BREWSTER-The Tonasket Tigers brought in their first league football game while on the road in Brewster on Friday, Oct. 3.

The game started with the Tigers on their own 10 yard line. Sophomore running back Keegan McCormick rushed the ball to the Tigers’ 27 yard line before junior quarterback Wade Detillian made his first pass of the night to senior Jeramy Dellinger, moving the ball to the Bear’s five yard line.

With 10:14 left in the first quarter, McCormick scored his first touchdown of the night. Senior Michael Hulse kicked in the extra point and the score was 7-0. The Bears began their first drive on their own 18 yard line. A fumble recovered by the Bears and a penalty against the home team kept the ball in their own territory and the Tigers took over on downs at the Bears’ 35 yard line.

Once again, a pass from Detillian, this time to junior Andrew Grillo, moved the ball to the Brewster’s five yard line and McCormick scored again with 6:31 left in the first quarter. After Hulse’s kick, the score was 14-0.

“Tonasket’s got a good, solid club like they do every year,” Eddie Ashworth, Brewster head coach, said. “They’re tough and have a good size. Keegan is a good runner.”

On a rainy night in the first half, the ball was fumbled five times.

“We’ve actually done a really good job of protecting the football, so I think the conditions had something to do with it,” Jay Hawkins, Tigers’ head coach, said. “You have to be able to protect the football in all conditions, so we didn’t do too well with that, but we were also able to force some turnovers, so that was good.”

One of those turnovers was an incomplete pass from sophomore Brian Sattler which turned the ball over to the Tigers on downs at the start of the second quarter. The Tigers took over on their own 28 yard line and on the first play of this drive McCormick scored a 74 yard touchdown with 11:03 left in the first half.

“We hit Keegan with three or four guys every play and we just couldn’t tackle him,” Ashworth said. “He’s a straight ahead runner. He puts his head down and goes. He’s a typical Tonasket running back: he’s tough and has strong legs.”

With the score 21-0, the Bears took over on their own 24 yard line. The Bears were able to work the ball to the 40 yard line, but on fourth and four, they turned it over to the Tigers with 8:57 left in the first quarter. Detillian rushed the ball to the Brewster 20 yard line before fumbling. The Bears recovered but were unable to move the ball before fumbling and the Tigers recovered. Detillain rushed to the Bears 14 yard line then McCormick rushed to the 10. With 6:25 left in the first half, McCormick scored again and Hulse kicked in the extra point.

With 26 seconds left in the first half, McCormick scored a 30 yard touchdown, Hulse’s kick was good and the game went into half-time with the Tigers ahead 35-0.

“I thought Brewster played very well against us,” Hawkins said. “I talked to some of the guys after the game and they felt this was one of their better games, maybe the best this season. I thought they played really tough football.”

Ashworth said his team is young and inexperienced, stating that Sattler has never played quarterback before and the team has been hit hard with injuries, including one in the first minute of the game when sophomore Bernardo Martinez went to the hospital with a busted shoulder.

The third quarter of the game was scoreless with penalties and fumbles on both teams.

“One of the things we haven’t been able to do this year is put together two really good halves, so that’s our next goal,” Hawkins said. “With Brewster, in the third quarter, I think we made some mistakes and that might have affected the half.”

Despite those mistakes, in the fourth quarter, the Tigers scored almost immediately with a 48 yard pass from Detillian to Dellinger with 11:50 left in the game. Hulse’s kick was no good and the Bears took over on their own 31 yard line with the score 41-0.

With 1:24 left in the game, Brewster sophomore Cory Squires scored a 15 yard touchdown and senior Jesse Villalobos kicked in the extra point.

“Now I feel a lot more comfortable with our team,” Hawkins said. “We talked last week about looking at Brewster as the first game of the year and the other three were exhibition games, but now we’ve got the pieces of the puzzle together and hopefully we can stay healthy and not have to do anymore juggling.”

The Tigers, now 1-2 in league, 2-2 overall, next play Cashmere at home tomorrow night at 7 p.m.