Horsemen whomp Warriors

The Horsemen ride again.

Coach Eddie Fultz and his Plains Horsemen improved to 2-2 in Western 8-Man conference football action with a 46-20 road win over the Arlee Warriors Friday.

One week after losing a game he thought his team by all rights should have won – a 41-26 decision to Darby in Plains Sept. 14 – the Horsemen exorcised their grid demons with the convincing win in Arlee.

“I feel like we finally played a good game of football,” Fultz said. “We controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball in Arlee.”

Gavin Regalado, Treydon Brouillette and Esvin Reyes keyed a dominant ground game by the thundering Horsemen as Regalado carried the ball 19 times for 126 yards and three touchdowns, Brouillette packed the pigskin 13 times for 121 yards and a touchdown, and Esvin Reyes toted the rock another 17 times for 84 yards and two touchdowns.

One week after racking up over 300 yards passing against Darby, the Horsemen only went to the air four times versus Arlee, and Brouillette completed two of those passes for 22 yards.

“We concentrated on running the ball against Arlee and had some success doing it,” Fultz said. “We put the game in the line’s hands and they took care of it.”

Duncan Chisholm and Tucker Foster were the two Plains stars of the day on the line, as Chisholm racked up a team-high 10 tackles and a quarterback sack and Foster pulled down eight stops, including two more quarterback sacks.

Reyes added nine tackles and Regalado six, along with two fumble recoveries.

Still right in the hunt for one of the Western 8-Man’s four playoff spots, the Horsemen have a bye this week before returning to action hosting Thompson Falls in what is looking like an important game Oct. 4. The 2-1 Hawks (3-1 overall) host 3-1 Flint Creek in a crucial Western conference game this Friday.

The winner of that game will take a decisive step toward the playoffs. Due to scheduling in the 11-team conference and nine-game regular season schedule, some teams do not face each other, and Plains will not play Flint Creek this fall.

“The bye week comes at a decent time for us, we could use the time to heal up a little bit,” Fultz said, “and it will give us a chance to go out and see some other teams in the conference play this weekend.”

Fultz is happy with how the Horsemen’s offense is running, but would like to see cleaner play on the defensive side.

“We are moving the ball well, we haven’t punted once in our last two games,” he said. “But we need to improve our tackling. We gave up too many broken plays in Arlee.”