7B football: Bigfork downs Eureka
BIGFORK — Bigfork clinched at least a share of its fifth straight District 7B football title with a 20-6 win over Eureka Friday.
Bigfork tailback Boyd Rieke ran for 167 yards on 28 carries and scored all three of the Vikings’ touchdowns as Bigfork (7-0 overall, 3-0 District 7B) wore out Eureka (5-3, 2-1) with its smash-mouth running game. Fullback Vinny Quirk added 57 yards on 11 carries and Bigfork didn’t bother throwing a pass in the fourth quarter.
“We knew we had to run out the clock and get a push and we were just fired up,” Rieke said.
“It was like we were on a different level and just ran the ball right down their throats.”
While Bigfork finished with 249 rushing yards, it only ran for 82 yards in the first half as the Eureka defense forced three punts and one turnover, but Bigfork kept pounding away. Both of Bigfork’s second-half touchdown drives went at least 65 yards and both ended with Rieke plowing through the middle of the line for a score.
“We had some kids dinged up and we just needed to control the ball and control time of possession,” Bigfork coach Todd Emslie said.
“It was a great game. Kind of reminded me of the Eureka-Bigfork games of old back in the 90s.”
Eureka coach Trevor Utter said Bigfork had too much size and strength.
“Our kids work extremely hard, but I think that we were a little undersized in some of our positions and that starts wearing on you as the game goes on, and Bigfork has some good kids up front,” Utter said.
“Of course they have a very good backfield, too, and it kind of wore on us there. It was apparent in the fourth quarter that they wore us down a little bit.”
Both defenses stood tall in the first half and the game was scoreless until Rieke bounced off a pair of Eureka defenders and ran 11 yards for a touchdown with 4 minutes and 50 seconds remaining in the second quarter. Bigfork forced a punt on Eureka’s ensuing possession, but a fumble by quarterback Josh Sandry allowed Eureka to re-gain possession at the Bigfork 17-yard line.
One play later, Eureka quarterback Austin Perez found receiver Dalton Smith in the back of the end zone to knot the score at 6-6, but Eureka didn’t score again as Bigfork’s defensive line held its ground and allowed the linebackers to swarm Perez and the Eureka running backs.
“Our linebackers stepped up a lot,” Bigfork defensive end/tight end Cameron Nissen said.
“The one thing we had to focus on this week was defense. We weren’t executing enough in the previous games on defense and tonight we really stepped up and put a lot of effort into it.”
Bigfork held Eureka to 101 rushing yards on 32 carries and Perez completed just 33 percent of his pass attempts. Cole Jankovsky led the Lions with 30 rushing yards and Perez and Trent Vaughn finished with 29 and 28 rushing yards, respectively.
Sandry finished 10 of 19 for 67 yards while Perez was 8 of 24 for 73 yards.
“We set goals for ourselves and the first goal is to win the district championship,” Rieke said.
“And then after that it’s going through playoffs and winning state. We take it goal by goal and we just accomplished the first one.”
Bigfork closes out its regular season on Friday when it travels to Thompson Falls.
Eureka hosts Plains in its regular season finale.
Eureka 0 6 0 0 — 6
Bigfork 0 6 6 8 — 20
B – Boyd Rieke 11 run (kick failed)
E – Dalton Smith 17 pass from Austin Perez (pass failed)
B – Rieke 5 run (pass failed)
B – Rieke 4 run (Vinny Quirk run)