Bigfork Vikings trio can air it out

A couple years ago you could count on Bigfork’s football team to run nine times out of every 10 plays, and if it seemed predictable, the Vikings still cranked out seven yards a carry and made the playoffs.

Fast-forward a couple years and Bigfork, 10-0 heading into a Class B semifinal home game against Missoula Loyola Saturday, has diversified.

That isn’t to say the Vikings have eschewed the run — let’s not get carried away, they’re still averaging 7.8 yards per rushing attempt — but the pass game has become more viable.

Junior quarterback Tristen Herd has a lot to do with it, and so do seniors Isak Epperly, Nick Walker and Bryce Gilliard.

“We have to have some pretty athletic basketball players that can go get the ball, and make plays,” said Walker, who stands 6-foot-5. “It has happened to work out pretty well.”

“This year it’s been pretty great,” the 6-4 Gilliard added. “Because a lot of teams know Coach (Jim) Benn likes to run the ball, we catch them by surprise.”

Benn does like to run the ball — he’s been a wing-T disciple since his days as a student teacher at Huntley Project, where current Billings Central mentor Jim Stanton was then coaching.

Benn moved from Malta to Loyola to Bigfork in 2018, 2019 and 2020. When he took over the Vikings he installed the wing-T mainly because it is what he knew.

“I got the Bigfork job in August that year,” Benn said. “I tell people that when we went into the Townsend game (in 2020), there were kids who I wasn’t sure of their names.

“And the Class B identity is the run game.”

It helped that his son Cormac Benn fit into the backfield alongside Levi Taylor. To underscore that point, the duo combined for 657 rushing yards in a hastily-arranged, pandemic-created game with Polson on Oct. 9 that year.

Possibly due to lack of prep time, both offenses exploded — in completely different ways: Polson ran the ball 10 times; Bigfork threw it three.

“I was a linebacker and since they didn’t run the ball I didn’t make many plays,” Gilliard recalled. “So I was kind of mad about it.”

New-look Vikings

By the next summer, then-quarterback Patrick Wallin and Herd were working in a shotgun-Wing-T passing game.

“We felt like throwing the ball would both help the run game, and give us a chance to win more games later in the season,” said Benn, whose Vikings lost to Florence in last year’s Class B championships. “I did a ton of research, and went to a clinic.

“In 2020 we averaged 7.3 yards a carry. That hasn’t fallen off, and we’re more dynamic.”

This past summer seems to have been critical. One factor was a trip to the Montana State team camp.

“That really helped us with everything,” Gilliard said. “Each team had a different front, which helped with our run game. And we saw a lot of coverages. We played teams like Billings Senior, Malta, Helena, Capital. It was pretty fun.”

Herd operating in the offense a second year has also helped.

“Tristen has great eyes,” Benn said. “And he’s very content to spread the ball about, which is a good thing. If Tristen finds somebody else open he gets it to him. He’s been a very pleasant surprise.”

The receivers? They’re doing what they figured they’d be doing. The route combinations aren’t complicated, with Epperly lined up split, Walker as the wing (or H-back) and Gilliard as tight end.

Three times a big pass has won games, and all three of them went to Epperly.

“Isak has pretty much saved our butts in close games,” Gilliard said. “For example at Jefferson (Boulder), he scored the game-winning touchdown in overtime, and then he also picked up the fumble to seal the deal.”

“He’s a great play maker,” Walker said. “Great hands, great ability. Super nifty. Really good at breaking tackles. Probably the best overall athlete on the team.”

For Epperly, whose brother Evan was a starting safety for the Montana Grizzlies, the plays just happen to come to him.

“Post route,” he said of the Boulder TD. “There was nothing fancy about it.”

In the playoffs he did it again, scoring on a 70-yard catch and run up the sideline for the go-ahead TD in a 21-16 victory.

“Wheel route,” he said this week. “I just line on the right and kind of bent it outside.”

Gillard takes over: “Isak just knows when to pop up for us at the right times,” he said. “He’s probably one of the best DBs in Class B. And just a great senior for the younger kids to be around.”

In between those was a heart-stopping 21-19 win over Florence, in a rematch of last year’s championship game. Epperly did it there, too, catching an 11-yard TD pass.

Though the game was far from over.

“We had scored with a minute or so left, and they got the ball back around the 40.

Walker said. “They drove it to the 30 and kicked a field goal, but it came up just short.

The mix of emotions in that game…”

Closing it out

Walker and Gilliard both have offers to play football at Montana Western, while the 6-2 Epperly is leaning toward basketball or track, where he excels at the hurdles. But first things first: Loyola, resurgent after a slow start, is next.

The goal is to get back to the title game, certainly.

“But also enjoy it,” Gilliard said. “Win it, like take it seriously, but also enjoy every minute of it. For a lot of us it’s our last opportunity.”

Benn is enjoying never seeing the single-safety, eight-in-the-box defenses he saw two years ago. Herd is enjoying throwing TDs to six different receivers, including receiver Cole Knopik and running back Joe Farrier.

All of them are enjoying the run, and hope it lasts one more week.

“I think we'd all like to get back to that spot, and play our championship game at home,” Epperly said. “That’d be really cool.”