Longhorns evade Tigers

The Encampment Tigers were dealt their first defeat on their home field this week as they hosted the No. 1 Meeteetse Longhorns (5-0, 4-0) on Saturday. The undefeated Longhorns handed Encampment their second conference loss of the season, as they fell to the No. 2 Farson-Eden Pronghorns on September 26.

Though the Tigers would put up plenty of resistance for Meeteetsee in the first half of the game, the second half saw the Longhorns put their heads down and push through Encampment for the final win.

"We faced a team with a lot of momentum in this game," said Kegan Willford, head coach of the Encampment Tigers. "Meeteetse started fast and put the pressure on our team to stay in the game."

This marked the first time that Tiger Caysen Barkhurst has been able to return to the gridiron since his injury when Encampment defeated the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Rattlers early in September. Since then, freshman Quade Jordan has stepped up into a larger role on the field. While Barkhurst saw gametime, it appeared that he was still struggling with recovering from his injury.

Within the first few minutes of the game, Meeteetse was quick to score a touchdown and a point-after-touchdown to throw 8 points on the board. Encampment responded quickly, with one touchdown by Barkhurst and another by Dalton Peterson to give the Tigers a 4 point lead over the Longhorns. Meeteetse responded with another touchdown and another point-after-touchdown to flip the lead, 16-12.

A touchdown from Jordan following a 37 yard rush and a conversion from Peterson put the Tigers in the lead at the end of the 1st quarter. Just seconds into the 2nd quarter, however, the Longhorns threw 6 more points on the board and retake the lead, 22-19. A touchdown from Jordan allowed the Tigers to retake the lead, 22-25. As the two teams went back and forth in the 2nd quarter, Peterson scored another touchdown and Jordan made a conversion to lead 30-32.

With only seven seconds left in the first half, however, the Longhorns scored yet another touchdown to go 36-32 into halftime.

While the Tigers may have returned to the field with the hope of some momentum, Meeteetse made sure that they remained virtually scoreless in the 3rd quarter. While the Longhorns threw up 24 points on the board, Encampment was kept to a touchdown, from Peterson, and a conversion, from Peterson, to trail 39-60 going into the final quarter.

In the 4th quarter, Peterson secured a conversion to throw 6 points on the board while Jordan caught a 26 yard pass from Peterson for another conversion and Kagan Gilbert caught a 3 yard pass from Peterson for the third conversion of the quarter. Though the Tigers were able to put 13 points on the board in that final quarter, the already substantial lead combined with 8 more points from the Longhorns wasn't enough to overcome.

Encampment fell to Meeteetse 52-68.

"As a team, we need to work on being more disciplined, meaning every person needs to execute their assignment each play. Against Meeteetse, we had some lapses where that didn't happen," Willford said. "Football is one of the ultimate team sports. If one person doesn't do their job on every play the success rate of the play goes down. This week we will really look to emphasize this concept. I feel, as a team, the boys played hard but we just have to focus on playing smarter."

Following their loss to the Longhorns, Encampment is 2-2 for the season and 1-2 for conference play. This week, they hit the road to take on yet another conference foe; the Ten Sleep Pioneers (1-4, 0-3).

The Encampment Tigers will be hosted by the Ten Sleep Pioneers at 2 p.m. on October 10.