Butte High’s football team excited its fan base with what they did right last Friday night.
The Bulldogs hit on several big plays and rolled to a 41-20 win over Great Falls Russell last Friday night at Alumni Coliseum.
The Bulldogs excited their coaches with what they did wrong.
Butte High coach Arie Grey said the Bulldogs were far from perfect in the season-opening victory.
“The best part about it was that we watched film and we’ve got a lot of things to improve,” Grey said. “There was a lot of little miscues to clean up.”
A week later, the Bulldogs look to build on the CMR win when they take on Billings Skyview on the artificial turf at Daylis Stadium in Billings.
Kickoff is at 4 p.m.
( Listen to the game on KBOW, 550 AM. Click here to listen online.)
The Falcons care coming off a 38-14 home loss to Kalispell Glacier.
Skyview, coached by Butte High graduate Ron Lebsock, runs the Wing-T offense.
“They’re a very dangerous, talented team,” Grey said. “They’re a typical Coach Lebsock team. We’ve got to be disciplined on defense.”
Butte High’s defense gave up 353 yards on the ground against the Rustlers. That’s a number, however, that isn’t particularly troubling to Grey.
“They defense really hung in there,” Grey said. “I don’t really care about yards. I care about red zone and turnovers. We had some big stops on fourth down. We had some big stops on third down.”
The Falcons ran 46 times for 162 yards last week. They passed the ball 19 teams, posting just 76 yards in the air.
Three Falcons got the bulk of the work. Alex Picicci ran 18 times for 64 yards, while Matt Fuhrman ran 13 times for 49 yards. Drake Schafer added 47 yards on nine carries.
“Skyview has a massive O-line and a massive D-line, a good quarterback and good skill kids,” Grey said.
The Bulldog defense is led up front by Daniel Kloepfel, Billy Robinson and Anthony Moritz.
Nathan Matteson, Bo Taylor, Jake Dennehy and Blake Kraus start at linebacker in front of a blazing secondary made up of Tanner Tregidga, Jarret Rowling, Zach Bunney and Andre Vialpando.
Offensively, the Bulldogs racked up 462 yards of offense against the Rustlers.
Sophomore Dallas Cook’s had a smashing debut as Butte High’s starting quarterback. Cook had a hand in four Butte High touchdowns — two rushing and two passing. He passed for 260 yards and ran for 104.
Grey said he was mildly disappointed the speedy receivers Kaeden Caprara and Dalton Daum only got three offensive touches each. However, the receivers made the most of those touches.
Daum caught three passes for 73 yards. The sophomore also returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown.
Caprara, a senior, caught three passes for 143 yards. He scored touchdowns of 40 and 71 yards.
Junior tight end Tyler Earls caught one pass to set up a TD. He also had a 95-yard TD called back by a touchdown.
Behind an offensive line of Moritz, Zach Erickson, Drew Schlleman, Dustin LaMiaux and Nick Butorovich, the Bulldogs put up 202 yards on the ground.
Jake Eisenbarth, Zach Bunney and Taylor shoulder the rushing load.
As good as the offense was, Grey expects it to get a lot better. The coach pointed out that the team fell short of its goal of running 60 offensive plays.
He said while the team has done its homework on Skyview, it is also focused on itself.
“I’m worried about us executing our game plan in all three phases,” Grey said. “If you can do that — and any coach in the world will tell you — you’re going to be successful.”
The Bulldogs return home next week to take on Missoula Hellgate on Siver B’s Night.
Butte High Bulldogs
Head coach
Arie Grey (5th season)
Offensive starters
QB — Dallas Cook, 6-4, 210, jr
RB — Zach Bunney, 5-7, 165, sr; Jake Eisenbarth, 5-7, 160, jr
WR — Dalton Daum, 6-1, 165, sr; Jon Allen, 5-11, 160, sr
Slot — Kaedon Caprara, 5-11, 145, sr
Z —Bryce Armstron, 5-10, 165, sr
LT — Zach Erickson, 6-0, 220, sr.
LG — Drew Schleeman, 6-3, 215, sr
C — Dustin LaMiaux, 6-0, 240, jr
RG — Anthony Moritz, 6-1, 280, sr
RT — Nick Butorovich, 6-4, 300, sr
TE — Tyler Earles, 6-3, 190, jr
Defensive starters
E — Daniel Kloepfel, 5-11, 200, sr; Billy Robinson, 6-0, 225, sr
NG — Moritz
OLB — Nathan Matteson, 5-10, 175, sr; Bo Taylor, 5-8, 150, sr
ILB — Jake Dennehy, 6-3, 195, sr; Blake Kraus, 5-8, 190, sr
S — Tanner Tregidga, 5-11, 170, sr; Jarret Rowling, 5-11, 150, sr
C — Bunney; Andre Vialpando, 6-0, 160, sr
