Battle Ground not discouraged by 47-6 loss to Beaverton

BEAVERTON, Ore. — Sometimes, after a loss like the 47-6 defeat that Battle Ground suffered Friday night at the hands of Beaverton, a coach will say that he’ll burn the tape rather than watch it.

That won’t be the case for first-year Tigers coach Mike Kesler — not with the cubs who he had taking the field for what many of them was their first taste of Friday Night Lights.

“What we saw tonight was inexperience and effort,” said Kesler, making his head coaching debut after spending nearly two decades as an assistant at Evergreen and Union. “We’ll look at the film, and we’ll see a lot of mistakes, missed tackles. But I was proud of the way we fought tonight.”

The Tigers (0-1) were missing as many as seven potential starters who were ineligible because they hadn’t participated in enough practices, and another starting linebacker who came down with a 103-degree temperature Friday morning. All should be available for next week’s game at Tualatin, Ore.

They should help, but Friday, they probably wouldn’t have made a huge difference against a quick-strike Beavers attack that took control early in the second quarter.

Beaverton, of the 6A Metro League in the westside Portland suburbs, also was retooling its offense after graduating all-state quarterback Carson Crawford and receiver Mataio Talalemotu.

The entire first half was played virtually on Battle Ground’s side of the field, but the Tigers gave up only a safety in the first quarter, stopping Beaverton twice on fourth down inside their 30-yard line.

In the second quarter, though, new Beavers quarterback Alex Brown threw a pair of touchdown passes, and Trevor McDonald scored on a 30-yard run during which he shrugged off four separate tackles as the hosts grabbed a 26-0 halftime lead.

“The kids didn’t know how to react,” Kesler said of the second-quarter onslaught. “As they mature, things will work out.”

Battle Ground got its offense in gear a bit in the second half, twice driving inside the Beavers 25 before stalling. The Tigers finally got into the end zone with 4:08 to play on a 10-yard pass from Seth Workman to Isaiah Cummings.

“We need to learn how to finish,” Kesler said. “It’s all correctable stuff. We just need to gain confidence.”

One of the few bright spots for the Tigers was sophomore Tyrel Halme, who took advantage of the lineup shuffling to get the start at tailback. He finished with 90 yards on 21 carries.

“He’s a hard worker,” Kesler said. “From the first day I met him, I could see he’d put the time in during the offseason, in the weight room, to get better.”

BEAVERTON 47, BATTLE GROUND 6

Battle Ground 0 0 0 6– 6

Beaverton 2 24 7 14–47

First Quarter

Bv–Safety, ball snapped out of end zone

Second Quarter

Bv–Grant Kirby 36 pass from Alex Brown (Miguel Hernandez kick)

Bv–Ethan Wilborn 24 pass from Brown (Hernandez kick)

Bv–Trevor McDonald 30 run (Julian Rodriguez kick)

Bv–FG Hernandez 32

Third Quarter

Bv–Wilborn 26 pass from Brown (Rodriguez kick)

Fourth Quarter

Bv–McDonald 79 run (Hernandez kick)

BG–Isaiah Cummings 10 pass from Seth Workman (pass failed)

Bv–Marquis Roseboon 25 pass from Carson Budke (Rodriguez kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING–BG, Tyrel Haime 21-90, Brock Robinson 10-15, Ryan Potes 4-6, Cummings 2-(minus 8), Izak Brundage 1-(minus 3), Workman 1-5, Carson Oltmann 1-2, team 3-(minus 25). Bv–McDonald 9-149, Matthew Eppler 6-17, Brown 5-4, Kirby 3-(minus 4), Stephanos Mason 1-4, team 1-(minus 7).

PASSING–BG, Workman 7-14-0-86, Robinson 2-4-0-10. Bv, Brown 10-17-0-192, Budke 2-2-0-55.

RECEIVING–BG, Cummings 2-54, Brundage 2-10, Robinson 2-9, Steven Hancock 1-19, Noah Barr 1-0, Oltmann 1-4. Bv, Wilborn 3-54, Kirby 3-84, Tanner Brown 2-33, Ben MacKinnon 1-6, Mac Melcher 1-15, London Smalley 1-30, Roseboon 1-25.