Bulldogs go out fighting against Dillon

By DAVID ERICKSON / Whitefish Pilot

It was a good old-fashioned Western shoot-out on Saturday, but the Beavers got the best of the Bulldogs in this one.

The Whitefish football squad got off to a great start on the road against a tough Dillon team in the first round of the state Class A playoffs. The Bulldogs scored first, and led the Beavers 14-7 going into the second quarter.

Dillon absolutely erupted after that, however, led by quarterback Bryce Carver's six touchdowns and two field goals, to take down Whitefish 48-28.

To the 'Dogs' credit, they hung in there for the whole game, even scoring two late touchdowns. The Beavers have been in the state championship seven years in a row, and the Bulldogs made them work to get there again this year.

Whitefish head coach Patrick Dryden said his kids gave an all-out effort in the final game of the season.

"We went out fighting," he said. "The effort is something we can be proud of. We wanted to walk off the field saying we gave it everything we had. The kids had no doubt that we did that on Saturday. It was a great trip as a whole. Just one of those lifelong memories you will cherish forever. The kids conducted themselves extremely well. I was proud of the way our seniors played."

Dryden told his players after the game that they had a lot of success this year. They made the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year, the longest such streak in the Northwestern A conference. The Bulldogs beat Libby for the first time in seven years and beat playoff-bound Butte Central early in the season. They also won their homecoming game.

Against Dillon, Mac Roche hit former quarterback Alex Elespuru for 6-yard TD strike to get things started for Whitefish. Roche finished with 146 yards in the air and two TDs. Daniel Simmons scored on a two-yard run late in the first quarter for a 14-7 lead. Simmons finished the game with 117 yards on 18 carries.

"We executed really well," Dryden said. "We racked up 370 yards of total offense, which is our best performance of the year, I think."

Dryden said Josh Backer did a nice job of blocking on the outside, as well as Derek Crittenden. He also said Dylan Dryden and Tyson Ferda made some big plays on defense.

"Aaron Tkachyk, David FauntLeRoy, Tanner Benedict and Sam Wiley made some big plays, too," Dryden said. "The whole team played great. We just ran into a team that was a little more talented than we were. All the kids got to play, and everybody felt good about the effort."

Dillon (7-2) advances to play at fifth-ranked Havre (7-2), which had a first-round bye. The Bulldogs almost beat the Blue Ponies at home earlier this season.

Whitefish 14 0 7 7 - 28

Dillon 7 24 8 9 - 48

First quarter

WHI - Alex Elespuru 6 pass from Mac Roche (Elespuru kick), 7:21.

DIL - Bryce Carver 2 run (Carver kick), 4:04.

WHI - Daniel Simmons 2 run (Elespuru kick), :16.

Second quarter

DIL - Carver 2 run (Carver kick), 11:27.

DIL - FG Carver 24, 5:06.

DIL - Travis Rehm 55 pass from Carver (Carver kick), 3:01.

DIL - Garrett Banning 4 pass from Carver (Carver kick), :03.

Third quarter

WHI - Aaron Tkachyk 47 pass from Roche (Elespuru kick), 10:18.

DIL - Toby Shepherd 20 pass from Carver (Carver run), 6:56.

Fourth quarter

DIL - Carver 3 run (run failed), 10:55.

DIL - FG Carver 28, 4:20.

WHI - Tanner Benedict 3 run (Elespuru kick), :43.

Individual statistics

RUSHING - Whitefish, Daniel Simmons 18-117, Derek Crittendon 10-39, Tanner Benedict 7-37, Mac Roche 2-8.

PASSING - Whitefish, Roche 10-20-1-146, Team 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING - Whitefish, Aaron Tkachyk 2-76, David FauntLeRoy 2-21, Alex Elespuru 2-17, Matt Whitehead 2-16, Sam Wiley 1-13, Dalton Rice 1-3.