Whether it was on defense, offense or special teams, the Battle Ground Tigers stomped their district rival Prairie Falcons 41-6 on Friday, Sept. 19.
The Tigers improved to 3-0, with each win being completely lopsided. Both Battle Ground Public Schools district high school football teams entered the night undefeated for the first time in series history. Both the Falcons and Tigers had scored over 40 points in their first two games.
And with the win over Prairie, the Tigers evened up the all-time series at 26 wins each.
The Battle Ground Tigers have dominated on special teams so much this season that during starting lineup introductions, the Tigers opted to introduce the kickoff team. The kickoff team allowed barely a return all night and even recovered a surprise onside kick to continue the steamroll on the Falcons.
The Battle Ground coaching staff, especially head coach Mike Woodward, has fond memories of last year’s devastating loss and what Prairie quarterback Deven Vigue did. But the Tigers staff also had two chances to watch the Falcons in person this year as they played at different times.
With what he saw in person, Woodward hammered home in the film room one thing in particular.
“The way we’re going to beat this team is if 11 players just rally to that football every stinking play with an attitude and an edge,” he said. “That was our approach all week, and we had Ethan back there on our scout team, and he was running around like crazy.”
Vigue came into the game against Battle Ground as one of the area’s top offensive performers by ground and by air. So what did the Tiger defense orchestrated by Clint LeCount do? Flatline the Falcons offense.
Nearly every play, the Tigers’ defensive line was in the backfield, making life difficult for Vigue and the Falcons. While the defensive line and linebackers on blitz schemes blew through the Falcons offensive line, senior Tiger cornerback Trent Richardson was able to set the tone in the defensive backfield with devastating hits and press coverage.
“It’s very important for me,” Richardson said of setting the tone with his physical play. “I’m a guy that gets our team ready to go and riled up in the locker room and stuff. So I have to come out here and show them I can do that on the field, too.”
On offense for the Tigers, quarterback Ethan Adams ran the ball for over 100 yards again, just like the first two games. Adams found wideout Broderick Heerlein for an 82-yard touchdown catch and run in the first half that really began the blowout.
“That was what we came in here expecting to do and got it done,” Adams said of the wide victory margin against rival Prairie. “... It’s only up from here. We just have to keep grinding every week, keep building on these wins and see where it takes us.”
Exactly where the wins may take the Tigers is unknown this early in the season. But Woodward told his team that they have a chance to be the best Battle Ground High School has ever seen.
The combination of dominant offense, defense and special teams has built up to three lopsided victories, but their next opponent has done the same thing through three games. The 1A Cascade Christian Cougars of Puyallup will march into District Stadium to play the Tigers in a battle of the undefeated on Saturday, Sept. 27, at 4 p.m.
For Prairie, head coach Junior Miller said his team just has to get back to the drawing board, but with some bumps and bruises.
“We’ll get better from this and learn from what the mistakes were,” he said. “So we’ll be ready to go next week.”
Miller added that Battle Ground gave the Falcons a look at sheer physicality on the football field.
“Obviously, I don’t want to lose any games, but you come out here and you take it here,” Miller said. “It’s not league play yet. We get another week with Union and then we get into league play. So we’ll get dialed in for that.”
The Falcons will play Union High School at home on Friday, Sept. 26, at 7 p.m. to conclude non-league action.
