L/W Tigercats roll to Colton after Knights take air toll

LaCrosse/Washtucna will travel to Colton Friday after sustaining a 56-12 loss to Sunyside Christian in their first league round Friday night at LaCrosse. The Tigercats and Knights were locked in a close battle into the second quarter when Sunnyside QB Wyatt Hoff and receiver Brant Borsma hit pay dirt twice in the closing minutes of the half. Borsma finished with 229 yards on four scores.

The two SE-Eight clubs locked up at 0-0 in the first quarter. The Knights scored first on a 20-yard corner sweep by Luke Wavrin.

The Tigercats came back with a long drive with QB Joey Guske and Stephen Erickson picking up a lot of yards off the option play. Guske capped the drive on a 12-yard keeper.

A Tigercat pass for two points failed at the baseline, and the score was tied at 6-6 with 4:08 left in the half.

After that the Knights scored three times with Hoff finding Borsma on an open track pattern for two of the scores.

He scored one with 1:16 seconds left in the half, and after the Knights’ defense stopped a hurried drive by the blues, Hoff hit Borsma for the last score with four seconds left for a 28-6 lead at the break.

Senior Bo Rice broke loose for a 30-yard run in the fourth quarter for the other LWK score.

Tigercat Coach Justin Ziebel said the Knights were able to break the game open when they began to roll on the sweep plays after failing to gain straight ahead ground against the Tigercats.

“We just didn’t make the right adjustments in time,” the coach noted. After the hosts began to look for the SC sweep, Hoff and Borsma began to hook up on the long bombs that took a toll at the end of the first half.

Coach Ziebel and crews expect the Wildcats to launch early and often in this week’s league round at Colton.

Senior Graham BeDell, who booked a bundle of Knight stops for losses last week, can be expected to work a full shift this week at Colton.