The Ganado Indians welcomed the Tidehaven Tigers for the first home game of the 2025 season, and the Tigers handed the Indians their first loss of the season, winning 38-12.
Ganado Head football Coach Josh Ervin credited the resiliency of the team. “The guys kept playing hard. Some guys played out of position, but they stepped up and kept fighting throughout,” he said.
Ganado’s offense took the field first and it didn’t take long to find the end zone. After picking up a quick first down, Logan Bures took the handoff and ran straight through the middle of the defense to the end zone to give the Indians the early 6-0 lead.
The Tiger offense then took the field looking for a response. The Tiger offense drove downfield, but stalled deep in Indian territory and had to settle for a short field goal. Following the field goal, the Indian offense looked to tack on more points but couldn’t get anything going on the drive and had to punt it back to Tidehaven.
The short punt put the Tigers on Ganado’s side of the field, and it didn’t take long for them to find the end zone. The Tiger offense moved into the red zone, then the Tiger quarterback connected with his receiver on a short pass, and he went 20 yards for the score to make it a 10-6 game in favor of Tidehaven.
The following Indian offensive possession stalled and forced another punt, but a lucky bounce would hit a Tiger defender in the back, and the Indians were right there to jump on the ball and give the offense another chance.
Following the recovery, Landyn Arriaga floated the ball over the heads of the Tidehaven secondary to Austen Pena in the end zone to give the Indians the 12-10 lead early in the second quarter. Tidehaven continued to show its offensive prowess as a long pass moved them from 60 yards deep into Indian territory. The Tigers followed that up with a short rushing touchdown on the next play to take the lead back.
After Ganado’s offense had little success, Tidehaven’s offense showed no signs of slowing down as it continued to hit explosive plays in the passing game to take the score 24-12.
Out of halftime, the Indian defense needed to find a way to contain the Tiger offense and keep the Indian offense within striking distance, but Tidehaven continued to move the ball at will.
After picking up a couple of first downs and moving into Indian territory, the Tiger quarterback launched one deep to his receiver in the end zone for another Tidehaven touchdown. The Indian offense couldn’t overcome the obstacle that was the Tiger defense and was quickly forced to punt it away again.
Tidehaven continued to press on offense, converting several first downs before finding another score to make it a 38-12 game. The game ended on a failed fourth down for the Indians, and the Tigers kneeled out the clock to take the win.
Pena spoke of the spirit of the team after the game. “I’m proud,” he said. “We never gave up, even when some guys went down, we kept going and the guys showed a lot of heart.”
John Utley gave a message to the team after the game. “ Don’t let the loss affect us, we’ve got to come back stronger. We’ll fix some things so that we’re successful in the future,” he said.
The Indians travel to Flatonia next Friday to take on the Bulldogs in the opening game of district.
