Vikings rout Troy 62-14; travel to Darby
The Charlo High School Vikings team took an opportunity to work on their pass defense when they defeated the Troy Trojans 62-14 Friday night at Charlo High School.
With the victory, the Vikings have secured second place in the conference and will assure themselves of a home game headed into the Montana High School Association Class C state football playoffs in a couple of weeks.
“Troy threw a lot, and that was something that we needed to work on,” Vikings coach Mike Krahn said. “We got a chance to work on our pass defense in that regard, and it was nice to get that work in.”
The Vikings pass defense will be challenged when they travel to Darby this week for a 7 p.m. game Friday. The Tigers have turned football into basketball scores in the previous three weeks. Darby has scored 82, 74 and 44 in the past three weeks.
“They’ve put up a lot of points and when you are able to do that, it is scary to play teams like that,” Krahn said. “Your offense is going to have to match their production. I was really impressed with how much Darby has improved from last year.”
Krahn doesn’t believe in resting his players even though they’ve secured the No. 2 spot in the Montana High School Class C 8-man football Western Conference.
“Last year, we ended up resting quarterback Landers Smith because he was pretty banged up,” Krahn said. “We will probably not do that this year unless we have some kids that have some injuries. We want to be firing on all cylinders.
“Depending on the circumstances and the health of the team overall, I wouldn’t rule it out completely if we are healthy enough to play and running at full strength come playoff time,” the coach added.
At Charlo on Senior Night, the host Vikings gave their quartet of seniors a proper sendoff with an offensive display at the expense of the visiting Troy. Seniors Landers Smith and Garrett Vaughan collaborated on over 200 all-purpose yards, while Darien Liberty and Brock Tomlin chipped in at the defensive end.
Charlo (6-1), Troy (0-7)
Troy 0 0 0 14 – 14
Charlo 46 8 8 0 – 62
C – Phillip Marquez 1 run (Garrett Vaughan run)
C – Vaughan 14 pass from Landers Smith (Smith run)
C – Roper Edwards 14 pass from Smith (Edwards run)
C – Smith 37 run (conversion failed)
C – Marquez 24 pass from Smith (Marquez run)
C – Isaiah Allik 15 interception return (Edwards run)
C – Allik 45 pass from Smith (Vaughan run)
C – Smith 74 kickoff return (Edwards run)
T – Safety
T – Ricki Fisher 59 kickoff return (conversion failed)
T – Cy Winslow 5 run (kick failed)
RUSH – T7-14 (Winebark 2-13), C18-115 (Allik 4-45, L.Smith 1-37, Garrett Vaughan 2-15, Nagy 5-10, Jayden Stevens 1-7, Braydon Zempel 1-6, Phillip Marquez 1-1, Ethan Diaz 1-(-)1, Nathan Clark 2-(-)5). PASS – T (Terren Winebark 12-31-79-3), C9-16-140 (Landers Smith 5-9-106-1, Coyle Nagy 4-7-34-0). REC – T13-76 (Kolton Lewis 5-50), C9-140 (Isaiah Allik 1-45, Marquez 1-24, Vaughan 2-23, Roper Edwards 1-14, Clark 1-13, Diaz 2-11, Stevens 1-10). KR – T5-85 (Ricki Fisher 3-74), C2-95 (Smith 1-74, Stevens 1-21). PR – C2-61 (Smith 1-49, Vaughan 1-12). INT – T1 (Jojo Brown), C3 (Edwards, Nagy, Allik). FR – T2, C1 (Smith). TFL – T3 (Hunter Jordan 3), C3 (Smith, Allik, George Ranney). TKL/ASST – T33t (Cy Winslow 6t, Dylan Peterson 6t), C13t6a (Allik 4t1a, Smith 3t3a, Diaz 2t, Zempel 1t1a, Clark 1t, Ranney 1t, Darien Liberty 1t, Brock Tomlin 1a). (Fr05Oct18)
— John Hedlie contributed to this story.