Charlo passes over Victor
Senior quarterback Chico Stipe breaks another tackle during Charlo's Purple and White scrimmage last Thursday.
CHARLO — You’ve met Chico Stipe the runner. Now Say hello to Chico Stipe the passer. It was a rather rude introduction for Victor, who was on the wrong end of a 55-12 loss to the Vikings last Friday night.
“We haven’t had a chance to do much passing,” Charlo head coach Mike Krahn said. “He is a pretty accurate thrower.”
Stipe passed for four touchdowns with 129 yards on 8-of-10 passing to go with 44 yards on the ground. Krahn said that it is the team’s plan to be about 50-50 with passing and rushing. In their football camp at Montana Tech this summer, the Vikings worked exclusively on their passing packages.
“It’s really nice we do have a dual threat,” he said.
Victor marched down the field and scored on their first drive but the Vikings answered right back on a 20-yard Stipe pass to sophomore Tra Ludeman, as they scored 55 unanswered points.
“They caught us sitting and it kind of gave us a wakeup call,” Krahn said. “It’s good to find out that we didn’t panic.”
That wakeup call was another 10-yard scoring pass to junior Kolton Andrews, a Stipe touchdown run and another Stipe pass that found paydirt to senior Austin Bauer.
Then the Ludeman scoring spree began. The back caught a nine-yard touchdown pass and had two straight rushing touchdowns while he compiled 95 rushing yards.
“He’s got a sense for finishing,” Krahn said.
Bauer had a kickoff return for a touchdown the second straight week to cap off Charlo’s scoring.
Senior center and defensive lineman Joel Lewis had been thinking about Victor’s center and nose guard that he would be facing up against for most of the game. He had heard he was good, but Lewis proved he had the upper hand.
“He had a real solid game,” Krahn said. “At 190 he’s our biggest kid and all year he’s going to go against kids bigger than him.”
Krahn said that the line had been the main worry going into the Arlee game last week but it seems to be rising to the challenge.
“We don’t have a lot of depth especially at the line,” Krahn said. “We seem to be handling it pretty well.”
Charlo will play Noxon at 7 p.m. on Saturday on the road.
INJURY UPDATE: Junior Stephan Delaney is looking to reevaluate a stress fracture in his lower back that has kept him out of action so far this season. Krahn said that he is feeling better and is hoping to make a return.