The Tigard “Army” came out to the Tualatin stadium on Friday night to attend the highly anticipated rivalry game, featuring the Tigard Tigers football team vs. the Tualatin Timberwolves. Much like the last two seasons, the Tigers had no troubles pulling out a 62-7 win. Although the Tualatin game has certainly received more hype than the rest, Tigard quickly realized that this weeks opponent wasn’t any more special than the teams they played in the last weeks.
“It was pretty exciting playing against Tualatin for the first time and I think we played excellent,” said freshman Brock Klosterman.
The Tigers achieved a high scoring first half tonight, looking for the possibility of a repeat of last years shutdown. Senior Manu Rasmussen scored the first touchdown of the night early on at 11:11. Other plays from seniors Darren Rodrigues and Bruin Campbell also contributed to the 21-0 lead in the first quarter. Tigard also racked up two more touchdowns during the second quarter, bringing the score to 41-0 at half time.
“We played good tonight and we were really fast on the field,” said senior Cameron Yarnell, “our team chemistry really showed.”
During the third quarter, Tigard continued to hold their lead on the field. Scoring at 10:35 and 7:22 to bring the score to 55-0. The Timberwolves didn’t get the chance to impress their crowd until the later half of the quarter, at 3:30 their fan section erupted into applause as they scored their first touchdown of the night. However, it was evident that there would be no way for the Timberwolves to match the Tigers 55-7 lead. Tigard scored again at 1:44 but there were no advances made from either side during the fourth quarter. The final result was a 62-7 win from the Tigers.
“We practiced really hard this week and we did really well on defense tonight,” said senior Ariel “AJ” Hotchkins.
Although the Tigers were excited to play their rivals, the Timberwolves didn’t challenge Tigards defensive or offensive lines. The Tigard players remained humble and showed positive sportsmanship towards their rivals tonight but look forward to hopefully clenching another Pacific Conference Championship and playing in the playoffs later in the season.
“Beating [Tualatin] was a good way to end our rivalry,” said Yarnell.