Horsemen set to meet powerful Flint Creek Titans

Sometimes, final scores can be deceptive. Such was the case with Arlee’s 54-24 Western C 8-Man football win over the Horsemen in Plains Friday.

“It was back-and-forth most of the way in the first half, it seemed like it could have went either way early on,” Horsemen coach Eddie Fultz said. “I felt pretty good about the game, Arlee is a decent team and we had our chances against them.”

Now 1-3 in conference play and overall, the Horsemen face perhaps their toughest test yet this season Friday when they visit the 4-0 Flint Creek Titans in Drummond. A cooperative between Drummond and Philipsburg, the Titans hold Montana’s longest current winning streak (16 games) and are the defending State C 8-Man champions. They are also currently the No. 1 rated 8-Man team in the Montana Class C rankings.

The Titans clobbered Seeley-Swan 82-0 last week and trashed Charlo 52-8 (a team that had defeated Plains 42-6 earlier this season) two weeks ago. Flint Creek has outscored their opponents 234-24 in their four games so far.

Fultz is optimistic about the game with Flint Creek in spite of those staggering numbers.

“I feel like our style is a bad match for them, we could compete pretty well,” he said. “We run a power-oriented attack just like they do. It could be kind of a strength on strength thing and we might be able to surprise them some.

“If we can play mistake-free football,” he added, “who knows what might happen?”

Fultz said the passing game was the difference in the loss to Arlee last week.

“We dominated the line of scrimmage. They couldn’t run the ball, but they got us with their passing game,” he said. “They were able to get the ball off quick and take advantage of some mismatches in the secondary.”

Fultz said the injury situation is clearing up some for the Horsemen after a few weeks of battling boo-boos. Senior captains Jacob Peterson and Malachi Paulsen did not play all the way against Arlee, but each were in for the Horsemen defense.

Peterson did get in for one offensive play and turned that opportunity into a 40-yard gain on the only play he participated in, Fultz said.

“Our health is getting better, we hope to be 100%, or close to it by Friday,” he said, adding that the playoffs are still on his mind. “We have our goals out there in front of us. If we can take care of business from here on out and win the games we should win, we could still have a shot at making the playoffs. And that is where we want to be.”

Scoring plays and statistics were not available from the game with Arlee.