Arlee Warriors fall short to Victor in season opener

The Arlee Warriors had reason to be concerned as one of their key components RB Will Mesteth appeared to injure his knee on the opening series against Victor.

Warriors’ coach Chuck Forgey still doesn’t know the severity of Mesteth’s injury. Last year, Mesteth was a key component of the Warriors’ basketball team that defeated Manhattan Christian 71-67 to capture the Class C basketball title.

“We will know more today but from the sounds of it, I am not really sure what the injury is,” Forgey said.

Arlee lost a closely contested season-opening game 36-28 to Victor.

“Victor moved the ball quite well with the option attack and we had a good game against them,” Forgey said. “They just have a nice team and they are well-coached. They are looking really nice.”

Though Forgey acknowledged his team has a lot to work on, he said there were several “bright spots” in the loss as his Warriors remained in contention to win for most of the game.

“I think we were competitive the whole game but we had a few bounces (of the football) that just didn’t go our way and we missed a few opportunities,” Forgey said. “We kind of let them score and we could have tried to get the ball back but we just couldn’t stop them. We didn’t have much of a chance inside of the 5-yard line. Victor could have kneeled on the ball. We tried to get the ball quicker but didn’t have much time left on the clock. Both teams played pretty hard and Victor was just a little bit better than us.”

In the first quarter, the Warriors were up 14-8. Arlee’s Greg Whitesell led his team with a 60-yard touchdown return and George Shick caught a 24-yard touchdown pass from Lane Schall.

The Warriors’ other touchdowns came on short runs from Darshan Bolen, who ran for 5-yards and Rylan Crawford finished with a 3-yard run to conclude the scoring.

Forgey said his team made some mistakes in the fourth quarter that allowed Victor to score. Victor’s Bob Hotchkiss had a 3-yard run and Eli Rosen also scored on a 3-yard touchdown run.

Forgey said his team is confident as they head into Friday’s match with Twin Bridges.

Forgey said the Warriors will be playing a playoff team for the second straight week in a row. Last year the Warriors narrowily missed qualifying for the Class C, 8-man playoffs. Two seasons ago Arlee finished second in the Class C, 8-man state championship.

“For the second week in a row we will be playing another playoff team,” Forgey said. “It was a rough outing last week but by no means are we on a downward spiral. We just have to go out, play hard and play football.”