Tigercats prep for final game of the season

The LWK Tigercats faced a nearly flawless Liberty Christian team on Friday night when the Warriors secured a 78-8 win over the Tigercats.

The game technically served as a junior varsity game as the Tigercats forfeited the match up prior to the start of league play.

Head coach Justin Ziebell said the team forfeited the game before league began because the team already knew six starting athletes would be missing, due to the National FFA Convention.

Ziebell made the decision to still host Liberty Christian, only in a junior varsity game, in order to provide the younger athletes with an opportunity to gain more experience.

Liberty Christian traveled to LaCrosse, and brought the full roster of athletes to compete in the Friday night game. With the majority of the Warriors athletes on the field being varsity players, the Tigercats struggled to contain the Liberty Christian team.

The Warriors controlled the tempo and forced the Tigercats to give up possession on downs or to punt.

The Tigercats could not control the Liberty Christian offense early in the game, and the Warriors ran at will against the Tigercats.

The Tigercats only had four athletes on the sidelines to rotate into the game, and relied heavily on quarterback Chance Rice, running back Tom VanCamp and senior Madison Mabie to keep the ball in motion.

The Tigercats still struggled to run the field against the Warriors, and did not put up positive yardage until the second half.

The third quarter started the more even match up between the two teams as Liberty Christian predominately played their junior varsity athletes in the second half.

While the Tigercats only found the end zone once in the game, they held the Warriors to four touchdowns in the second half, after giving up 54 points in the first half.

The Tigercats play in the final game of the season on Thursday, Nov. 7, in Washtucna. The Tigercats are honoring the seniors during the home game against Garfield-Palouse.

The Tigercats should return to full roster this week, but three starting athletes are still battling injuries sustained in the league game against St. John-Endicott.

The athletes, Bo Rice, Joey Guske and Stephen Erickson, all intend on playing in the final game of the year and of their high school year on the home turf Thursday night.