Tigercats face 8-54 loss on the gridiron

The LWK Tigercats had a tough battle to face under the lights in LaCrosse on Friday, Sept. 12, when they faced Garfield-Palouse in the first league game of the season. After coming off of a hard loss to Cusick, the Tigercats knew they only had room for improvement in the gridiron game.

The team struggled to get their bearings in the beginning of the game, before a couple crucial tackles by senior athlete Kaese Ramos helped bring momentum to the team. The Vikings marched out to an early lead, racking up 22 points in the first quarter.

Ramos made a couple of key stops at the end zone, forcing a fumble on one tackle and bringing a Garfield-Palouse athlete down just short of the touchdown. Ramos served as the lead tackler for the Tigercats, with at least seven solo tackles and around 15 assisted tackles, head coach Justin Ziebell said.

The Tigercats remained consistent with controlling and limiting breaks on Garfield-Palouse’s running game, but struggled to compete when they went to the air. The biggest obstacle the Tigercats faced on Friday night was pass coverage. The Vikings scored four of seven touchdowns off of pass plays.

Ziebell said the team realizes quickness is not a strength for them this year. The main focus is at the line, where the team has good size and strength, but Ziebell knows the team needs to improve downfield.

Overall, the Tigercats performed better than at Cusick, Ziebell said, but the team continues to battle penalties and mental mistakes. When the team is able to eliminate both of those components, Ziebell expects the team to excel on the field.

Continuously throughout the game, the Tigercats had good drives, only to be interrupted by penalties and push them back in yardage. The penalties not only hurt the momentum of the game, but also the drive of the athletes and Ziebell said it is important for the team to eliminate those mental mistakes that lead to loss in yardage.

“We’re taking steps in the right direction,” Ziebell said. “Actually, aside from the scoreboard, we saw a lot of good things in that game, a lot of improvements.”

In preparation for Colton on Friday, Sept. 19, Ziebell said the Tigercats are focusing on fundamentals and making sure the defensive ends contain Colton’s screen option plays. While pass coverage is going to be an ongoing focal point for improvement, Ziebell said the Tigercats are going to focus on containing the run.