Encampment takes down Casper Christian

The Encampment Tigers secured another win for themselves in their final home game of the regular season as they hosted the Casper Christian Mountaineers. The victory for the Tigers came a week after their loss on the road to the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Rattlers.

“I feel like we responded well from our loss last week to Snake River by playing a pretty solid game,” said Kegan Willford, head coach for the Encampment Tigers.

The Mountaineers are the newest six-man team in Wyoming, having joined the 1A conference with their program just this season. It hasn’t been an easy season for Casper Christian, either, as they’ve been dealt a series of conference and non-conference losses. It wasn’t for lack of trying, though, as they managed to put up some points against Encampment on October 13.

“It was exciting to play a team that we have never played before,” said Willford. “Casper Christian came out and capitalized on some mistakes that we made early.”

It did look like the Tigers had some struggles in coalescing early in the game, compared to previous matches. Earlier in the season, while an opposing team might have scored a touchdown, Encampment was quick to prevent any additional scoring.

In the 1st quarter, the Tigers were the first to score with a touchdown from Quade Jordan following a 13 yard rush. Casper Christian responded with a touchdown of their own and a point-after-touchdown (PAT) giving them a brief lead over Encampment.

The Tigers scored two more touchdowns in the first 10 minutes with one coming from Kaban Pickett after a 26 yard rush and another from Jordan following a 65 yard rush. Two PATs from Gunner Henrie helped Encampment gain traction on the gridiron and the scoreboard. The Tigers led 22-8 at the end of the 1st quarter.

Going into the 2nd quarter, the Mountaineers tried to close the gap with Encampment with a touchdown and PAT. They would score the most of the entire game in that quarter, putting a total of 16 points on the board. Their second touchdown, near the end of the first half, came following a 49 yard pass and was followed with a PAT.

Encampment, meanwhile, put up 27 points in the 2nd quarter. Jordan scored two touchdowns, one after a 51 yard rush and another after a 50 yard rush with a PAT from Henrie following Jordan’s second touchdown of the quarter. Pickett also scored a touchdown, this one following a 10 yard rush. To finish out the first half, the TIgers would secure two conversions with a six-point conversion from Baylin Sifford following a 45 yard pass from Pickett. A two-point conversion was also made by Korbyn Barkhurst after a 3 yard pass from Henrie.

Encampment went into halftime leading 49-24 over the Mountaineers. When both teams returned to the gridiron, the Tigers prevented any further scoring from Casper Christian.

In the 3rd quarter, a six-point conversion from Pickett came following a 6 yard pass from Jordan. Another six-point conversion, this one from Jordan came following a 60 yard pass from Pickett.

The 4th and final quarter saw Encampment put up 15 points. A six-point conversion from Pickett came after a 15 yard pass from Henrie with a one-point conversion from Caleb Koehn. Jordan scored a touchdown after a 30 yard rush with a PAT from Henrie.

The final score was 76-24.

Jordan was the rushing leader, rushing for 292 yards against Casper Christian and was followed by Pickett, who rushed for 77 yards. Pickett, meanwhile, was the passing leader with 105 yards with Henrie passing for 39 yards.

“This was also a game where we put some players in some different positions and tried some different strategies that could help us later this year,” said Willford.

Following their win over the Mountaineers, the Encampment Tigers 6-1 for the season and 4-1 in conference play, sitting at No. 2 in the 1A South Conference. Their final regular season game will be against the Midwest Oilers.

The Oilers will host Encampment at 6 p., m. on October 20 in Midwest.