The Ridgefield Spudders football team capitalized early on Prairie Falcon miscues and continued to pour it on for a 48-7 victory in enemy territory on Saturday, Sept. 7.
Ridgefield’s Jake Olsen recovered back-to-back fumbles in the end zone to give the Spudders the early lead. They wrapped up the first quarter, 21-0, with a touchdown pass from Landon DeBeaumont to Noah Stromberg.
The Falcons scored on a deep pass from Deven Vigue to Jackson Kimball, but that was all the Falcons could muster on offense as the Spudders defense prevented Prairie from stringing plays together.
The Spudders wracked up four more touchdowns before the game ended, leading to a running clock, which pleased Spudders head coach Scott Rice.
“Our defense played really well,” Rice said. “Our defense is flying around right now, playing really focused, intentional defense. Our coaches are doing a great job getting guys in the right spot, and then they’re just playing with their hair on fire and playing fast.”
Rice said inside linebacker Colt Couch and DeBeaumont led their sides of the ball well. He added that defensive end Will Andrew was crucial to the Spudders defense with two sacks.
After Ridgefield’s runaway performance, Rice told his team how much he appreciated the discipline his team played with in the week one game as well as the effort in the film room and in practice.
“We had a great camp, and we talked all week about really high intensity, really high focus on discipline,” Rice said. “We knew that it was going to be a fight, and I was super proud of the way our guys showed up and what we’re building and where we’re going.”
Prairie Falcon new head coach Junior Miller knew going in, growing pains were to be expected.
“We had some ups and downs today,” Miller said. “There were some good things. Obviously, the scoreboard doesn’t reflect the good things we had. We shot ourselves in the foot early on and Ridgefield capitalized on it.”
Miller believes the lackluster performance will provide the team with a lot of learning tape heading into this week’s matchup on the road at 7 p.m. against Washougal High School on Friday, Sept. 13.
“Friday nights or Saturday days is everybody’s best shot,” Miller said. “So, we’ll prepare as coaches. Obviously it starts with us, and we’ll spend a lot more time preparing for these teams that we have coming up, but the season’s young. This is one game, and we’re moving on to Washougal. You know, we’re going to flush this after 24 hours.”
The Spudders look on to a tough matchup against a hungry Montesano High School after the La Center Wildcats won decisively, 35-7, last week. Ridgefield will host the Bulldogs at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 13.
