Vikings ready to host Arlee for homecoming week

Charlo High School football coach Mike Krahn said he was “pleased” about his team’s second consecutive victory 52-14 over Clark Fork Friday night in Alberton.

Even though Krahn’s team dominated its opponent for the second week in a row, Krahn is concerned about the developing competitive dynamics within his own division as his team will prepare to be tested in the conference game Friday night when they host long-standing rival Arlee.

Like the Vikings, Arlee defeated its opponent handily 50-8 in their victory over Twin Bridges. After the homecoming game against Arlee, Krahn also is concerned about newcomer Mission, who won its first-ever Class C, 8-man football game with a 28-26 victory over Victor. This early-season development has Krahn concerned about the competitive dynamics of his conference as they try to repeat as conference champions going into homecoming weekend.

One area that has Krahn concerned about Arlee is the high number of participants he has seen from the Warriors in the summer.

“They are going to be tough because at football camp, they showed up with 19 to 20 kids and that is twice as much participation as they’ve been getting,” Krahn mentioned. “We are playing a traditional rivalry game with our homecoming and you have to try to keep your kids focused. The fires have messed with our practice schedule. We practice pretty light on Monday and we will look at film on Tuesday but that is just something that you have to deal with.”

Krahn said he felt some of his younger players are really developing.

“Offensively, we are putting together the points on the board and I feel like this week we were able to start fast as opposed to last week where our execution was a little sloppy,” Krahn said. “We started out this week in the game and executed pretty well on offense. We didn’t commit a lot of penalties and we were able to get up on them pretty quick.”

One area the Vikings are young on this season was the offensive and defensive line. However, Krahn said his team is improving on this aspect as they gain more experience every week.

“They are really coming together and we actually got a little healthier this week,” Krahn said. “We shifted another tight end around and that gave us a little more depth on Friday night because it was a hot day and that allowed our guys to keep our rotation fresh.”

One aspect Krahn has put an accent on this season is achieving balance on offense so one player isn’t getting overloaded in the game.

“We were really able to spread the football around last week and this week Landers Smith, Tyson Pettticrew and Garrett Vaughn all had big games,” Krahn said. “We have a big, strong line and some really solid kids. (These are) kids that can catch and run. Even if teams are able to stop our run game, we are still going to be OK because our kids can do everything.”