Vikings maintain momentum against Warriors

CHARLO — The Vikings seniors made the most of what may have been their final home game Friday night in a 60-0 rout of Lake County rival Arlee.

Senior quarterback Coyle Nagy tossed five touchdown passes and rushed for another. Three of Nagy’s scoring throws landed in the hands of fellow senior Braydon Zempel, who also had an interception and recovered a fumble on defense.

It was the third straight win for Charlo (3-2) after opening the season with losses to Thompson Falls (5-0) and Mission (2-2).

The Vikings’ first drive of the night ended with a punt, but they ended the next seven drives with touchdowns and scored on eight of 10 drives while committing no turnovers.

Charlo head coach Reese Cox said he’s been slowly getting players back who were not available earlier in the season due to various reasons.

Even with experienced players returning, “you could see the dynamic was still a little bit off early on,” Cox said. “We didn’t get to plugging away right away because we were getting used to new guys back on.”

Cox and his staff were forced to rely heavily on younger, less experienced players early on.

“But what that provides for us is a lot of depth now.”

It was Senior Night in Charlo, and Nagy, Zempel, George Ranney, Colt Hovet and Anthony Castro were honored during a brief halftime ceremony on the field. Four of the five seniors scored a touchdown in the win, Castro on a 61-yard seam-route pass from Nagy and Hovet on a 10-yard pass from Nagy halfway through the third period.

“I tried to get all of them a touchdown,” Cox said. “I was short one, but I’m very proud of my seniors. They were eighth-graders when I first started teaching here, so they’ve always been my boys. It’s nice to see them all the way through and see them all play on Senior Night and be successful.”

“We’re playing better together, and it’s feeling a lot better than it did at the beginning of the season,” Nagy said after the game.

Charlo will finish the regular season with four straight road games, including games at Plains (0-2) on Saturday and at state title contender Flint Creek (4-0) on Oct. 8.

Friday’s game was the first in three weeks for the Warriors, who dropped to 3-0 on the season. Arlee opened with a good showing against Seeley Swan (3-1) on Aug. 27, but the team lost a few players for the season that night, including junior quarterback/defensive back Charley Crawford and sophomore lineman Jack Rodeghiero.

After a blowout loss at Darby in Week 2, a string of cancellations and some COVID-19 contacts among Arlee players kept the Warriors off the field for a lengthy stretch. As a result, they followed the Charlo game with a two-game week — at home against Victor (0-3) on Wednesday, Sept. 29 (after the Leader went to press) and home again against Troy (0-5) on Saturday, Oct. 2.

So what did Arlee head coach Quinn Huisman tell his players after the loss at Charlo?

“Heads up. We’ve got a lot of football in the next week. … We’re gonna have short memories and turn around and go get ‘em.”

Huisman complimented his team’s pass blocking and was happy to see them remain focused.

“They didn’t get down. They kept it going and just about shut them down in the third quarter when they still had starters in.”

Vikings 60, Warriors 0

CHA - 16 - 28 - 8 - 8

ARL - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0

1st quarter

CHA - Braydon Zempel 16-yard pass from Coyle Nagy (Zempel run)

CHA - Nagy 5-yard run (Zempel run)

2nd quarter

CHA - Anthony Castro 61-yard pass from Nagy (Zempel run failed)

CHA - Zempel 61-yard pass from Nagy (George Ranney run failed)

CHA - Zempel 1-yard pass from Nagy (Nagy run)

CHA - Keaton Piedalue 36-yard run (Hayden Hollow 2-yard pass from Nagy)

3rd quarter

CHA - Colt Hovet 10-yard pass from Nagy (Wes Anderson 7-yard pass from Nagy)

4th quarter

CHA - Tayre Brown 27-yard pass from Hollow (Derek Walker run)