The Battle Ground Tigers added an eighth home game due to air quality concerns in the Yakima area and in turn obliterated Eisenhower High School 47-0 at District Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 6.
Last season, the Tigers defense allowed an average of 30 points per game. In Saturday’s shutout win, they held the Cadets to negative yardage on offense. The Tigers swarmed the ball and did not give up many broken tackles.
At the helm this year for the Tigers defense is former Hockinson head coach Clint LeCount, who comes to Battle Ground with a big defensive mindset. Battle Ground head coach Mike Woodward was extremely pleased with what he saw in the game, especially the defensive performance.
“Clint done an outstanding job preparing these guys, and not only that, but (our team played) with a lot of emotion,” Woodward said. “I just felt like 11 guys swarming the ball every play, that’s what impressed me most. Just that, you didn’t see too many solo tackles, you know.”
The offense steamrolled for the Tigers with multiple air and ground touchdowns, but Woodward was really the most ecstatic for his team’s special teams effort. The Tigers were perfect on field goals and extra-point kicking tries. They did fail on one two-point conversion, but kickoff and punt coverage was successful.
“I thought we won that game with special teams, you know,” Woodward said. “I felt like we were just super physical on all special teams facets. We were aggressive. Even though we dropped a punt and a kickoff, we still took chances. We still played aggressive football. Our kicker (Bryland Fick) did an outstanding job. But it was the little things like that that set the tone, and the special teams group, we call them the ‘dog pound,’ that’s a big deal for us. And I felt like as great as our defense played, I thought our special teams was the highlight of this game.”
Fick made 33- and 36-yard field goals in the 47-0 win.
On offense, the Tigers were led by two rushing touchdowns from Xavier Ortegon and two touchdown passes and a rushing touchdown from senior quarterback Ethan Adams.
The Battle Ground Tigers will next host the Mountain View Thunder on Friday, Sept. 12, at 4 p.m. in the first of two games at District Stadium, with Prairie High School hosting Washougal High School after the Tigers, slated for 7:30 p.m.
