Undermanned Trojans fall to Ronan

The Troy Trojans fell to 0-2 on the football season with a 53-13 loss at Ronan. Academic and off-the-field issues cut the Troy roster from 33 to 18 players, leaving coach Jim Dasios with limited options.

“We had some players make some stupid decisions this week,” Dasios said. “They really hurt the team with their choices. We were largely limited to freshmen and sophomores making their varsity debut.”

Despite opening a 6-0 lead early in the game, the Trojan offense was constrained to basic sets. Adding injury to insult, standout sophomore running back and linebacker Sean Opland was knocked out of the game in the first half with an injury. He did not return.

“It was tough,” Dasios said. “The younger players are not as familiar with the offense as our older guys. Because of that we had to keep it simple on offense. I don’t fault the younger kids at all, they played very hard and gave great effort.”

It was a tough week for Troy football. Not only did they lose players to injury, academics and personal issues, six players quit. While this is not unusual, things seemed to coalesce into a perfect storm, the coach said.

Senior quarterback Gabe Hickman played admirably, tossing for a pair of touchdowns against the Chiefs’ 4-3 defense.

The win was Ronan’s first of the season. Troy fell to 0-2.

The Trojans will need a strong, redemptive week of practice with Cut Bank (1-2) coming to town this week. Cut Bank lost to Three Forks/Willow Creek 12-8 last week.

“Cut Bank is a strong team and we will have our hands full with them,” Dasios said. “We will see if this team wants to bounce back.”

Dasios declined to specify the reason for the players’ absences.