Pirates fall to Corvallis, prepare for Broncs

Polson High School football coach Pat Danley isn’t about to offer up any excuses for his team’s 37-14 loss to Corvallis Saturday night at Corvallis High School.

The Pirates were confined to practicing in a gymnasium for three consecutive days because of the area wild fires but Danley was quick to point out the Blue Devils faced the same predicament.

“They certainly played a heck of a lot better than us,” Danley said. “Offensively, (Corvallis) is a well-oiled machine. I thought we had a defensive plan against them and obviously we didn’t.”

Prior to the Pirates entering the game against Corvallis, they knew they would have to contain the Blue Devils’ mobile quarterback Liang Liedle. Liedle rushed for 104 yards and scored three touchdowns in the contest. Liedle scored two offensive touchdowns, had one defensive touchdown and outscored the Pirates by himself.

“Liedle is pretty quick and I knew he was going to be an issue,” Danley said. “(Our defense) didn’t make plays against him throughout the game and even when we got a couple of sacks on him, he would turn a 15-yard sack into a 2-yard sack. Our team just didn’t do a very good job of tackling in the beginning of the game.”

Moving forward Danley knows his Pirates must improve on their offensive production.

“We have to find a way to generate some offense,” Danley said. “We haven’t scored at all in the first three quarters of the first two games and we are making some adjustments to score early.”

The Pirates have experienced key injuries that have hampered their production with the running backs. Pirates’ running back Colton Cote and Koby Garcia both have injuries. Garcia experienced an ankle injury.

“We have to figure out what to do at the running back position,” Danley said. “We are going to have to do a little bit better (at that position) moving forward.”

After playing two top-ranked teams in Dillon and Corvallis, Danley said he felt that the Blue Devils’ offense was more potent than the Beavers’ offensive attack.

“Honestly, the Corvallis offense is much better than Dillon’s offense at this point of the season,” Danley said. “We had to make some adjustments and not having Garcia in the game hurt us. Our team just came out flat. You can’t do that, especially on the road, and expect to win a game.”

The Pirates have started off the season 0-2 headed into Friday night’s game at Hamilton High School.

“Hamilton has a really good quarterback and last year when we played them, they had more of a receiver-slot back type of thing and they had really good athletes,” Danley said. “They are solid on both sides of the lines. We are going to have to play them well to compete with them.”

Polson, who has had trouble establishing momentum in the first half of games, will have to get off to a faster start in order to have success against an improved Broncs’ team.

“Hamilton is a tough team and they are returning a lot from last year,” Danley said. “They are going to be a challenge,”

Danley isn’t deterred by his team’s 0-2 start. The Pirates are still focused on their initial goal and it’s still within reach: to win their second-consecutive conference championship.

“Once we get through Hamilton, our goal of winning conference is still a possibility,” Danley said. “We are excited to end the non-conference scheduled this week and we are getting ready for our goal of competing for a conference title.”

The Pirates will begin their conference schedule when they play rival Ronan on Sept. 22at Ronan High School.

Corvallis 37, Polson 14

Kyle Druyvestein initially scored a TD on a third quarter run, but it was negated due to a penalty. Polson (0-2)

Polson 0 0 0 14 – 14

Corvallis 16 21 0 0 – 37

C – Liang Liedle 2 run (Aaron Christensen kick)

C – Wyatt Ballman 37 run (Christensen kick)

C – Hunter Pinheiro safety

C – Liedle 13 interception return (Christensen kick)

C – Liedle 24 run (Christensen kick)

C – Pinheiro 3 run (Christensen kick)

P – *Trevor Schultz pass from Bo Kelley (pass failed)

P – Kelley 3 run (Druyvestein run)

RUSH – P31-66 (Kyle Druyvestein 18-65, Bo Kelley 11-21, Colby Soderquist 1-0, Shade Main 1-(-)20), C35-236(Wyatt Ballman 11-127). PASS – P5-26-58-1 (Kelley 5-25-58-1, Soderquist 0-1), C5-11-82-1. REC – P5-58 (Trevor Schultz 3-33, Haden Smith 1-17, Adrian Millian 1-8), C5-82. KO – Wyatt Good 4-137. PUNT – Shade Main 3-89, Kelley 1-29. KORET – Ryker Wenderoth 3-77, Dugan Davis 1-14, Hunter Fritsch 1-0. PUNTRET – Kelley 1-0. INT – Schultz. PD – Wenderoth. 3SACK – Andrey Bauer 1½, Weston Danley 1, Treylon Mitchell ½. 5TFL – Bauer 1½, Danley 1½, Smith 1, Mitchell ½, Seth Lake ½. 3HARASS – Fritsch, Bauer, Danley. TKL/ASST (20t38a) – Bauer 3t7a, Millian 4t, Fritsch 1t5a, Mitchell 2t2a, Davis 2t1a, Main 1t3a, Kelley 2t, Smith 4a, Danley 1t2a, Schultz 1t1a, Druyvestein 1t1a, Garrett Croft 3a, Goode 3a, Wenderoth 1t, Elliott Morigeau 1t, Noah Humphrey 2a, Parker Toth 2a, Lake 1a, Bradon Williams 1a.

Asterisk (*) denotes stat variant(s) that differ from media coverage: not Parker Toth TD pass rec, RUSH (QB Liedle: C16-104, P12-59), SACK (Pinheiro C3, P2.5).

Abbreviation Key: INT (interception), TFL (tackle for loss), PD (pass deflection), KO (kick off).