Braves post 1st victory
Osweiler leads FHS past Big Sky, 42-21
There are colors on the Flathead Braves' coups stick - and they are blue and gold.
The Flathead Braves (1-2) picked up their first win of the 2007 football season Saturday night when they dropped Missoula Big Sky 42-21 at Legends Stadium.
On a perfect night for football, the Braves did everything right.
Flathead scored the first six times it had the ball. Quarterback Brock Osweiler was 23-for-26 for 232 yards and four touchdowns, the running game produced 85 yards and the Flathead defense held when it counted.
And special teams?
Special teams were a dream come true as senior wide receiver Mike Gallagher returned a third quarter kickoff 99 yards.
"We finally did it to somebody else after having it done to us two weeks in a row," said Flathead coach Russell McCarvel.
For his part, Gallagher gave the credit to his teammates.
"I have to give most of the credit for that to (running back) Charlie Dotson and the rest of our return team. Charlie led the way about the last 50 yards. He just kept the kid away until I got in the end zone," Gallagher said.
"Everything was going on full cylinders," Dotson said.
That was true.
"It's the first time we've actually run the ball hard. We were all playing together.
"It feels good to actually come back and gain positive yards from negative yards last week," he added.
Dotson finished the night with 46 yards rushing, 73 yards receiving and one touchdown carry.
The Braves wasted no time getting rolling Saturday - they recovered a fumble on the Eagles' first drive, then drove 40 yards on 11 plays for their first score.
The defense also produced Flathead's second opportunity - Sam Tedrow intercepted a Heath Eustance pass on the Flathead 27 and returned it to the Big Sky 18.
The offense was quick to take advantage - Osweiler found senior Kyle Van Eimeren on the first play.
Flathead added two more scores in the second quarter and was cruising 28-0 at the half. Their first possession of the second half was a precision drive - seven plays, 47 yards capped by a 34-yard pass from Osweiler to Levi Walker.
The only hiccups were a 44-yard pass from Eustance to Mike Devlin and two Beau Donaldson rushing touchdowns.
Donaldson was a load - 182 yards on 33 carries.
"I don't know how many of that was in the fourth quarter, when maybe the game was in check, but I thought coach (Dallas) Stuker and the defensive staff put together a great game plan. They put some extra guys in the box this week and the kids executed it very well.
"We sort of held him in check … I guess," he said.
"He's a big kid, he's a good kid," said Flathead defensive end Josh Harris.
"But I think we did pretty good shutting him down. He had a few big plays, but nothing that really overwhelmed us. We gave up some plays that kind of hurt us, but we were able to put together and stop him when we had to," he said.
Harris' game included batting down a pass and a fumble recovery.
McCarvel gave credit all the way around.
"I thought the offensive line did a good job this week in pass protection," he said.
"Brock (Osweiler) was able to sit back there pretty comfortably. A big part of that is the offensive line giving him time," he said.
But the biggest difference was special teams.
Big Sky had seven kickoff returns for 64 yards - an average of just over nine yards. Flathead punted three times - with none returned.
"The big thing was we played a lot better special teams. We didn't give any momentum back to them and that was good," McCarvel said.
The adjustments were small - the Braves squib kicked a few times rather than kicking deep and they also made a couple personnel changes.
"We tried to coach it better. Maybe we just didn't coach it well enough before. We worked on (special teams) four of the five days this week. Both the kickoff and the kickoff return were not good going into this week.
"Obviously those were two things we turned around," he said.
Big Sky 0 0 14 7 - 21
Flathead 14 14 14 0 - 42
First Quarter
F -Levi Walker 7 pass from Brock Osweiler (Curtis Manning kick), 5:47.
F - Kyle Van Eimeren 18 pass from Osweiler (Manning kick), 2:13.
Second Quarter
F - Travis Andrus 13 pass from Osweiler (Manning kick), 5:11.
F - Charlie Dotson 11 run (Manning kick), :45.
Third Quarter
F - Walker 34 pass from Osweiler (Manning kick), 9:42.
BS - Mike Devlin 44 pass from Heath Eustance (Heath Eustance kick), 7:31
BS - Donaldson 5 run (Eustance kick), :29.
F - Mike Gallagher 99 kickoff return (Manning kick), 7:15.
Fourth Quarter
BS - Beau Donaldson 2 run (Eustance kick), 7:16.
F BS
First downs 12 18
Rushes-yards 27-85 43-229
Passing 232 145
Total yards 317 374
Comp-Att-Int 23-26-0 10-19-1
Return Yards 151 59
Punts-Avg. 3-28.67 3-29.33
Fumbles-Lost 3-0 3-2
Penalties-Yards 9-85 4-35
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING-Big Sky, Heath Eustance 5-1 Beau Donaldson 33-182, Justin Montelius 3-38, Andy Freeman2-9. Flathead, Charlie Dotson, 16-46, Brock Osweiler 9-39, Andrew Edsall 1-0, Michael Windham 1-0.
PASSING-Big Sky, Heath Eustance 10-19-1-1-145 . Flathead, Brock Osweiler 23-26-0-4-232.
RECEIVING-Big Sky, Beau Donaldson 1-6, Mike Lavalley 2-16, Mike Devlin 7-123. Flathead, Dotson 5-73, Gallagher 7-62, Bouley 2-minus 2, Andrus 2-23, Walker 5-53, Van Eimeren 2-23.