Tigers' defense to the rescue
EPHRATA - On a rainy, sloppy night with the offense struggling to find its rhythm against Toppenish, the Ephrata defense stepped up to lead the Tigers to a 17-0 victory in their CWAC home opener Friday.
Not only did the Tigers' stop corps keep Toppenish off the scoreboard, they help ignite the offense as all three Ephrata scores came off Wildcat turnovers.
"We've got to be able to take advantage of those, and I'm glad we did," said Ephrata coach Jay Mills.
The first of those turnovers came just after Ephrata's opening drive of the game ended on a fumble deep in the Toppenish end of the field.
On the second play of Toppenish's drive, the Wildcat ball carrier ran to the right and fumbled when Austin Chamberlain came in for the tackle. Ryan Burck recovered the loose ball near midfield, and the Tigers were in business.
Ephrata opened their possession with a pair of passes to Chamberlain that got the offense down to the 36-yard line. From there, Kip Swem carried four straight times, the last of which resulted in an 8-yard touchdown in which Swem powered through a vicious hit at the 2 to reach the goal line. Swem finished the game with 100 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 20 carries.
It would be more of the same in the second half, as Toppenish fumbled on their opening possession and Michael Castillo jumped on the ball on the Wildcats' 42-yard line.
On Ephrata's first play after the turnover, Swem took a handoff straight up the middle and blew through the Toppenish defense on his way to the end zone and a 14-0 Tiger lead.
Ephrata scored their final points of the night on a 24-yard Ryan Lutz field goal, an opportunity set up by a blocked punt that fell dead on the Toppenish 9-yard line.
After the Tigers' opening score of the game, Toppenish responded with a kickoff return to the 43-yard line, and then proceeded to drive the ball down to the Ephrata 22 before the Tigers recovered a fumble to snuff out the Wildcat scoring opportunity.
"Our offense was struggling, so our defense had to step up and make the plays when they did," remarked Mills.
Kory Frank was a respectable 10 of 18 passing for 83 yards, but spent much of the game fending off Toppenish defenders in the backfield.
"We've really got to shore up our pass protection," said Mills. "It's too much pressure."
While Ephrata was unable to get its offensive moving for the remainder of the first half, their defense was firing on all cylinders. After the Tigers went up 7-0, Toppenish drives ended in a fumble, a turnover on downs, a fumble and a three-and-out. In the two drives that did not result in fumbles, Toppenish had a net loss of nine yards.
As good as the Tiger defense was in the first half, they were even better in the final 24 minutes of play.
"We made a couple of adjustments with our linebackers," said Mills. "We tackled better in the second half."
In the second half, Ephrata allowed only three first downs, while forcing three three-and-outs and intercepting two passes. Also important in controlling the Toppenish offense was the punting game, which Mills said performed well after a difficult start to the season.