Vikings get ready to host Joliet in first round of playoffs

The Charlo Vikings football team continued to work to improve on areas that were exposed in their 46-28 loss to Flint Creek two weeks ago at Charlo High School.

The loss to Flint Creek in the district playoff game for seeding turned out to be significant as both the Vikings and the Titans prepare for their first round of the MHSA Class C, 8-man state football playoff games.

Charlo will host its first round game against the No. 3 seeded team from the south, Joliet, at 1 p.m. Saturday at Charlo High School. This marks the fourth home game in the last two seasons the Vikings have hosted in the MHSA Class C, 8-man tournament.

In the hypothetical situation the Vikings defeat Joliet, they will play the winner of the eastern No. 1 seed Forsyth against the No. 4 seeded team from the north, Choteau, in the second round.

If the Vikings were able to get past them, they could potentially play Belt or the defending Class C, 8-man championship team Ennis in the semifinals.

Vikings’ coach Mike Krahn and his team aren’t looking that far ahead because they said they are aware in each game his team will be contested.

Joliet is a team Krahn admits his team doesn’t know much about as they prepare to host the first round of the playoffs. The J-Hawks, who moved down from Class B, 11-man to Class C, 8-man, made a successful transition to the newer level, Krahn said.

“They are out of the south and were in the top three in the southern division,” Krahn said. “There were a few teams in the south that were all tied at 8-1 and their seeding ended up coming down to points. They just have a tough division over there. Joliet ended up losing. Ennis defeated Joliet and ended up third. They could have easily been a first seeded team out of the south. They were right with each other with the same record.”

Joliet has a similar offensive philosophical approach to some of Victor’s playoff contending teams in years past: they like to run the football and they are big enough to run effectively.

“They are really big, they like to run up front and that is something that a lot of teams we face in the west don’t do a lot of,” Krahn said. “Their smallest lineman is probably 210 pounds and that is bigger than any of our lineman. They have good size, good height and they have good numbers. They have 25 kids on their football team and they have players that can go up and catch the ball as well. It will be an interesting match up for us.”

Charlo may lack size but that isn’t their hallmark. The Vikings are known for an offense and defense predicated around their quickness and technique.

“It is always hard to tell on film how fast their teams are and it’s always hard to tell from another match up, especially when you have speed versus size in the playoffs,” Krahn said.

Krahn said some of their formations and packages the J-Hawks run are “interesting.”

“We’ve run into this before and we have to build our scheme around speed, even with our line play,” Krahn said. “We need to do a lot of cross blocking, pulling and angles. You have to try not to get caught up in the power game with a power team. We are out sized but we’ve always done well against teams that are a lot bigger than us and have a lot of speed. We are using our scheme to our advantage. This match up will be interesting because sometimes they will use six guys on the line and pretty much try to run up the middle and have their two halfbacks pound the ball. They like to control the ball on offense when it is in their hands. We have never played Joliet before and it will be interesting to see the type of schemes they have for them.”

Krahn compared Joliet to the Vikings’ conference foe Victor, a power run-oriented team that likes to simply ground and pound.

“They really like to power you and against teams like that, you have to really stay disciplined in your reads,” Krahn said. “Victor over the years has been tough and against teams like that, you have to put an emphasis on gang-tackling, getting other guys over there to support and help quick. You have to keep them in front of you, and you have to rally to the football and always pay attention to your reads. We will have to study their tendencies and reads when we get into the film and practice against our scout team to get our guys keying on the reads.”

Krahn doesn’t expect the J-Hawks to have just size but also to have speed.

“Just looking at their one running back, it’s hard to tell what they have on tape but it looks like he has some good wheels,” Krahn said. “He’s Landers Smith’s size and when you have a good running back like that with good size and speed, he’s going to be tough to bring down. He looks like a pretty good load.”

Krahn, who is also a Class C track coach during the spring, uses the track season to get a gauge on prospective topnotch football teams in Class C. Because the 8-man game puts a heavy emphasis on speed, the state track times can usually be indicative of how good a football team is going to be at smaller schools.

However, in this situation because Joliet is coming from Class B, 11-man, Krahn won’t have that luxury of being able to know just how fast they are.

“A lot of teams in 8-man go to the state track meet and I am always thinking about football even when I am coaching track,” Krahn said. “If I see they have some kids coming back from football, you can generally get a good history on them. Most our teams I would already know that but because they are in Class B, I don’t.”

Krahn, who is never one to look ahead, knows his prospective match up in front of his team does advance past Joliet. Unlike last season, the Vikings will have to travel a significant distance most likely to play the No. seeded team Forsyth in the second round.

“Most likely we will have to travel to Forsyth,” Krahn admitted. “If we have to travel to Forsyth, we will be looking at trip similar but not as long as Fairview. It’s a 10 hour trip and that’s a pretty healthy trip.”