Horsemen to host Bulldogs for homecoming

Now that they have seen the Flint Creeks, the Charlos and the Arlees of the Western C 8-Man football world, maybe coach Eddie Fultz and the Plains Horsemen can start enjoying themselves a little more.

Sitting at 1-4 after a brutal first half of the season – which proceeded with a 68-0 loss to the No. 1 ranked, defending State C champion and now 5-0 Flint Creek Titans, in Drummond Saturday – the Horsemen finally get a shot at some more pedestrian competition when 3-2 Mission visits Plains Friday.

The game is also Plains' annual homecoming.

The Bulldogs will ride into Plains after defeating Seeley-Swan 38-24 in St. Ignatius last week. The Horsemen scored their only win to date this season over Seeley 36-6 in Seeley Lake back on Aug. 31.

Fultz has a pretty basic game plan for Mission, one which concentrates on the fundamentals of football.

"The key for us is blocking and tackling, we have to do better in both areas," Fultz said. "We have a lot of first-year players, they are getting better each week, but we have a learning curve of sorts to work our way through."

Fultz is looking for a successful second half of the season to balance out the minefield of quality teams they walked through to begin the campaign. And he thinks games like the one his Horsemen just had in Drummond, no matter how painful the final score looked, will only help in that regard in the long run.

Flint Creek's powerful fullback Colby Manley helped teach the Horsemen a lesson in effective tackling. "Our kids were hitting him high in the first half and just bouncing off," Fultz said. "But by the second half, we had learned that you have to hit guys like that low if you want to bring them down, and we were much better at that in the second half."

Another player the Horsemen learned from and had trouble containing was Jaxon Lee. Fultz said the Titan junior scored touchdowns three of the five times he touched the ball against Plains. "He's electric, has got the it-factor," he said. "We saw him at camp last year and he was the fastest kid there. And he caught the Montana State coaches' attention at that camp too."

Fultz said the Horsemen are still dealing with injuries but get healthier every day.

"Esvin (Reyes) and Malachi (Paulsen) are better and should be ready to go Friday," he said. "Rusty (Stuart) is seeing a doctor today and should be all right to play, but Jacob (Peterson) we are not sure about, he hurt himself again in Drummond. He will be a game-time decision."

Fultz maintains an optimistic attitude heading into the season's stretch run. "If we can pull out another 'W' Friday and get rolling a little bit," he said. "We could build some momentum and maybe have a say about who makes the playoffs, or even make it there ourselves. That's the way we are playing it anyway."