Towns collide

Arlee and Charlo battle for conference supremacy and county

bragging rights

ARLEE — If they could hand out degrees for hard hits in football, Arlee and Charlo would both have doctorates hanging on their walls.

The Vikings had the 35-point clock rolling before halftime in their first two games of the season. Arlee used some hard-nosed football to keep their big play capability bottled up for two quarters. The Warriors trailed just 12-0 when both teams went to the locker room after  meeting in the South county show down this week.

That changed in a hurry when Charlo senior Austin Bauer took the second half opening kickoff and ran it back 65 yards for a touchdown.

“My team did a great job blocking for me,” Bauer said. “I’m not saying [the kickoff return] swung the game but definitely helped.”

That made it 19-0 just seconds after halftime and sparked a 22-point third quarter by the Vikings.

“That did set the tone,” Charlo head coach Mike Krahn said. “We were talking [in the locker room at halftime] if we can come back and run back the kickoff, it could be a fatal blow.”

Just few minutes later, Charlo senior quarterback Chico Stipe scored on a 62-yard run for a 26-0 lead followed shortly by a bad Arlee snap that led to a safety and put the Vikings (3-0) in the drivers seat en route to a 35-8 victory over the Warriors (1-2). 

What was lost with the offense outburst by Charlo in the third quarter was how hard fought the game was and how stubborn the Arlee defense played.

“They come out and play a smash mouth brand of football,” Bauer said.  

Despite a one-yard touchdown run by Stipe in the first quarter and a 26-yard-run by Charlo junior Kolten Andrews in the second, it was, for the most part a close, tough-as-nails contest for both teams.

“This was our first test of the season and it was already a big rivalry,” Bauer said.

Arlee keyed in on all-state athlete Stipe at quarterback and limited him to short gains.

“We knew we had to have someone spy up on Chico,” Arlee head coach Scott Palmer said. “For the most part we were able to keep him contained, we just lost focus on the other weapons.”

Andrews scored again for Charlo in the third on a 37-yard run to make it 35-0, and finished the game with 108 rushing yards. Stipe finished with 119 yards rushing.

“It was one of those deals where we hadn’t been tested yet,” Krahn said. “Our worry was if our line was going to hold up. We feel good about our line today.”

Arlee answered back in the fourth, with 17.2 seconds left on the game clock, as senior running Cole Rice punched it in from three yards out.

The loss was the second straight for the Warriors, who had a hard schedule right out of the chute as they faced the Class C defending state champions Drummond two weeks ago. Palmer said that they’ve had seven players injured so far this season and that they just need to get healthy as a team. 

“The group of seniors here have a goal in mind and they know how to get there,” Palmer said.

Arlee will get a bye this week while Charlo will play Victor at 7 p.m. Friday night at home.