Horsemen gridders begin Saturday night

Just a Saturday night special.

The Plains Horsemen football team, fresh off a 6-4 season and a rare State C playoff appearance in 2017, open the 2018 campaign with a very special game right out of the chute, facing the Landers Smith-led Charlo Vikings Saturday night in Plains.

Coach Eddie Fultz, who guided the Horsemen to the post season in his first year at the helm last fall, knows what he is up against with Charlo, which made it to the quarterfinals of the State C 8-Man playoffs with Smith, the Western C co-offensive player of the year, keying the Viking attack on both sides of the ball in 2017.

The Vikings made it to the State C championship game with Smith at quarterback two years ago, and lost that game in overtime. Last year in an early season game in Plains, Smith and the Vikings streaked past the Horsemen 50-14, with Smith doing much of the damage for Charlo on offense at quarterback and on defense at linebacker.

“Smith is the real deal, we know what he is capable of pretty well by now,” Fultz said. “It’s a heckuva thing having to play the No. 3 team in state in our first game but, on the other hand, it should give us an idea of where we are at as well, and I think we could be pretty good, too.”

Fultz is encouraged by a large turnout of players, with several of them already having established credentials from last season’s grid wars, and likes the fact that football is considered a fun thing to do in Plains these days. “We have a ton of new players that didn’t play before, including several that should help us right away,” he said. “I really don’t see much of a drop-off in talent from last year’s team in that respect.”

Rusty Stuart (first team Western C defensive lineman and third team O-lineman), Orion Pry-Hyde (first team kick returner), Esvin Reyes, Jacob Peterson, Malachi Paulsen and Tucker Foster return with starting experience and, not a player until this season, junior Treydon Brouillette has the look of an effective quarterback in practices so far.

Brouillette will be stepping in for Kyle Weeks, who along with Jay VonHeeder, were Plains’ two All-State C players last year. VonHeeder was also co-defensive player of the year in the Western C and played a pretty mean tight end as well on offense.