What do you do in these times of COVID 19 when you never know if you’re going to have a football game, even though it is scheduled, or not? Well, in the case of Class B Florence and Class A Corvallis, you get together and have a football game. Corvallis was scheduled to play Browning at home. Browning’s school is currently shut down. Florence was scheduled to play Loyola in their rivalry game but Loyola was hit with quarantines as well.
Florence has only lost one game, to Manhattan, while Corvallis has only won one game, against Stevensville. Although Florence has a young team, they are pretty experienced and that experience showed early in the game. After receiving the opening kickoff, the Falcons marched down the field for their first touchdown when quarterback Pat Duchien called his own number and scored. Duchein next found Luke Maki for a short pass and a score. The wind was howling (it even blew over an outhouse) but that didn’t stop Duchien and company from completing small screen passes and even an occasional long bomb. Florence mixed it up with Blake Shoupe, Levi Posey, and Maki as his targets. The Falcon defense also was tough and only allowed the Blue Devils into the red zone a few times. The game went to a running clock at the end of the first half when the Duchien/Maki combo hooked up for another short pass and scoring run. Florence went on to win, 42-0.
After the game, Coach Pat Duchien was emphatic when he told his players to ‘be smart, wear your masks, and keep your distance. There’s five more weeks until the state championship and we don’t want to miss that chance.’
Coach Duchien said he was a little nervous at first because they had had two cancelled games but that they played a clean game. He said they are locked into the playoffs with a 4-0 conference record and 6-1 overall record. He is still hoping to play Loyola this week as it is Florence’s bye week.
When asked about the speed and conditioning of his team, Duchien said he gives a lot of credit to his assistant coach Keenan Hendrickson who spent eight weeks this summer working with the team to improve their speed.
“It has made a big difference,” he concluded.
The Hamilton Broncs traveled to Libby on Friday where they took on the Libby Loggers. The Loggers are currently tied for first place in the Northwest A with Columbia Falls. Both teams have a conference record of 4-1 and both have lost to Hamilton. The Broncs improved to 6-0 in conference play and 8-0 overall. With the 35-14 win, the Broncs have secured the No. 1 seed for the playoffs.
It didn’t take long for the Broncs to score against the Loggers. In the second play of the game, quarterback Tyson Rostad threw a 44 yard pass to Jaiden Klemundt for the score. Austin Drake returned from an injury to kick the PAT. Libby came back to tie the score at 7-7 when Ryder Davis caught a Jay Beagle pass. Hamilton scored again when Ben Tack broke free on a 40 yard run for the score. Libby came back once more to score when Davis had an 18 yard rushing TD. However the Loggers couldn’t stop the Rostad/Klemundt connection. Rostad hit Klemundt from 21 yards out for the score. Tack had two more scoring runs, one from 6 yards and another from seven yards. He finished with 147 yards rushing. Rostad had 170 yards passing and 42 yards rushing. Klemundt had 117 yards receiving.
The Broncs will take on Polson on Friday night in Hamilton.
Darby fell to Flint Creek in Western C action. Victor and Stevensville were idle.