It's Tiger Time!

Mullan High School

Football

ST. REGIS, Mont. — The Two-Town Tigers opened their season with a bang as they romped all over Timberline 66-6 in St. Regis.

For the Mullan and St. Regis communities there were questions as to how this cooperative team would look once they hit the field, but many of those questions were answered the night of Aug. 24.

The Tigers limited the Spartans on offense, coming up with big stops to go along with eight takeaways, including an interception from senior Chandler Holling on the very first play of the game.

“This was a great start for us,” Mullan head coach Stetson Spooner said. “We looked pretty good on defense against a Timberline team that battled hard and has some freshman that will cause problems for other teams in a couple years.”

Spooner was playing coy in that regard as he also had a freshman steal the spotlight for his squad.

Luke Trogden, Mullan’s freshman quarterback, finished the game with two passing touchdowns and a mess of yards for the Tigers.

“Luke had a fantastic showing,” Spooner said. “Throwing two TDs and running the offense like a well oiled machine. He’s definitely ahead of where we thought he would be.”

Gaudy stats across the board were the story of the game especially for two Tigers, juniors Skye Gallaway and Ian Farris (St. Regis).

Gallaway only needed two quarters to nab a rushing touchdown, kick return touchdown, and a pick-six before Spooner sat his returning all-state player for the second half.

Farris was an absolute terror on the defensive side of the ball as he finished with five interceptions (including one for a score), but also four rushing touchdowns.

Spooner was very happy with his team’s performance, but also reminded his guys to be introspective and remember their roots, especially when looking at the Timberline program that is in the midst of mirroring Mullan’s recent struggles and praised them for their efforts and mental toughness .

“All on all a great start to the season,” Spooner said. “Both St. Regis and Mullan recently have been on the other side that Timberline is dealing with right now and for those young men to keep fighting the way they did was very inspirational and humbling, reminding our guys where we were just a year or two ago. It was truly a remarkable evening. The spark in the St. Regis stands is what both communities have been waiting for. We are not there yet, but we have started down that road.”

Mullan (1-0) is on the road this week as they take on the Deary Mustangs at 7 p.m.

Wallace High School

Football

Friday, Aug. 24

Wallace 62, Lakeside 24: In Plummer, the Wallace Miners got three touchdowns from junior Logan Hull as they outclassed their former North Star League adversaries the Lakeside Knights in their season opener.

Senior quarterback Erik Brackebusch began his final campaign as the Miners’ signal caller with five total touchdowns as he, Hull, and sophomore Carter Bailey put on an offensive air raid clinic against the shorthanded Knights.

Lakeside coach Chris Dohrman was impressed with the Miners trio after the game.

“Those three, they’re a tough combination to guard,” Dohrman said. “Especially in the passing game.”

Wallace coach Jared Young was pleased with how his offensive line allowed Brackebusch time to shine and believes his Miners will be ready for Whitepine League play.

"Offensively our o-line gave us great pockets to throw and really showed great improvement over last season. Lakeside gave us fits early with there nose tackle but we fixed the mistakes and I'm proud of our line," Young said. "We have two weeks to get ready for Clearwater valley and we will need to play more disciplined football against them, it should be a great season test for us."

Wallace (1-0) is on a bye this week.

Volleyball

Thursday, Aug. 23

Wallade d. Cd’A Charter, 3-2: It was probably a bit closer than they would have liked after coming out so strong, but the Wallace High School Volleyball team was able to start their season with a win Thursday night after defeating the Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy Panthers in a tight five-set game.

Trying to escape some bad habits from last year, the host Lady Miners (1-0, 0-0 league) hoped to close out the Panthers after they took the first set 25-19 and the second set 25-23. Unfortunately for Wallace and head coach Anali Spooner, Cd’A Charter would make them work for it by storming back with wins in the third and fourth sets (14-25 and 21-25, respectively).

A recurring negative for the Lady Miners last year was a lack of finish down the stretch — consistently coming out strong, but many times losing focus in the end.

“I think what happens is we do one bad pass or one bad set and we just get down,” Spooner explained. “Definitely a mental thing.”

Falling behind early in the shortened fifth set, Coach Spooner reminded her team what it was going to take if they wanted the win.

“Coming out winning our first two games felt really good,” She said. “but then to drop the third and the fourth and come down in the fifth game, especially when your down I was like ‘if you want it, you gotta prove it’ and they did.”

Thanks to some superb all-around play from seniors Hayley Oertli, Catie Sheppard and Maggie Howard; Wallace rallied to put their bad habits to bed and take the win 15-13.

Referred to by Spooner as the team’s “big three,” Oertli, Sheppard and Howard not only played well in the tie-braking match, but also throughout the rest of the game.

Oertli ended the night with three kills, one ace, and a team high seven assists.

“Hayley, especially our center, really stepped up. She played awesome,” Spooner said.

Both Sheppard and Howard powered the Wallace offense with a combined nine kills and one assists (Howard- four kills, one assist. Shepard- five kills).

The girls’ Thursday night victory over 3A Cd’A Charter was not only their home opener, but it was also their first regular season game.

Overall, Spooner was pleased with her team’s effort and determination to not let down after Cd’A had tied it up.

“Tonight it was a little off,” she said. “We have been serving a lot this week to prepare for tonight so we’ll be working on that at practice again.”

Kellogg High School

Football

Friday, Aug. 24

St. Maries 47, Kellogg 14: Deja vu is a thing right?

Almost one year to the day, the Lumberjacks trounced the Wildcats 36-14 in last season’s opener, this one by a bigger margin, but still it appears that the Wildcats can’t figure out St. Maries.

It was 25-0 at halftime and 39-6 at the end of the third quarter as the Wildcats struggled to gain any ground against one of the 2A division’s most consistent programs.

Senior quarterback Raiden Rickets finished with a 132 passing yards, 42 rushing yards, and one rushing touchdown for Kellogg, while junior Brandon Miller racked up 105 total receiving yards for the Wildcats.

Kellogg will host Lakeland tonight (Wednesday) in a rare mid-week high school football game at Teeters Field at 7 p.m.