The Pirates focus on Butte Central after big homecoming win
<p>POLSON PIRATES defensive back <strong>Koby Garcia</strong> intercepts a pass in the first half of Friday's 38-0 homecoming victory Friday at Polson High School. The Pirates were able to shut out the defending Montana state champions.</p>
<p>THE POLSON pirates defense breaks down the Whitefish offensive line in Friday’s 38-0 homecoming victory over Whitefish Friday at Polson High School Stadium</p>
<p><strong>POLSON PIRATES QB Tanner Wilson</strong> eyes the end zone early in the first quarter in Friday’s 38-0 homecoming victory Friday at Polson High School. (Jason Blasco/Lake County Leader)</p>
<p>POLSON FOOTBALL player <strong>Cadis Chowning</strong> (left) poses with <strong>Tiara Duford</strong> (right) after getting named homecoming king, queen at the homecoming event Friday night at Polson High School</p>
<p><strong>POLSON QB TANNER WILSON </strong>(left) poses with <strong>Lauren Lefthand (right)</strong> at the Polson homecoming game Friday at Polson High School. (Jason Blasco/Lake County Leader)</p>
<p>POLSON <strong>QB Matthew Rensvold </strong>(left) poses with <strong>Nore Messing</strong> (right) at the Polson homecoming game Friday at the Polson High School. (Jason Blasco/Lake County Leader)</p>
<p>POLSON FOOTBALL player <strong>Cadis Chowning (left)</strong> poses with <strong>Fayth Loveless (right)</strong> at the Polson homecoming event Friday at Polson High School.</p>
<p>POLSON FOOTBALL player <strong>Jaron Morgan (left)</strong> poses with <strong>Tiara Duford (right)</strong> at homecoming during the homecoming halftime show at Polson High School Stadium.</p>
The Polson High School football team may have put an exclamation point on their 38-0 shutout of Whitefish but Pirates Coach Scott Wilson isn’t in a celebratory mood.
Though the Pirates have won their last two games by a combined scored of 71-6 since losing to perennial state favorite Dillon, Wilson knows his Pirates have more work to do.
“I think coming back from the Dillon game made us focus that we really needed to try to get better, and I think we have offensively,” Wilson said. “I am really pleased with our defensive play. We aren’t quite there yet and hopefully we will get a little better as the regular season winds down.”
Wilson knows this week Polson (4-1, 2-0) will be tested against the team speed that Butte Central has.
Against Dillon, Wilson said he felt some of his team’s weaknesses were “exposed” in their 33-6 loss three weeks ago.
“I think we’ve taken care of some of those issues but not all of them and we still have a little bit to go offensively,” Wilson said. “We are clicking and doing a better job on certain phases of the offensive game plan. We are still a dual-threat team no matter who we are playing and we are able to be a little bit stronger in our passing game. We need to keep working on getting better and hopefully we can take care of some of our issues.”
According to Wilson, the Butte Central wide receivers will be a “big test” for the Pirates’ secondary.
“It’s going to be the first big test we’ve had since the Dillon game,” Wilson said. “Frenchtown had one very good receiver and we did a pretty good job of shutting him down and getting some pressure on the quarterback. With that pressure we did get on the quarterback, we created some turnovers and did have some interceptions but as the season winds down, more and more teams will have multiple weapons that you have to take care of and try to shut down. This is our first big test.”
Butte Central’s team speed allows them to play man-to-man coverage, according to Wilson.
“They will play a lot of man-to-man coverage and they will try to bring some pressure off the edges,” Wilson said. “They go right up in your face and they will jam you off the ball. We have to try to make sure they wont’ get off the line of scrimmage and win the initial battle of the line of scrimmage.”
Wilson said he felt his team is in the playoff hunt and if they can win the Oct. 14 game against Columbia Falls, it will put them in the “driver’s seat” to win conference.
“Both teams have put themselves in the playoff hunt,” Wilson said. “It gives both of us a challenge to keep playing good, helping out with the power-ranking system, and solidifying home field advantage.”
PIRATE STAT PACK
Whitefish 0 0 0 0 – 0
Polson 24 14 0 0 – 38
P — Colton Cote 1 run (Matt Rensvold pass from Tanner Wilson)
P — Wilson 3 run (Wilson run)
P — Cote 8 run (Wilson run)
P— Koby Garcia 9 run (pass failed)
P — Wilson 6 run (Kyle Druyveststein run)
RUSH – Wf 11-33, Pol 50-296 (Cote 19-132, Wilson 14-55, Garcia 9-88, Druyvestein 7-23, Colby Solderquist -2). PASS – Wf (4-12-14), Pol (Wilson 7-9-108). REC – Wf 4-14, Pol 7-108 (Walter Wood 2-42, Rensvold 2-37, Cadis Chowning 3-29). PUNT – Wilson 2-68. PUNT RET – Chowning 1-16. KO RET – Vincent Bird-Webster 1-2. INT – Wilson, Garcia. TIP – Wilson, Jonah Burke. TFL – Rensvold, Haden Smith. TKL/ASST (22t12a) – Smith 4t1a, Rensvold 4t1a, Burke 2t, Kabe Forman-Webster 2t, Garcia 2t, Druyvestein 4a, Kaiden Forman-Webster 2t, Wilson 1t1a, Chowning 1t1a, Bird-Webster 1t1a, Cote 1t, Treylon Mitchell 1t, Wyatt Goode 1t, Wood 2a, Hunter Fritsch 1a.