to run away with it.

Central's offensive explosion in the second half came after what head coach Todd Thornley said was a tough first half for the Wildcats.

"I have to give a lot of credit to Western, they are improving year after year and put us under a lot of pressure today," said Thornley. "We struggled to execute in the first half of the game. They will give a lot of teams trouble this year. We improved in some areas compared to last week but still have a long way to go in all areas of our game. Our team knows this, and we will continue to work hard for each other and find ways to improve."

Arona Tauiliili scored two tries while Julian Arteaga, Mitchell Hirose, Calvin Liulamaga, Jimmy Thomas, Oscar Treacy, and Jack Tregoning each scored once. Lewis Hollidge had a pair of conversions while Tregoning added one of his own.

"We have two games coming up this week which will be great opportunities for us to continue to grow and build on the momentum we built in the second half today," Thornley said. "We had some great individual performances that we can build upon and hopefully start turning into collective
performances."

The Wildcats next visit Trinity Western in Langley, BC on Thursday. Then they host University of Washington before taking on BYU in Ellensburg.

Next up for Western Washington is Oregon State in Bellingham followed by University of Victoria.