by Scott Sacry
The No. 3 (406mtsports.com poll) Florence-Carlton football team begins the 2022 State Class B playoffs on Saturday, October 29th in Florence against No. 7 Whitehall. Florence (7-2) is the #2 seed from the West and the defending Class B State Champion. Whitehall (6-2) is the #3 seed from the South.
Whitehall is led by senior QB Miles Hoerauf, who is a threat both running and passing and has 26 TDs on the season (15 passing and 11 rushing). Parker Wagner is his main receiver, and has 42 catches for 851 yards and 10 TDs on the season.
“Whitehall is good. They have a very talented, solid team,” said Florence’s head coach Pat Duchien. “They are well coached and play a tough style of football. We better be prepared to play our best. They have an experienced QB who is dangerous. He has a great relationship with #2, their receiver (Parker Wagner), and we have to watch out for them.”
Florence and Whitehall had four common opponents during the regular season in Manhattan, Anaconda, Boulder, and Townsend. Both teams beat Manhattan and Anaconda and both teams lost to Boulder. Whitehall lost to Townsend and Florence beat Townsend. But coach Duchien doesn’t think comparing common opponents is very helpful, “At our level (Class B) it’s hard to put much stock in week to week scores. If one kid gets hurt it makes a huge difference to the outcome of the game. So we don’t really look at the scores. We just study the film independently to get schemes and tendencies and be prepared.”
A football season is physically demanding on the bodies of the athletes. When asked about the physical health of the team heading into Saturday, Duchien said, “We have been fortunate to not get bit by the injury bug like a lot of teams. I have to give credit to our strength and conditioning coach and to the hard work the kids put in during the off season.”
Florence had an excellent regular season, winning seven games and losing two close games to No. 6 Boulder (27-34) and No. 1 Bigfork (19-20). They are led by senior QB Patrick Duchien who averages 230 yards passing and 103 yards rushing per game and has scored 32 total TDs on the season (22 passing, 14 rushing). Florence’s top running backs are seniors Brodie Hinsdale and Colten Rice. Their top receivers are junior Tyler Abbot, and seniors Willian Wagner and Ryan Winters. Colten Rice anchors a strong defense, and linebackers Zach Dixon and Harrison Shepp have had great seasons.
When asked about the regular season, Duchien is quick to look forward. “We are now in a second season. We have to put the regular season behind us. In our two losses we know we could have played better, we know we could have coached better. But we control our own destiny now, and when you look at the bracket, if we take care of business, we might get a chance to avenge both of those losses.”
Florence is no stranger to the postseason. Two years ago they lost in the State Semifinals, then last year they won the State Championship.
“Our philosophy is that we’re entering a second, 4-game season where nothing is guaranteed.” Duchien said. “We are only guaranteed this week of practice. I tell the seniors that Friday could be their last high school practice ever, and you can see it sink in, they don’t want it to end. We as a coaching staff will be challenging them every week to earn 5 more practices.”
Florence and Whitehall play in the first round of the Class B state tournament in Florence on Saturday, October 29th at 1 p.m.
