Loud cheers echoed from the Prairie girls locker room after their 68-33 road win against rival Battle Ground on Wednesday, Dec. 13.
Last year, the Falcons won both their matchups against the Tigers, and this year, Prairie could continue that streak after already winning decisively in their first meeting of the season.
Last year’s first matchup resulted in a 36-16 win with the second matchup being a 57-21 finish in favor for the Falcons. This year, both rival teams have improved greatly, their coaches said.
“We have shown a lot of improvement in our tenacity and our willingness to do the hard work,” Tiger head coach Martha Bellcoff said. “[We are] practicing harder, and being able to handle the press is the area that we are working on right now.”
As the Tigers schedule gets more difficult, Bellcoff looks forward to the Tigers improving and gelling as a team.
For the Falcons, the win marked their first breakout game in the season.
“We’ve been in every game. We just have one bad quarter every game,” Falcon head coach Mike Smith said. “We are just trying to eliminate our quarters that are meltdowns. So that’s our biggest thing. We’ve been talking about [how] we have to turn the corner, and this is our turn-the-corner game.”
The Falcons are now 1-4 with a fresh win before winter break, although their season promises to get harder in 2024.
“We have to just keep building on what we did really well and learn from things and [we’ve] got to get better,” Smith said.
Smith added that in the 3A Greater St. Helens League, he sees tough matchups with Evergreen and Heritage, whom they haven’t faced yet.
The Tigers played Union High School in a 4A Greater St. Helens League matchup on Friday, Dec. 15, resulting in a 74-23 loss. After winter break, Battle Ground travels to Skyview High School for another league matchup at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 2.
The Falcons are slated to begin their new year playing Evergreen High School at 7 p.m, Tuesday, Jan. 2 on the road. Then they will play against an Australian team at 7 p.m., Friday, Jan. 5 at home.
