Tigers fall in key matchup against Prosser

EPHRATA — The Ephrata Tigers (4-5) faced the top team in the Central Washington Athletic Conference, the Prosser Mustangs (9-0), with heavy postseason implications on the line. Despite the Tigers' best efforts, the Mustangs proved their strength and won 34-7. 

"With our senior night, I thought our kids and our seniors played some inspired football," said Tigers Head Coach Patrick Mitchell. "The scoreboard doesn't really reflect it, but that was one of our better games of the year in terms of execution and unfortunately we still had some struggles in the redzone." 

The Tigers entered Thursday's game without their starting quarterback, junior Cooper Vasquez, who was injured during last week's matchup against Ellensburg. Sophomore Cannon DeLong stepped up to fill the role, with a short week to prepare.

"For a sophomore to have three days to prepare for a Prosser team, that's pretty dang good," said Mitchell. "He played phenomenal and the kids rallied around him and that was really cool." 

Ephrata took the lead early in the first quarter with a 7-yard touchdown from Delong to sophomore Jake Ayers. The Tigers offense continued to battle throughout the first quarter while the defense held Prosser scoreless. 

The Mustangs found more momentum in the second quarter as they found opportunities to score two touchdowns. This didn't halt the Tigers' own momentum as they continued to fight and kept the score 14-7 by halftime. 

The second half took a turn as Prosser began to gain momentum through the third quarter and extended their lead 27-7. Despite being down, Ephrata continued to make strong offensive pushes with multiple opportunities in the redzone. 

Unfortunately, the Mustangs showed no sign of slowing down and instead prevented the Tigers from making any scores in the second half. By the end of the game, Prosser secured another touchdown to take the 34-7 victory. 

"As a team, the kids really rallied together through that adversity," said Mitchell. "Very proud of the effort throughout the game and it didn't feel like we were truly out of it until their last score and the kids kept fighting and were still believing until the end." 

Ephrata found themselves in the redzone four times Thursday night, but Prosser held them on three of those attempts. 

"We would like to see us execute a little better in red area," said Mitchell. "Then it's a little bit of a different ball game." 

He said even despite the struggles Ephrata faced for scoring against Prosser, the Tigers felt confident in their abilities and managed to keep the game within reach most of the way.  

"(Prosser is) a good football team," said the coach. "Well coached, as they always are, but our kids did a great job meeting the challenge, facing an undefeated team." 

The Tigers defense played a huge role in keeping up with Prosser Thursday night. Mitchell said the Mustangs have offensive players that make teams defend the whole field, and this season Prosser used that to build huge leads early on. 

For Thursday, Ephrata found a way to hold Prosser to a one-score game by halftime. 

"To go in at halftime giving up two scores to a top 10 ranked team, we were feeling pretty good about where we were at," said Mitchell.  

He said the efforts from Ephrata's receiving core were also key in the Tigers' competitiveness Thursday. Throughout the game players like seniors Mitchell Morford and Ty Plaisted, juniors Caleb Newton and Ezaiah Chavez Mabry and sophomore Jake Ayers each made key catches from Delong which helped move the ball down the field as Prosser made their effort in stopping Ephrata's running game from junior Chance Lee, who was held to just 21 yards rushing. 

Morford had 87 yards on seven receptions followed by Lee with 37 on four receptions, Mabry had 29 yards on one reception, Ayers earned the touchdown with 28 yards on two receptions, Plaisted had 23 yards on two receptions and Newton had 13 yards on three receptions. 

DeLong with the help of his receivers threw for 218 yards and one touchdown in his time as the quarterback. 

To the coach, that determination to fight until the very end is something he said that speaks to who the Tigers are as a team. That drive is something that takes time to develop in these players, but reinforcing that belief in one another goes a long way. 

"Knowing that regardless of whatever the score is, the reason that we play is to compete and to compete with each other and for one another," said Mitchell. "We build that kind of stuff in practice, we talk about it in games where, 'Hey, we're down and we're losing and there's two minutes left and we're down 28 points. You know what? Let's not let that define us, let's keep competing.'" 

Though the Tigers fought hard against Prosser, the Othello Huskies' win over Toppenish that same night officially eliminated Ephrata from the playoffs. The coach said while this wasn't the way Ephrata wanted their season to end, he is still very proud of the effort that the players put forward throughout this year. 

He said Ephrata's ability to never back down was a highlight throughout this season as the players managed to work their way out of a rocky start.  

In week four, the Tigers sat 1-3 with their chances at making the postseason looking slim. With only the top four teams able to make the playoffs and being down three with a tough matchup against Prosser on the way, Ephrata needed to find it within themselves to take back their season. 

From there Ephrata earned wins against Grandview, Toppenish and Ellensburg to bring themselves back up to .500 in league and give themselves the opportunity Thursday to make an appearance in week 10.  

"For the kids to – when your season is looking bleak at week four and you've got five or six more weeks to play, sometimes people can lose focus and lose that edge," said Mitchell. "Our kids did not do that at all and took on every challenge from that week on and got better." 

Ephrata will be losing seniors Benson Bair, Carson Andrus, Clayton Wolther, Cooper Kriete, Dominick McVay, Drew Weitzel, Ivan Perez Chavez, Mitchell Morford, Owen Fitch, Rowdy Coker, Thomas O'Neel and Ty Plaisted in the offseason. Each of these players were celebrated Thursday for their contributions to the team throughout their careers and the coach said they will be missed next season. 

The future for the team still looks strong as the Tigers are anticipating the return of a large group of underclassmen next season. Mitchell said many of those underclassmen were given the opportunity to get varsity time later in the season which will be valuable as the players become starters in the future. 

"We were pretty young this year, especially at this point in the year we've got a lot of young guys on the field that are getting a lot of really good minutes on varsity time," he said. "Makes us look forward to the next season." 

The Tigers will wrap up their season as they host Clarkston Friday Nov. 6 at 6 p.m. 

BOX SCORE 

PSSR: 0-14-13-7: 34 

EPHT: 7-0-0-0: 7

    Jake Ayers (88) from Ephrata flexes in the endzone after hauling in a touchdown pass from Cannon DeLong (not pictured).
  

    The Tigers' Nate Krautscheid intercepts a Prosser pass during their game on Thursday.
  

    Ephrata Tigers Head Coach Patrick Mitchell (grey hoodie) talks with his offense on the sideline ahead of their next drive.