Vikes fall short against bigger competition

By JORDAN DAWSON / Bigfork Eagle

The Vikings came out swinging on Friday night in their season opener against Hamilton, but it wasn't enough to hold off the Broncs, who won 59-15.

"We came out with our hair on fire," said Bigfork High School football head coach Bruce Corbett. "We were trading touchdowns and then the wheels kind of fell off."

Hamilton was first to score, but Bigfork echoed back. Travis Knoll scored the team's first touchdown on a 65 yard pass. They followed the touchdown with a two point conversion on a pass. Knoll rushed 16 times for 118 yards, making him responsible for the majority of Bigfork's 135 yards of total offense.

"We had some great efforts from some of our newer players like Garrett Pewe and Travis Knoll," Corbett said.

Hamilton totaled 434 yards and did not complete a pass in either of their two attempts. Eric Brangoccio rushed for six touchdowns on 15 carries for the Broncs.

"We had some trouble upfront defensively like we thought we may and we've already started working on that," Corbett said.

Carson Sneed had Bigfork's only other touchdown of the night with an 84 yard kickoff return. Lyle Eike made the kick for the extra point.

Coach Corbett said that errors came into plays when inexperienced players made mistakes and morale started to decrease as Hamilton benefited from those mistakes. Corbett also said that the Broncs are the largest and most physical team that the Vikings will go up against this season.

"I'm very pleased by the potential of the team," Corbett said. "We have to find a a way to work on some things upfront and we have to learn how to win. We need to find a way to gel together the new players with the experienced ones. I'm optimistic about how we'll do the rest of the season."

In freshmen football, the Vikings took on Glacier High School Saturday morning, beating them 6-0. The Wolf Pack brought 55 players to take on BHS, who brought only 15, some of who played the night before in Hamilton.

Bigfork- 150 0 0 - 15

Hamilton- 28 19 12 0 - 59

H - Eric Brangoccio 54 run (Tyrel Exner kick)

BF - Travis Knoll 65 run (pass good)

H - Brangoccio 61 run (kick failed)

H - Brangoccio 6 run (Brangoccio run)

BF - Carson Sneed 83 kickoff return (Lyle Eike kick)

H - Allen McCarty 78 kickoff return (Exner kick)

H - Brangoccio 5 run (kick failed)

H - Brangoccio 12 run (Exner kick)

H - Paul Donaldson 11 run (kick failed)

H - Brangoccio 32 run (kick failed)

H - Dillon Wood 8 run (kick failed)