Football: Loggers defend home turf, whip Corvallis

It’s good to be home.

Following a pair of road losses to open the season, the Libby High School football team finally took the home field Friday night to the tune of chainsaws and the Logger band. And by the time the final whistle blew, LHS had notched its first victory this season in impressive fashion, 50-28, over Corvallis.

“It’s great to see our defense start to hit,” Libby coach Neil Fuller said. “We got a lot of good hits in tonight. We were being aggressive and Corvallis has some good athletes, a good scheme and their quarterback throws the ball well; they’ve got some big kids up front. I like how our kids competed.”

The Logger defense forced four turnovers on the evening with three interceptions and a fumble recovery. But after suffering a shutout the previous week against Frenchtown, the Libby offense also rose to the occasion by pasting a 50-spot on the board.

“Our first two games, we turned the ball over too much and never got much going offensively,” Fuller said. “Tonight, it was a good sign for us to bounce back.”

Junior QB Kelly May completed 7-of-14 passes for 214 yards and four touchdowns, including a 90-yarder to T.J. Benson, a 71-yarder to Tyler Troy and a 49-yarder to Kody Berget. May also reached the end zone twice himself on runs.

“We’re starting to see our kids becoming more aggressive,” Fuller said. “They’re learning how to compete and finally put a good game together offensively and defensively. I liked how we got after it.”

Corvallis made things interesting early by recovering a game-opening onside kick and scoring seven plays later on a 13-yard pass from Kennan Strong to Trevor Brown.

“That’s a coaching error. We haven’t given our kids enough reps in that type of situation,” Fuller said in reference to the onside kick. “They made a great play right off the bat. We were telling them (to watch for the onside kick) but if you don’t give them enough reps in practice, you can’t expect them to execute.”

The Loggers responded when they got the ball with an eight-play, 82-yard drive that ended with a 17-yard TD pass from May to Berget.

But the Blue Devils followed that up with their longest drive of the game. Covering 70 yards, the 15-play drive was capped with a 13-yard TD run by Tyler Berner on the first snap of the second quarter. The drive took 6:24 off the clock and included two third-down and two fourth-down conversions.

Libby controlled the rest of the half and started to pull away with its big-play offense. The Loggers tied the game on a 49-yard pass when May found a wide open Berget on what appeared to be a blown coverage. Corvallis helped the cause earlier in the drive with a roughing-the-kicker penalty with Libby in punt formation and facing fourth-and-14.

The Blue Devils struggled in the first half with 89 yards in penalties. And their first turnover occurred during a pivotal point in the game when Corvallis needed to respond in a 14-14 tie. Logger senior Sean Lundin recovered a fumble at the Corvallis 14-yard line with 4:38 remaining. On the next play, May scored on a 14-yard run and Libby took a lead it would never relinquish.

The Logger defense held Corvallis to a three-and-out on the next series and after getting the ball back, the LHS offense again scored on just one play. This time, Benson ran it in from 21 yards out with 3:10 left in the half.

Corvallis recovered two Logger fumbles late in the first half but could not capitalize on either occasion.

In the third quarter, Benson got a pick but the Blue Devil defense responded with a three-and-out. With 3:55 left in the third, May found Benson over the middle on a third-and-7 pass situation on Libby’s own 10-yard line. Benson snatched the ball and raced to the end zone on a 90-yard TD.

On the point-after, Libby’s Kaila Forster caught a two-point conversion pass from May on a fake out of kick formation. Forster, believed to be the first girl to score points on a Libby varsity football team, was a perfect 6-for-6 on extra points to go along with the two-point catch.

On its next series, Libby got more breathing room with a 71-yard TD pass from May to Tyler Troy down the right sideline.

Corvallis tried to stage a comeback late with a pair of TDs in the fourth – one coming after another onside kick recovery. But the Loggers were too much and scored another TD of their own on a 1-yard run by May. A 26-yard screen pass from May to Alex Cislo set up the score.

Libby (0-0, 1-2) plays host to Hamilton on Friday. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.