Dogs lose opener; Roche out for year

As if a 45-point whooping by the Havre Blue Ponies last Saturday wasn't a tough enough way to kick off the Bulldogs' football season, Whitefish learned Tuesday that senior quarterback Mac Roche is likely out for the year.

Roche broke his left foot in the game and was put in a cast early this week.

Whitefish coach Chad Ross said Roche might be back in 4-6 weeks, but with college scouts looking at him, he doubts he'll risk an early return.

"It's so heartbreaking for him," Ross said. "He's such an emotional leader. He's a real student athlete."

Roche is one of five seniors on the team and is a third-year starter.

Ross said the team isn't going to give up on the season, though.

"Maxl Smith came to me and said, 'We've got the whole season ahead of us, we need to rally the troops,'" Ross said. "If that's the mentality after this, we can build on that."

The Havre game exposed Whitefish's youth and inexperience, Ross said, and the team quickly needs to mature to succeed in the league.

"We have a lot of players that haven't played before," Ross said. "We are looking forward to them getting better every week."

He noted that despite the big loss, the team displayed some exceptional offensive abilities. Yet, it's the lack of clean tackling that concerns the coach going into next week.

Whitefish scored three touchdowns through the air in the first quarter before Havre locked down on defense and posted 56 unanswered points.

"We knew we were going to score a lot of points," Ross said. "But we have to become a much better tackling team. If we can't fix that, we're in trouble."

He noted that coverage broke down too often in the second half and that the defensive unit was too aggressive.

"We gave up long touchdown passes, coverage touchdowns," Ross said. "It was young kids making young mistakes."

On the positive side, Whitefish threw the ball more than 40 times and didn't give up a single sack.

"That is phenomenal," Ross said. "We did some things right, now we need to improve on the other things."

The coach commended senior Nate Wiedenmeyer for tallying two sacks and a tackle for a loss.

"He basically shut down his side of the line," Ross said.

Whitefish's points all came in the first quarter.

Roche hit Logan Harwood with a 28 yard pass for a touchdown to start the scoring. After a Havre fieldgoal, Roche hit Harwood again on a 67-yard strike. Chris Forrest capped the quarter when he brought in a 38-yard pass from Roche.

Whitefish 21 0 0 0 - 21

Havre 10 27 23 6 - 66

H - Logan Connor 42 pass from Justin Jensen (Danny Roe kick)

W - Logan Harwood 28 pass from Mac Roche (bad snap)

H - Roe 35 field goal

W - Harwood 67 pass from Roche (Gage Vasquez pass from Roche)

W - Chris Forrest 38 pass from Roche (Connor Ellis kick)

H - Jensen 3 run (Roe kick)

H - Connor 19 pass from Jensen (Roe kick)

H - Corderro Strickland 81 pass from Jensen (Roe kick)

H - Casey Schaub 46 run (kick blocked)

H - Roe 28 field goal

H - Connor 87 pass from Jensen (Roe kick)

H - Schaub 46 run (kick blocked)

H - Evan Flathers 26 fumble return (Roe Kick)

H - Jonathan Austin 21 run (kick failed)