Tigers get back on track with win over Toppenish
CALEB PEREZ | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 6 months, 2 weeks AGO
Tigers head coach Patrick Mitchell talks to his players following another victory earlier this season. Mitchell said their victory over Toppenish puts them at a great position in the CWAC standings as the postseason approaches.
CALEB PEREZ/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Tigers kicker Caleb Moberg, filling in for quarterback, stands behind center Gabriel Mack during the final quarter of a previous game this season. Head coach Patrick Mitchell said the Tigers had been preparing diligently in these last few weeks for the games ahead.
Tigers senior Calvin Lybbert (11) wraps himself around a player from Ellensburg while Tigers junior Own Fitch (87) closes in to secure the defensive stop earlier this season. The Tigers had a successful defensive game against Toppenish securing three interceptions and holding their opponent scoreless.
EPHRATA – The Ephrata Tigers (4-3) earned a 28-0 victory at home against Toppenish on Friday evening. The Tigers hold their fifth-place standing in the Central Washington Athletic Conference and look to improve their record in the final two weeks of the regular season.
“I think the kids were super excited to play in front of a great homecoming crowd and went out there with the mentality to get after Toppenish from the first drive,” said Tigers head coach Patrick Mitchell.
The Tigers set the tone for the game by scoring on their first drive with a run from Carson Andrus. They would follow this in the same quarter when Brady Hendrick would connect a pass to Mitchell Morford for a touchdown to put themselves up 14-0 over Toppenish.
Neither team would score in the second and third quarters of the game, but Andrus and Jacob Reyes would both make touchdown runs in the fourth quarter. After holding Toppenish scoreless for the duration of the game, the Tigers would win 28-0.
Mitchell said he was very impressed with the Tigers’ defensive performance Friday. In their victory, Braiden Baltz intercepted the ball twice, and Morford snagged one.
“The defense played lights out,” he said. “Anytime you can shut somebody out, it’s a great job by your defense.”
The Tigers had prepared diligently on all sides of the ball leading up to this game. Mitchell said the team adhered to the game plan they had devised during preparation for the matchup, which ultimately led to their success.
This victory also allows the Tigers to hold their spot in the top five of the CWAC, which gives them a good position for postseason contention, he said. The team will continue to take the season one week at a time and focus on controlling what’s within their hands.
Mitchell said this week will be another great week of practice as they work with their scout team to help prepare the varsity for their next opponent. The Tigers have also been seeing more of the younger players stepping up since last week, which has helped prep the team further for the final stretch before the postseason.
“The goal is we want to finish more drives offensively and defensively than we did last week,” he said. “We did well, but we want to continually improve and get better.”
The Tigers’ next game will be on the road against Selah on Friday at 7 p.m.
BOX SCORE:
EPHR: 14-0-14-0: 28
TOPP: 0-0-0-0: 0
Tigers kicker Caleb Moberg, filling in for quarterback, stands behind center Gabriel Mack during the final quarter of a previous game this season. Head coach Patrick Mitchell said the Tigers had been preparing diligently in these last few weeks for the games ahead.
Tigers senior Calvin Lybbert (11) wraps himself around a player from Ellensburg while Tigers junior Own Fitch (87) closes in to secure the defensive stop earlier this season. The Tigers had a successful defensive game against Toppenish securing three interceptions and holding their opponent scoreless.ARTICLES BY CALEB PEREZ
BBCC eyes budget and spring enrollment
MOSES LAKE — During Big Bend Community College’s April 30 board meeting the college President, Sarah Thompson Tweedy, shared the counts for spring enrollment and Full Time Enrollment numbers for Spring of 2026 along with updates on where the budget sits. “We still have some work to do in terms of systematically going through our expenses and seeing how much of the requests that we have before us, how many of those we can put off,” said Thompson Tweedy. “There’s the opportunity to close that gap by reducing our expenses, but the challenge is, we’ve also had some expenses go up.” As of April 15, 2026 the spring quarter head count was up nearly 18% from 2025, but total FTE’s and state-funded FTEs were down 6.9% and 11.6% respectively, according to the board agenda.
Huskies best Tigers in OT
Othello moves on to second round of districts
OTHELLO — The Othello Huskies (11-5) extended their postseason push after earning a close 2-1 victory in overtime against the Ephrata Tigers (7-10) in the first round of the 2A district tournament. The game winning goal came in second overtime when Othello sophomore Samuel Marroquin knocked the ball into the back of the net. “It was a tough game, Ephrata is definitely a tough opponent, but I feel like we had prepared well for the week,” said Marroquin. “We definitely had a good game plan and we just gave everything. We knew if this was our last game we were going to go out with a bang.” The game was a tight battle from the very beginning as the Tigers and Huskies battled under the hot sun. Othello scored in the first half and maintained their lead in throughout, going into halftime 1-0.
BASIN SPORTS SCHEDULE: May 4-11, 2026
COLUMBIA BASIN — The postseason has begun for high school athletes in our area with teams gearing up to compete against the best of the best. Check out where our local teams are heading this week.