Spartans, Braves feature pass-happy attacks

By DIXIE KNUTSON

The Daily Inter Lake

Keep it rolling.

The Flathead Braves (1-0, 1-0) did everything their coaches expected them to do in last weekend's 43-20 win over Billings Skyview.

Sophomore quarterback Brock Osweiler was 10-for-17 (59 percent) for 293 yards and threw four touchdowns. Seven different Braves caught passes.

Defensively, Flathead's young group held the Falcons to just two scores (Skyview's special teams scored once).

The Flathead defense won't take on anything tonight it hasn't already seen plenty of when the Sentinel Spartans football team rolls into town.

The Spartans boast an offense as wide open as the one the Braves practice against every single day. Their own.

"They spread it like we do," said Flathead head coach Grady Bennett.

"Defensively, we want to keep getting better. That young crew is going to keep getting better every week."

Bennett just wants the Braves to keep taking those strides.

The Spartans (0-2, 0-2) threw the ball 80 percent of the time in last week's 45-7 loss to Helena Capital.

Of course, they were behind in that game from the beginning. But Sentinel still ran 90 plays from scrimmage. It was held to 23 yards rushing on 23 attempts, but quarterback Jordan Graves was 23-for-51 for 166 yards.

"We've got to get some pressure on him. If you let him sit back there, he'll complete it," Bennett said of Graves. Graves is completing right around 65 percent of his passes on the season.

"It'll be a test for our secondary," Bennett said.

"You really have to give credit to (second year head coach) Pete Joseph. A year and a couple games, those kids are playing hard. These guys go to the ball. He's got them believing they can win some football games. He's really got them committed to the weight room," Bennett said.

"They're a team that's hungry. They want to win a football game."

For their part, the Braves take basically the same attitude into each game.

"We know somebody is going to show up to play us. We don't care what color (their uniforms) are. We really try to sell to the kids we play one way," Bennett said.

The Flathead coaches do give out scouting reports on the week's opponent, he said. But mostly, "we work on our stuff, talk about what we need to do."