Broncs rein in Bulldogs on offense

The Bulldogs had a tough go on the gridiron Friday, falling to Frenchtown 35-3.

Head coach Chad Ross said for the most part, the Bulldogs beat themselves.

Five turnovers on Whitefish’s end, along with penalties and mental lapses, kept the game out of reach.

“You look at the whole game — they had three scoring drives of under 20 yards. You give them that short of a field and turn the ball over that many times, it’s tough to be in a game,” Ross said. “We did some good things, we maintained some long drives, we just need to finish.”

“The score doesn’t always reflect it, but we’re actually getting a lot better,” he added.

Once those mistakes are taken care of, Ross said, the team will start finding its stride.

Right now, though, he knows what needs work heading into Friday’s game against Butte Central.

“The mental aspect, that’s probably the number one thing we need to work on,” he said. “Just not making those mental mistakes — jumping offsides, not knowing the right coverage. Then I have to do a better job on the punt team, we had two blocked punts and one returned for a touchdown. That’s on me.”

Whitefish (0-2) travels to Butte to face off against Butte Central this week at the University of Montana Tech field at 7 p.m.

Butte Central (1-0) took down Ronan 39-7 last week in their season opener.

Ross said Butte favors a spread-style offense that the Dogs’ last two opponents have, but as far as depth goes, Whitefish matches well.

“They have a new junior quarterback that’s never played before, they’re bigger up front on the offensive line. But their numbers are comparable, their rosters aren’t as deep as some of the others,” he said. “But if we beat ourselves there’s no way. We can’t expect to come out with a win if we make the same mistakes.”