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CHARLO — Charlo High School football coach Mike Krahn, who has coached for 25 seasons, said the Class-C 8-man state championship game which his team lost 30-24 was one of the “most intense” games he has ever been a part of as a coach.

Prior to coming into the game, Krahn had a discussion with his team about their intensity level.

“We had talked all week about matching the Mustangs’ intensity level,” Krahn said. “We were physical and got after people. We knew we had to start out fast and not get down. We knew if they scored a couple of times with their defense, that really puts you in a bad spot. They weren’t intimidated (against the Mustangs) even though, on paper, we were the underdog.”

Krahn said he felt his team’s ability to make the game competitive was his team’s ability to be prepared for the biggest game of the season.

“We watched a lot of film and we really prepared our kids,” Krahn said. “We believed they could win. They came out and showed they had that ability. We played hard and fought hard. It was really a physical game.”

Despite the Vikings losing the closely-contested battle, Krahn said he didn’t feel there was ever really a momentum change in the topsy-turvy contest.

“There were a lot of hard earned yards and there was a lot of two, three, or four yard hits with multiple people,” Krahn said. “It was just a good physical ball game. Usually in a game there is a tipping point and you can kind of get a feel for that. In this game there wasn’t. I doubt they trailed all year and obviously, when you are more than six points ahead, it just felt like they were going to find a way to score. Ennis had the will and effort to win. They had a ‘refuse to lose mentality.’ When we were six points down, we were doing the same thing.”

Krahn said there were several points in the game where he knew his offense had to produce as they went into halftime trailing only 6-0.

“I remember making the comments to one of my assistant coaches that you can only stare down the barrel of a loaded gun so many times,” Krahn said. “Our offense struggled and we punted the ball seven or eight times, which is probably more than we punted all season. With their team speed it was just so hard to get big plays against them. We had some hard earned yards and just pounded away.”

Krahn said he wished his Vikings were able to establish more momentum headed into the first half. His team successfully shut down the Mustangs in the first half.

“I thought we had them on their heels and then at halftime, they had 15 minutes to regroup and get coached up.” Krahn said. “I felt that we were frustrating them offensively and getting them into positions where they were uncomfortable. I was pretty happy. I told my kids at halftime that we were just going to have to be patient. We might get a shoelace or shoestring. We were one move away from busting a big one or right there within six, and I felt pretty good going into halftime.”

Even as the Vikings would trail late into the fourth quarter, Krahn remained confident in his kids.

“We went through several of these scenarios in practice and the kids had a feel for our two minute scenarios,” Krahn said. “I told our kids if they got one first down (during their possession), they were going to win and we can’t stop the clock. They were going to have to have some time and get the ball back. We know how to spike the ball and get out of bounds because we do this all of the time. I knew we had plenty of time to go down there. We were going to score and it would be a story book ending. There was no doubt from anyone.”

With 1:11 seconds left, Krahn rolled the dice and tried the swinging gate play where Dennison connected with Brady Fryberger for a touchdown that set up an opportunity for the Vikings to get the go-ahead score and convert the 2-point conversion attempt.

“We had been working on the swinging gate for five years and never used it,” Krahn said. “We waited for this type of situation and never showed it ever. We caught them off guard and that was pretty brave of coach Peterson to pull it and run it.”

Krahn said he felt like his Vikings never got the recognition as a “physical team.”

“Over the years, you would hear it a lot, especially in the playoffs, that Charlo is fast and they aren’t a physical team,” Krahn said. “We have taken that as a challenge. Our goal is to be fast and physical. We are going to hand it these guys and when they play us, they get surprised.”

Krahn said he felt that despite the loss, his line needs to get their “props” for a job well done.

“I would like to give our line props because their line was the toughest line we have had to deal with,” Krahn said. “77 in particular. We had that game and they had to be out there for four quarters and play overtime.”