Tigercats fall short against Gar-Pal, 50-38

In a battle of running games, the LaCrosse-Washtucna Tigercats came up a bit short in a hard fought battle last Friday against Garfield-Palouse, 50-38. The Tigercats came out looking strong in the first quarter, taking a 14-8 lead, but Gar-Pal’s running assault enjoyed huge success in the second quarter, which ultimately led to the win.

Gar-Pal outscored the Tigercats 22-8 in the second quarter.

“It was a good game between two evenly matched teams,” head coach Jeff Nelson said. “Both teams have the same philosophy of run the football. We just did not tackle well. We were in the right place at the right time with the right defensive call and we decided to hit instead of wrap up.”

In the first quarter the Tigercats dominated the field with 22 running plays.

Gar-Pal had just four offensive plays in the quarter.

“To their credit they have good players who make plays,” Nelson said. “We just did our best to help them out. I felt we played really flat emotionally.”

The Tigercats ran 60 plays of offense compared to Gar-Pal’s 39 during the game.

“I’ve never lost a game when we’ve had that type of possession,” Nelson said.

For the Tigercats, Sawyer Hostetler was the first to find the end zone, scoring on a three yard run.

Gar-Pal answered by returning the kickoff for a touchdown.

Hostetler scored again in the first quarter on a one-yard effort. Sam Harder provided a two-point conversion on a pass play from Jake Aune.

In the second quarter Gar-Pal would score on running plays of 25, 50 and 20 yards respectively.

Matt Stubbs provided the Tigercats’ second quarter scoring when he caught a six-yard Aune pass.

Stubbs also caught the two-point conversion toss.

Austin Summers scored for the Tigercats in the third period on a 15-yard pass from Aune. Aune took the football into the end zone on a running play for the two-point conversion.

In the fourth quarter Johnathan Holdren did the Tigercats’ scoring with a two-yard run. Hostetler posted the two-point conversion on an Aune pass play.

For the game, Hostetler led the running attack with 156 yards on 27 carries. Holdren had 125 yards on 16 carries.

“That’s a pretty good tandem backfield,” Nelson said.

Aune’s passing game was stifled. He completed four of 11 attempts for 53 yards.

This week the Tigercats have a different kind of opponent. Colton’s offense is far more complex.

“Colton has 12 to 14 different formations. They throw the ball all over the place,” Nelson said. “We just have to make sure we are set up correctly before the ball is snapped. We know what their strengths are and we’re going to take their strengths away.”