Loggers take a beating from Fairfield, 43-0

The Libby Loggers ran into a physical and more experienced Fairfield Eagles team Friday night.

The Eagles lit up the scoreboard in the first quarter scoring 37 points against the young Loggers team. The Eagles eventually beat the Loggers 43-0.

Loggers head coach, Neil Fuller said he knew his team was in for a physical game.

“I knew we were in a tough situation just from watching film on them from last year,” he said. “They have four seniors on their defensive front. Three of those kids check in at 260, 230 and 220. They are all athletic and physical kids. In all the years I’ve coached I’ve never seen a defensive line that was that big and athletic across the board. We just didn’t match up well with them at all.”

The Loggers had five new starters on the offensive line and they got a good taste of what it takes to play at the varsity level.

“We have all new starters on the offensive line,” Fuller said. “We are playing kids that are not necessarily ready for varsity football, but you have to do the best with what you have. Fairfield gave us a clinic on what it means to be a physical football team. They are just a very physical football team. You could tell they spend a lot of time in the weight room. We have a ways to go.”

With the Eagles dominating the line of scrimmage the Loggers struggled to move the ball.

“We are going to be moving a couple people around moving forward,” Fuller said. We have a lot of work to do with our kids up front. Fairfield just physically manhandled us. If you can’t get things going up front you are really limited with what you can do offensively. We’re just going to have to go back to the drawing board and do what we have to do with our kids up front to help them out. We will use our running backs in pass protection.”

Despite the constant pressure, Fuller said he was pleased with how well his team passed the ball.

“I was happy with how we threw the ball,” he said. “That’s something we can build on moving forward.”

After giving up 37 points in the first quarter the young Loggers could have easily rolled over and stopped playing hard. Instead, they continued to play hard and only gave up six points in the final three quarters.

“I was pleased with how hard our kids played,” Fuller said. “They didn’t turn on each other. There wasn’t any negativity at all. They hung together. They were enthusiastic and stayed positive. Nobody turned on each other and they stuck together as a team. I was proud of them for that and it’s a good sign moving forward.”

Fuller said he is excited to see how his team responds from this difficult loss.

“I’ve coached teams in the past where we went up against a good team early on and didn’t do well and we gradually improved and ended up making the playoffs,” he said. “I’ve coached other teams where they didn’t respond well to a tough loss and things went into a tailspin.”

Fuller commended the Eagles coaching staff for pulling the starters early.

“Coach Meyer runs a class program over there in Fairfield,” he said. “If they would have played their seniors longer the game could have been a lot worse.”

After getting shutout in the first game things can only go up from here for the young Loggers.

“We are just going to continue to work hard and improve each week,” Fuller said. I think we will match up a lot better this week against Ronan. They have good athletes, but they are not as physical up front. For us to be competitive we can’t turn the ball over and we have to make fewer mistakes. We are just going to go back to the drawing board and hopefully improve each week.”