Florence spoils Troy home opener

A perfect option pitch, solid defensive play and tough-nosed running by the quarterback proved to be too much for Florence to handle through 2 1/2 quarters of action on Friday night at Troy.

But then, something happened. The Falcons came alive to seemingly run the ball at will while coming up big on “D” to frustrate the Troy offense. By the time the final gun sounded, Florence had a 27-12 nonconference victory to spoil the Trojans’ home opener.

“I wish I really knew what we did wrong,” veteran Troy coach Rich McElmurry said afterward. “No. 1, offensively, we didn’t throw the ball at all in the second half and that hurts you.”

The Trojans indeed struggled through the air all night. Quarterback Aaron Palmer completed 2-of-18 passes for 68 yards and although he did have problems hitting targets at times, those numbers were a team effort with several dropped balls.

“We just killed ourselves, shot ourselves in the foot,” McElmurry said. “There are some things we did in the first half that we were unable to do in the second half for one reason or another just because we didn’t finish the play. Š There were times we dropped passes and times we threw the ball poorly.”

The Trojans held a 6-0 advantage at the intermission. Troy scored with 1:19 left in the first quarter when Palmer tossed a perfectly timed option pitch to Jacob Alexander who sprinted 24 yards to the end zone. The score helped make up for a missed opportunity on the previous drive when Troy drove into the red zone only to lose the ball on a fumble.

The Troy defense came up big on a couple of first-half occasions. Florence put together a long 13-play drive that netted zero points. The Falcons got into a first-and-goal at the 9 but then went 18 yards backward. Troy junior Chris Hoffman had a big play during that series with a sack on quarterback Spencer Burns.

Later in the second quarter, the Falcons again drove deep into Troy territory, this time with a 12-play drive down to the 11. The Trojans forced three straight incompletions and then Florence kicker Austin McCullum missed short and wide left on a 28-yard field goal attempt.

“We just had to make some adjustments but we thought we had a pretty good game plan,” said Florence coach Terry Maki, a 1982 Libby High School graduate. “Palmer is a force out there. We knew we had to play him first and foremost. He’s a really good player.”

Palmer proved Maki’s words to ring true in the third quarter. On a third-and-14, Palmer found Dalton Powell down the middle on a 50-yard completion. Then he called his own number four out of the next six plays, scoring on a 3-yard TD run. On the score, Palmer lowered his head and drove the Florence defense backward.

Trailing 12-0, the Falcons suddenly came alive. On its next drive, Florence seemed like a different team and started moving the ball with ease.

“They got rolling a little bit and got to running the ball,” McElmurry said. “They got some big chunks on us, we missed some tackles and didn’t do some things well defensively. That really got them going. Our defense didn’t step up very well in the second half.”

Burns scored the first of four touchdowns on a 7-yard run to cap a six-play, 58-yard drive that took just 2:08 off the clock. Then after Troy went three-and-out, the Falcons put together an eight-play, 55-yard drive that ended with a 9-yard TD run by Burns.

“We gave them some momentum and they took it and ran with it,” McElmurry said. “We helped them out a little bit Š we just didn’t execute the way we should. It was a combination of things.”

With the game tied at 10:03 remaining, the Trojans couldn’t get anything going the rest of the way. Troy picked up one first down and had one turnover in the fourth quarter.

Florence (2-1) took its first lead with 3:37 left in the game on a 2-yard run by Burns. He scored on another TD with 1:46 left after the Trojans gave them the short field by turning the ball over on downs.

“This was a big game for us. To come on the road up here – and Troy is a good team – and find a way to win is big for us,” Maki said.

Troy takes a 1-2 record into its conference opener this Friday at home against St. Ignatius. Fans might be in for a battle. Just last season, the Trojans beat St. Ignatius on the last play of the game.

Corvallis outlasts Loggers

In the end, Libby head coach Neil Fuller saw a lot of positives that came out of Friday’s 41-29 loss at Corvallis.

“Going into the season, I felt like it would take us all four (nonconference) games to get things figured out and get some of our inexperienced kids the experience they need, and I thought we may drop a game or two,” Fuller said. “I like how our kids are competing. Our kids battled and we had the lead Š we just had a couple of mistakes here and there.”

The miscues plagued the Loggers from the opening kickoff when Corvallis recovered a fumble. On another occasion, Libby again gave the home team a short field when the punter went down on one knee at the 10-yard line. Both led to Corvallis touchdowns.

“It was a little bit of a frustrating game,” Fuller said. “We had mistakes but all and all, we were a little shorthanded. The flu bug hit us hard this past week. It was our last chance to get tuned up for Polson and there were some good things that happened.”

Fuller wasn’t exaggerating about the team playing shorthanded. Junior lineman Sean Lundin and sophomore defensive back Dietrich Coleman both came down with the flu. Senior lineman Brandin Mills also battled the bug and although he played, he saw a limited number of reps. In addition, sophomore receiver and defensive back Kelly May had bruised a bone in his foot in the junior varsity game on Tuesday against Thompson Falls.

“It just kind of changes things from a rotation standpoint,” Fuller said. “We had seven or eight kids who really didn’t get off the field and just ran out of gas.”

All are expected back for this week’s game against Polson.

In the loss to Corvallis, the Loggers held a 14-6 lead after the opening quarter. QB Joel Fuller ran for a 5-yard TD and threw an 8-yard TD strike to Conner Benson.

After Corvallis (3-1) tied the game in the second quarter, Libby regained the lead on a 1-yard TD run by Fuller. But that would be it offensively until the fourth quarter. In the meantime, Corvallis built a 27-21 advantage with the final 12 minutes to play.

Corvallis scored two more times to take control, the last TD coming on a 70-yard run by Drew Zeiler. Earlier, Zeiler returned the opening kickoff in the third quarter 74 yards for a TD. Libby’s final touchdown came on a 4-yard pass from Fuller to Seth Wright.

Corvallis had its running game in high gear. Matt Smith ran for 95 yards on 13 carries while Zeiler finished with 88 yards on just six carries.

For the Loggers, Fuller finished with 278 yards passing.

The Loggers drop to 2-2 on the season and will play host to Polson on Friday night.

“They’re big up front and have good skill kids,” Coach Fuller said about the next opponent. “It’s going to be a challenge for us. But I like how we match up with them.”