Charlo moves on

CHARLO — It’s hard to imagine a better way to start a postseason run than Charlo’s 68-0 walloping of Twin Bridges in Saturday’s first-round game of the Class C 8-man playoffs.

The last time the Vikings took the field at home, they were stunned by Drummond, falling 34-20 in their first loss of the season. It couldn’t have been a more different atmosphere on Saturday.

“It’s kind of unheard of to have a shutout in a playoff game, especially in 8-man football,” Charlo coach Mike Krahn mused after the blowout. “We told them they had to play fast and they did that on both sides of the ball.”

Twin Bridges lost the ball on their first play from scrimmage due to a muffed snap, and the Vikings wasted no time capitalizing on the short field. Jacen Petersen scored on a 5-yard run shortly after.

“You could tell it kind of deflated them,” Krahn said.

The Vikings’ first five touchdowns were all scored by different players: Petersen, Tyler Delaney, Tristan Santee, Michael Delaney and Jade Smith.

“I talked before the game about how it had to be a team effort,” said Krahn. “It would be hard to pinpoint one person. It was definitely a team effort.”

Santee finished with three TDs—two receiving and another on a pick-6—Tyler Delaney scored twice, and freshman Jared Doty added the final Charlo score of the afternoon.

The Vikings’ starters executed some diablerie prior to exiting the game midway through the third quarter as Petersen, generally a running back, found Santee overtop the defense on a halfback pass for a 48-yard touchdown.

Quarterback Michael Delaney eclipsed the century mark both throwing and running on Saturday.

The win brings Culbertson-Bainville on a more than 9-hour trip from the northeastern corner of the state for a state quarterfinal game next Saturday. The 9-1 Cowboys upended Chester-Joplin-Inverness, 38-26, on Saturday.

Charlo hasn’t won a state quarterfinal game in the 11 years Krahn has been on the Vikings’ staff. To do so this year, the Vikings will have to slow down C-B runner Shayne Cochran and a huge line that includes Division I prospect Rhett Harmon (6-2, 240) and a pair of 320-pound juniors in Garrett Ried and Thomas Scott. Cochran accounted for five Cowboys touchdowns in their first-round win.

“It’s going to be kind of a classic matchup of speed versus size,” Krahn predicted.

The Charlo coach is excited about the opportunity to coach against that kind of size.

“I can do a lot more defensively to a team that tries to pound you,” Krahn said. “I can do more blitzing. I can do more moving around. … The part that’s scary, though, is [a few years ago] Chinook came in and they had a running back that was all-state, and he carried the ball 60 times. We couldn’t stop him.”

Krahn isn’t worried about C-B’s size, but he hopes his players can stay healthy through all the heavy hits.

“We’re going to have to fly around and not give them straight shots at us,” he said.