Bulldogs gets ready to host big game against Warriors

The Mission Bulldogs knew transition from Class B, 11-man to Class C, 8-man wouldn’t be easy and it hasn’t been.

Early in the season, the Bulldogs lost two games by significant margins of 58-0 and lost 52-14, the only two losses of the season.

Aside from the two losses, the Bulldogs have had quality victories against Victor, and they won the forfeit game against Hot Springs.

Mission defeated Troy 70-22 victory Friday night at Troy High School that set up an important game against Arlee Friday night at Mission High School.

Bulldogs’ coach Tyler Murray simply stated the game against Arlee is the biggest game in the Class C, 8-man northern conference.

“It’s probably the biggest game of the conference for us,” Murray said. “The game against Arlee will be a fun game.”

The winner of the Arlee, Mission game controls their own destiny to earn a spot in the Class C, 8-man playoffs.

“From what I understand, if we were to beat ourselves in the top-3 in the conference and have a chance to play in for the playoffs, we will guarantee ourselves in the top-three in the north division,” Murray said. “If we win against Arlee, it will give us a shot to get into the playoffs.”

Arlee Warriors’ football coach Chuck Forgey agreed the significance of the game is high. The winner will have a chance for the playoffs and the loser will have a longer road to make the playoffs.

“We have to win out and everybody in our situation will have to win out,” Forgey said. “If we win, depending on what Plains does the rest of the season, we will have control of our own destiny. This game will have huge playoff implications.”

Against Arlee, Murray said he felt his team matches up well. He said both teams match up pretty well.

“We match up pretty similar,” Murray said. “They do a little different stuff but this game is going to be close. It’s not going to be a blowout either way. We will have to play four quarters of tough football. Whatever team makes the most plays can win the game and it’s going to come down to penalties, turnovers and big plays.”

The key area that the Bulldogs hope to exploit is to win the turnover battle.

“We have put the ball on the ground a little bit ourselves but we’ve also been taking the ball from teams,” Murray said. “We just hope to take the ball a little bit more than we give it away. That is the key way to flip the ball into our favor is to hopefully take the ball away from them a couple of times.”

Murray and his Bulldogs coaching staff have put an emphasis on eliminating turnovers on the offensive side of the ball and creating turnovers on the defensive side of the ball.

“Whenever we have a defensive day and offensive day, we have a ball security circuit and ball takeaway circuit,” Murray said. “There are three stations of each position group and we send them through three different drills. On offensive, we have ball-security drills we do and (on defense) we try to teach them to get our guys wrapped up and rip the ball out.”

Forgey said the Arlee-Mission game will be won on the offensive and defensive line.

“I am a lineman through and through and I always think the game is won and lost right there,” Forgey said. “The guards, the center, the defensive linemen are the ones that get the best push and protect the best in the passing game, which is where it is going to come down to.”

In order for the Warriors to be successful against Mission they are going to have to stop RB Gus Bosley, who has become one of the top-tier RBs in the Northern Conference.

“As far as their offense, they’ve done a nice job of spreading the ball around and they have a really nice tailback to (spread the ball around),” Forgey said. “You have to be really ready for the pass and run. I anticipate a pretty physical contest when you look at Mission on film. They are going to be really physical and we are going to have to step up and match their intensity on their run game and passing game. They are pretty solid on that side and have really good kids run to pursue well and they are very aggressive.”

According to Murray, transitioning from Class B, 11-man to Class C, 8-man has been successful and has given the Bulldogs an opportunity to compete.

Prior to this season, the Bulldogs hadn’t won a game since 2015. Now they are one victory away from putting themselves in position to secure one of the top three seeds in the conference.

“I think the move has benefited us and a couple of other smaller Class B schools that have moved down to C,” Murray said. “I feel like we are flying under the radar in the state because we’ve played tough competition the whole season. Playoff teams don’t usually have 58-0 losses on their record. The transition has taken us a while and we are starting to figure out (the 8-man game) more and more but there is still room for improvement as we are still trying to figure out our defense and offensive stuff. It’s nice thought that we haven’t reached our full potential.”