Vikings trounce Darby, Bulldogs recover

The Charlo High School Vikings team was shell-shocked on the opening kickoff in its 66-12 victory over Darby at Darby Friday.

Darby’s Kye McCollum ran the opening kickoff back 72 yards for a touchdown to give the Tigers a 6-0 lead over the Vikings.

“We started the game off a little flat but I don’t think they scored against us until the third quarter,” Vikings’ Coach Mike Krahn said. “We settled down and then our offense got rolling pretty hard.”

The Vikings answered the Tigers’ early score with three consecutive touchdowns to give them a 24-6 advantage at the end of the first quarter.

Vikings QB Landers Smith connected with Toby Odom for a 6-yard touchdown run and Charlo reclaimed its lead with a successful Smith 2-point conversion to make the score 8-6 with 11:47 left to play in the first.

Smith next ran for a 13-yard touchdown with 6:38 left in the quarter. Smith then connected on a pass to Trent Dennison to make the score 16-6. Jared Doty capped the first quarter scoring with a 28-yard run, and a 2-point conversion run by Smith made the score 24-6.

The Vikings wasted no time in the second quarter expanding its lead. Smith again connected with Odom for a 14-yard touchdown pass that made the score 30-6 after a failed 2-point conversion attempt.

Smith then connected with Doty for a 47-yard strike and another failed 2-point conversion attempt made the score 36-6 with 6:34 left to play in the half. Doty concluded the scoring for both teams in the first half with a 53-yard touchdown run and after Tyson Petticrew connected with Zane Hafliger on a 2-point conversion, it gave the Vikings a 44-6 halftime advantage.

With 9:39 left in the third quarter, Smith ran for a 38-yard touchdown and Doty’s successful 2-point conversion attempt made the score 52-6.

Five minutes later, the Vikings struck again when Smith connected with Shad Anderson for a 10-yard touchdown pass. Odom got the successful 2-point conversion to give them a 60-6 lead with 4 minutes left in the third quarter.

The Tigers finally answered when McCollum connected with Zach McCrossin for a 31-yard touchdown completion with seven seconds left in the third quarter.

QB Tyson Petticrew completed a 36-yard touchdown pass to Smith with 9:16 left in the fourth.

Krahn, whose team remains undefeated in the conference, said he felt his team is “responding well” because of the focus on his team.

“They are really focused and like I said, in the past, most of these kids had older brothers on the team that played on teams that almost made it but for whatever reason it didn’t work out,” Krahn said. “Our team just seems ultra focused on staying healthy and getting better. Knowing there are a lot of teams out there, I never have to get onto them. They just accept their role and get after it. They have a lot of team goals.”

Because of the reference to teams in years past Krahn said he doesn’t have to motivate his team much.

“You don’t have to give them much motivation, even during conditioning drills, and I think they know we have to be in better shape and we don’t have a lot of subs,” Krahn said. “They are all pretty football-savvy. They know how it works and they’ve been around. They are all coachable and they work hard.”

Krahn said the advent of technology has given his players more access to the understanding of the game of football.

“I think it comes down to preparation, and everyone on our team stays to watch film,” Krahn said. “They eat lunch and watch film with the coaches out in the hallway. The more you watch and study, the better you learn about football. By week’s end, we’ve seen a couple of films on teams from the school we are playing.”

Charlo will celebrate its homecoming game this week against Clark Fork (Superior-Alberton) at 7 p.m. this Friday at Charlo High School.

“This is the first year they have played football together and we know Superior came from a passing league,” Krahn said. “We are all friends with their coaches and they have played 6-man for the past five years. Now it’s a new twist and they will have players that weren’t on the team last year from Alberton.”

Krahn said Clark Fork is a dynamic team with a big offensive line.

“We are used to being smaller than other teams,” Krahn said. “They brought the spread attack in our conference and a lot of teams have mimicked that. We borrowed a lot of their formations. Those are the plays we will be working on defending this afternoon. It’s kind of like we are playing against ourselves in a way as far as styles go, and it will provide our defense with a challenge.”

Krahn, who remains undefeated in conference play, said his team “can’t afford a loss” at this juncture of the season.

“Right now, conference wise we are at mid season with four games left and there is still quite a bit of football in front of us,” Krahn said. “You want to be the conference champion but you have to stay focused. Every game we get deeper and deeper into the season and there is more pressure each time.You can’t afford to stumble or take an injury that will take you out of your game. With each passing day, every little detail becomes more important.”

Warriors hold off Mountain Caps

The Arlee High School football team remained in contention to make the last game of the regular season against Charlo a possibility for the conference championship with a 46-26 victory over Clark Fork Friday in Clark Fork.

The Warriors found themselves down 28-6 at the conclusion of the first half.

According to Todd Yocum, the only thing his team did different in the game is “we started blocking,” and moved George Shick to nose guard.

Yocum said he was “happy” with the second half.

“I am happy with what our team did in the second half,” Yocum said. “I am happy that they didn’t get down and make it a repeat of what happened in the Victor game.”

Yocum said he felt his team isn’t adapting to traveling well.

“A lot of this has to do with knowing how to prepare for road games, mentally preparing for the first half, and being ready to make an impact,” Yocum said. “I keep emphasizing it to them but it doesn’t seem to be affecting anyone this year. Its just a youth thing and kids have just not been it through (the travel) before. We are going to work on that main objective of how to travel.”

This week will be Arlee’s homecoming week against Seeley Lake Friday at Arlee High School.

Seeley Lake will be looking for its first victory of the season against the Warriors.

“It’s homecoming week and it would be a good opportunity to focus on the game and still enjoy homecoming,” Yocum said. “While they can still enjoy homecoming with all of the distractions, when it comes to going to practice, it is time to turn the switch on.”

Statistics for this game were not available or recorded.

Bulldogs recover from week off

The Mission High School football team enjoyed its week off as they prepare to head into their homecoming battle with Powell County Wardens Friday at Mission High School.

“They are a pretty fast-paced team and they have a lot of speed in their receiver groups,” Coach Jake Bosley said. “They have a good coaching staff and they are coming off a pretty rough loss. We are excited to get a week to get healed up. Hopefully we will be ready to come on Friday night.”

Bosley said his team needed to rest up in order to heal from injuries.

“It is just such a long season and because of the length of season, it takes a toll on the kids’ bodies,” Bosley said. “Having the bye week helps a lot. It gives us some time to regroup, evaluate what we are doing, and spend a lot of time on things we need to work on from this past week.”