Second half magic lifts Vikings
BIGFORK - The message from Bigfork football coach Todd Emslie to his players in the locker room at halftime Saturday was direct, and simple.
"Don't give up," Bigfork defensive back Chris Landon said of what the coach told the players.
"Play hard, work as a team, which we did in the second half."
Fourth-ranked Bigfork (8-1), down 20-0 after a lackluster first half to unranked Florence (6-3), scored five second-half touchdowns for a 35-26 first-round Class B playoff victory.
Bigfork senior running back Cody Dopps ran for four touchdowns and passed for another as the Vikings started another magical playoff run with a dramatic victory on a near-perfect day for football.
"We started communicating (in the secondary) ... me and Austin (Jordt) and Ian (Lorang) ... and communicating with the line, pumping them up, getting them angry so they could rush the quarterback," Landon said.
What ever words were exchanged between those defensive players sure fired that unit up.
Florence, which had moved up and down the field at will in the first half, struggled to generate offense in the third and fourth quarters.
Bigfork's defensive front had Florence quarterback Zachary Newbary on the run for most of the second half. After throwing a pair of touchdown passes in the first half, Landon had two second-half interceptions.
"We knew we could come back," Landon said.
"We just had to pick it up and work as a team."
Helping pick the Vikings up the final half was the team's offensive workhorse - Dopps.
He opened the second half by returning the kickoff to the Florence 46-yard line. Ten plays later, Dopps was in the end zone after a 5-yard run.
Dopps carried the ball on nine of those plays.
After a 3-and-out, Dopps and the Vikings went right back to work. This time Bigfork marched 75 yards in 14 plays. Dopps had the ball in his hands for 10 of those plays and ended the drive with a 6-yard TD run.
Then, Landon took some steam out of a Florence drive with his first interception of a hurried Newbary pass at the Bigfork 14.
Two plays later, Dopps had Bigfork back in the end zone with his halfback pass to a wide open Lorang. That play covered 79 yards. Dillon Charlebois was perfect on the kick and Bigfork finally had its first lead with 7:43 remaining, 21-20.
Landon again came up with a huge stop on Florence's next drive with his second pick of the game. This time it was at the Bigfork 25 with 5:14 remaining.
Three plays and almost two minutes later, Dopps ripped off a 65-yard touchdown.
Florence used a couple Bigfork penalties to keep a game-changing scoring drive alive, and for a chance to force overtime. Newbary capped it off when he hit Riley Phillips for a 17-yard TD strike with 2:23 to play. That put the Falcons within two, 28-26.
Newbary's pass, however, for the two-point conversion was off the mark.
Florence failed to gain possession on an on-side kick, and Dopps put the game out of reach when he ripped off a 55-yard touchdown run with 1:26 remaining.
"I was more upset with myself than anything else," Dopps said of his first-half effort.
"My line always performs for me to the best of their ability."
Dopps said Bigfork tried to hit Florence on the outside in the first half, and when that failed, tried passing.
"That got shut down," he said.
"Second half we made some adjustments. We knew we could take it inside and we did."
The 6-foot-1, 185-pound Dopps picked his holes and spots to keep the drives moving in the final half. He rolled up 286 of Bigfork's 304 total rushing yards on 45 carries.
"We went with our No. 1 guy (Dopps), went with our line," Emslie said of the second half.
"We decided if we line up and do what this particular team does well (things would work out).
"The big strength of this team is our line," Emslie added.
"We were patient, we wore (the Falcons) down. It came out all right in the end."
Bigfork, which has won 15-straight home games, is home again for the second round of playoff action on Saturday. The Vikings will host Malta, a 49-0 winner over Choteau.
"The whole team stepped up in the second half," Emslie said.
"It would have been very easy for a high school team to pack it in, down 20-0, when things are not looking very good."
Florence 7 13 0 6 - 26
Bigfork 0 0 7 28 - 35
Florence - Riley Phillips 38 pass from Zachary Newbary (Newbary kick)
Florence - Phillips 8 pass from Newbary (kick failed)
Florence - Dylan Reynolds 54 interception return (Newbary kick)
Bigfork - Cody Dopps 5 run (Dillon Charlebois kick)
Bigfork - Dopps 6 run (Charlebois kick)
Bigfork - Ian Lorang 79 pass from Dopps (Charlebois kick)
Bigfork - Dopps 65 run (Charlebois kick)
Florence - Phillips 17 pass from Newbary (pass failed)
Bigfork - Dopps 55 run (Charlebois kick)