It was Homecoming on Saturday in Victor and although there was no parade, the spirits were high at the football game. It didn’t take long for the Victor faithful to cheer and Pirate Jim to light the cannon, yes, cannon, after Robert Crosbie dodged and sidestepped his way into the Troy end zone for the first Pirate touchdown just a minute and half into the game. Victor went on to win, 70-52, and Pirate Jim actually ran out of powder for the cannon.
Victor was host to the Troy Trojans. The last game Troy won was last year when they beat Victor. Victor had not won a game in two years. Both teams were hungry and ready to play.
It wasn’t long after Victor’s first touchdown that Troy pushed through for a touchdown but the Victor line held on the two point conversion and kept the lead. Troy took the lad when Trevor Grant took the ball in from the 32 yard line. The two point conversion was good. But Crosbie and company turned right around and came back for another score, this time from 40 yards out.
After the kickoff back to Troy, Victor’s Canyon Parks recovered a fumble which led to another Crosbie touchdown. Crosbie rushed for 274 yards and finished with five touchdowns and a pick six from 30 yards out for another six points. He had scoring runs of 10, 40, 6, and 5 yards out.
“Our blockers were big today,” said Crosbie. “I ran hard and they made the first contact to open it up.”
One of Troy’s tackles is Jace Fisher. He’s 6’5” and weighs 305 pounds. The combination of freshman Darvin Thomason and sophomore Roan Jackson kept Fisher out of the play many times and opened up a big hole for the offense.
Second year coach Darren Gossett was pleased with his team’s play and the line’s play. “We are a young team and we are finally getting it together. This first win is huge.”
Troy scored again and on the ensuing kick off, opted to kick an onside kick. But Victor was right there and recovered with only half a field to go. Quarterback Carson Varner threw to Parks in the back of the end zone for another score and Victor was ahead by 28 points.
Although Troy scored another couple of times, but each time they kicked off, Victor was able to recover the short kicks which made for a short field. Varner had three touchdowns including a fake field goal attempt. His scoring runs were for 33, 12, and three yards.
“This is a huge win,” concluded Crosbie. “The snowball effect from this could be really good.”
In other football news, Hamilton maintained their unbeaten record with a 35-7 win over Columbia Falls. The Broncs quickly got on the board when Ben Rooney ran 11 yards for the score and Austin Drake kicked the PAT. Hamilton’s next score of the quarter was a six yard pass from Tyson Rostad to Brendan Nelson. The Broncs mixed it up a little for the next score with Jaiden Klemundt throwing a 64 yard pass to Gabe Kay-Hirmann for the score. Rostad went back and threw a 25 yard pass to Eli Taylor and then a 54 yard pass to Klemundt for the final Hamilton score of the game. Drake was perfect in kicking the PATs.
Hamilton had 432 total offense yards while Columbia Falls only had 294. Rostad passed for 129 yards and three touchdowns. He also had 56 yards rushing. Rooney had 124 yards rushing and Ben Tack had 59 yards.
Florence defeated Eureka, 35-20, in Eureka on Friday. Florence is currently ranked No. 4 in the state and only has one loss. That was to Manhattan.
Clark Fork defeated Darby, 52-12. Stevensville fell to Ronan, 48-12.
