Ronan wins scrimmage-like game

RONAN — Ronan football head coach Jim Benn could have let his team have a night off; he could have let them stay warm inside instead of playing football in frigid temperatures on Saturday night.

Instead, he scheduled Missoula Sentinel’s junior varsity team on the team’s bye week, giving the Chiefs a chance to practice things that only a real game can provide.

And Benn has got to be happy with the result: a 58-21 spanking of Sentinel in a game where the Chiefs tried new plays and different options, but finished with yet another victory.

“We just went out and took care of business, doing our job and doing it well,” Benn said. “We were experimenting with some things and were really wide open with our passing game. We did some things I wouldn’t necessarily do in a regular game.”

The scrimmage-like feel of this nonconference game was countered by a Sentinel team hoping to come in and score a big upset. In the first half, it seemed like they might have a chance. Sentinel briefly held a 7-6 lead with 3:34 left in the first quarter after recovering a punt fumbled by senior Xavier Morigeau. That was the closest Sentinel would come to sniffing the lead as senior running back Cory Hardy took the ball 20 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the second quarter. A 35-yard touchdown pass by junior quarterback Jackson Jore to senior tight end Westyn Kiehn towards the end of the first half gave the Chiefs a 22-13 half time lead.

“It really served the purpose we needed it to because they play an offense similar to Libby’s,” Benn said of the game. “I feel great because we got better because of the game.”

Two touchdown runs by junior running back Lucus Black and touchdowns by Hardy, Morigeau and freshman running back Dallas Jore gave the Chiefs 26 second-half points. Jore’s 30-yard run was the last score of the game, and a special moment for him, according to Benn.

“The fact that Dallas Jore got to score as a freshman, that’s something he’ll remember forever,” Benn said. “We played everybody that suited up for the game and the kids had a great time with it. Everybody came out healthy and the people who needed rest got it.”

Now that the team got that out of the way, the Chiefs will have to bear down for their final two games against tough conference opponents: tomorrow for senior night against Libby and Oct. 23 against Polson.

“It could very well be a game like Stevensville with lots of offense or both defenses could show up,” Benn said of the Libby game. “Either way it’s going to be a close, hard game. They’re tough and they play hard; it should be a great football game.”

But, Benn added, “I think we are peaking at the right time.”