Horsemen finish with a win

It was fun while it lasted but the Plains Horsemen are finished with football for the season after routing Troy 48-12 in Plains Friday.

Coach Eddie Fultz and his Horsemen complete season play with a 4-4 record in Western 8-Man action. Plains finished sixth in final conference standings, behind Seeley-Swan, which also finished 4-4 but defeated Plains in their head-to-head meeting earlier this season.

“It’s always nice to finish the season with a win and a winning record,” Fultz said. “It would have been nice to make the playoffs – and I don’t think we were that far away from doing that – but the kids had a good season, something we can build on for next year.”

The win over Troy was a feel-good one for Fultz and his boys. “We opened up the playbook and had some fun with it, tried some different things on both sides of the ball,” he said, “and got our younger guys some playing time.”

Seniors Esvin Reyes, Treydon Brouillette and Nathan McNulty played the last high school football of their careers these past few weeks with McNulty bowing out early after suffering an injury against Clark Fork two weeks ago.

“I want to thank these guys for being foundation players, kids who committed to the program and what we are trying to do,” Fultz said. “Esvin has been one of our hardest workers all four years, he didn’t miss a weight training session in the off-season.

“He wasn’t necessarily a rah-rah guy. He led more by example, and we will really miss his dedication.”

Brouillette did not come out for football until he was a sophomore. McNulty didn’t turn out until he was a junior.

“Those two came a long ways, I just wish we could have had them sooner,” Fultz said. “Treydon was really starting to come into his own lately, and Nathan didn’t know much about the game when he started but had become one of our best players this year.”

Brouillette celebrated his final prep pigskin game by throwing five touchdown passes, Gavin Regalado also threw a TD pass and scored Plains’ other touchdown on a running play.

Kade Pardee caught three touchdown passes, Tucker Foster snagged two and Reyes one.