WESTVILLE — Under the Friday night lights the Westville Tigers, who were only 1-2 at this same time last year felt quite different this year.

They are now 3-0 after a 28-7 win over the Salt Fork Storm 28-7.

The Tigers are the first team to beat the Storm (1-2) in Vermilion Valley Conference action in three years.

They played smash-mouth football Friday night.

Was it destiny that they would put another W in the win column? Well, if you looked up at the moon during halftime of the game you may have gotten your answer because it was a bright orange. You might even say it was Tiger orange.

But what really put that win in place was the hard-nosed running of junior running back Caleb Pratt.

The team rushed for 293 yards tonight with Pratt having the lion or should we say Tiger’s share of that number.

After the game when asked about how he felt Pratt said, “It’s great, this is the first time I’ve started out 3-0 on the year.’’

Senior quarterback Jacob Attutis accredited the skills of his line for his success, but “we still need to stay focused.”

Pratt was also the man that setup Westville’s first score as he recovered a fumble by Salt Fork junior running back Jonathan Kunkel.

Several plays later, Pratt scored on a 17-yard run giving Westville a 7-0 lead with 6 minutes, 15 seconds left in the opening quarter.

The Tigers nearly had a two-touchdown advantage but a 60-yard touchdown run by Eli Williams was called back because of a penalty.

Westville did extend its lead in the second quarter when Pratt broke through on a 2-yard run making the score 14-0.

In the second quarter, Salt Fork did get on the board with a 53-yard pass play to senior co-captain Robbie Foley making the score 14-7 but that would be all the scoring the Storm would see as Westville dominated the game.

Salt Fork did miss an opportunity at three points when Kyle Koerting had his 25-yard field goal sail wide left.

The Storm started out the second half with a march downfield mostly on the back of running back Beau Atwood.

Salt Fork had worked its way down to the Westville 40 when a tipped pass would be intercepted by Eli Williams and he charged down the field 54 yards for a Westville score, giving the Tigers a 21-7 lead midway through the third quarter.

Pratt capped the scoring with his 1-yard scoring plunge in the fourth quarter.

When asked about what he thought of the game Salt Fork coach Brain Plotner just said “(We) got killed. They were bigger and stronger upfront. It was an old-fashioned hammer job.”

Plotner would not let his team get down on themselves as he believes they’ve had a tough schedule over the last 3 weeks and besides “we came back last year.”

Westville coach Guy Goodlove said, “it was a good victory. We won the battle along the line.”

He also gave praise to his team for not giving up the big plays.

Next up for Westville is Bismarck-Henning, which improved to 3-0 with a 45-22 victory over Milford.

Salt Fork, on the other hand, will play Milford, which dropped to 0-3.