Vikes fall to Loyola 49-9 in season opener

The Vikings knew that their first game of the 2009 season would be a tough one to try to break their three year losing record in, and they were right as they fell to Loyola Sacred Heart 49-9 at home Friday night.

"I told them this is our starting point," said Bigfork High School Head Football Coach Todd Emslie. "Coach Little said it best, we are going to be a much better team at the end of the season. We're going to improve each week. I'm not going to make any excuses though."

Defensively Bigfork started off well, but allowed the Rams to score a touchdown midway through the first quarter. A 12-yard run by Kevin Berland and a successful kick by Peter Shaughnessey put Loyola up 7-0.

Bigfork came close to scoring late in the first quarter, but had to settle for a 23-yard field goal by Derek Minemyer.

Berland scored two more touchdowns in the second quarter, on a 5-yard run and on a 10-yard run, and Shaughnessey made the extra points to give the Missoula private school a 21-3 lead at the half.

Berland scored his fourth and final touchdown of the game in the third quarter off of a 5-yard run. Teammate Brandan Haggarty followed with another Loyola touchdown. Shaughnessey made the extra points for both.

Bigfork sophomore Ian Lorang scored the Vikings' first touchdown of the season with a 68-yard kickoff return. Minemyer made the extra point, but it was called back on a penalty and the Vikings had to do it again. However, the second time coach Emslie called a pass play and it was unsuccessful.

Shaughnessey intercepted a Bigfork pass in the fourth quarter and made an 83-yard run for a touchdown, and then kicked in the extra point. Those points put the score at 42-9, and then a few minutes later Shiloh Kerr added another touchdown on for the Rams with a 7-yard run and Shaughnessey made the extra point. With Bigfork more than 35 points behind, the mercy rule was put in effect and a running clock was used for the remainder of the game.

The Vikes gave up a great deal of progress and momentum to turnovers.

"Turnovers really hurt us," Emslie said. "You can't win when you turn the ball over all the time."

Quarterback Christian Ker threw four interceptions.

"A couple of those were balls that could've gone either way," Emslie said.

There were several times during the game that Bigfork found themselves with the wrong players on the field, and some times the wrong number of boys.

"I attribute some of that to youth, focus and injuries," Emslie said. "We were rotating guys around to fill in for injuries."

The Vikings definitely had their share of injuries Friday night, with Cody Dopps going down twice and Conner Coleman and Ker each remaining on the field at the end of plays during the game. None of the players sustained major injuries and all but Dopps finished out the game.

Bigfork has nine boys, including three starters, that were not eligible to play in the season opener due to academic reasons or for not having enough practices, but will be able to play in Friday's game in Conrad. This should help the boys get more breaks during the upcoming games. With a short bench, many of the players had to play both sides of the ball last week, including Lorang who was in every play of the game except one.

Even though Bigfork didn't get the win, or score as many points as they'd have liked to, they did some things well and learned a lot.

"Overall there was a lot of positive things that happened," Emslie said.

The Vikings had a greater time of possession than the Rams and more offensive yardage. Bigfork had 12 first downs and Loyola had seven.

Dopps was Bigfork's leading rusher with 83 yards on nine attempts. Ker was 11 of 17 and passed for 77 interceptions.

"We ran the ball well," Emslie said. "I was impressed with the offensive line."