Vikings end season in first place

Finishing the season in first place is great for any team, but it is especially sweet for the Vikings football team which tied Eureka and Plains for first place in District 7B with a 4-1 record.

It was the Vikings' 42-19 win over St. Ignatius on the team's senior night last Friday, Oct. 23, that sealed the deal for Bigfork, which is back in Class B for the first time since 1998.

"This was a good game in that everybody that was suited up played," said Todd Emslie, Bigfork High School head football coach.

Junior Travis Knoll scored for Bigfork during the team's first possession on a 66-yard run and senior Derek Minemyer kicked a successful extra-point.

By the end of the first quarter Knoll and Minemyer had repeated the scenario two more times, with Knoll scoring on short-yardage runs.

He put a fourth touchdown in during the second quarter on a 50-yard run and Minemyer got the extra point to bring Bigfork's lead to 28-0.

"Travis had a great game and so did the offensive line," Emslie said. "The defense played really well too. It was a good team win. I feel like every game we've gotten better this season in every position."

St. Ignatius finally got on the board in the final minutes of the second quarter with a touchdown and brought the score to 28-6 before the close of the first half.

Although the rain, which had poured down in the first half, had let up by the start of the third quarter, neither team was able to add points to their score. In the start of the fourth quarter, St. Ignatius put in a touchdown in but Bigfork answered with two more of their own.

Bigfork's quarterback Christian Ker connected with sophomore Conner Coleman on a 45-yard touchdown pass. The play was just one of two pass plays the Vikings had the entire game.

"Conditions were such that we passed the ball only twice," Emslie said. "Christian still led the team really well. He is the first quarterback from Bigfork to lead a team on to be district champs in a very long time."

With a little over two minutes left in the Vikings' season, Knoll added one last touchdown to make it 17 for the season.

This one was a 50-yard interception return.

The Bulldogs squeezed in one more touchdown in the last minute of the game, but it wasn't enough to shake the Vikings, who took a knee for their final possession and went on to celebrate their long-awaited winning season.

"What a great accomplishment to go 4-1 in conference and get to bring a trophy back to your school that will be there forever," Emslie said. "That has done so much to get the team looking forward to next year. Nothing against the seniors. They got us to where we are now."

The Vikings will lose four seniors to graduation: Brandon McDonald, Minemyer, Kenny Patrick and Alex Griner.

"I'm going to hate to see them go," Emslie said of the seniors. "To have Brandon and Kenny on the offensive line made us solid all year up front. Alex was new to the school this year and he was a great addition to our team. Derek was new to our team this year too. I'd love to have him for another year. He learned so much about football this year and grew a lot as a player."

Although Emslie will miss his seniors next year, the rest of this year's squad is a pretty even split of freshmen, sophomores and juniors, many of whom saw quite a bit of playing time toward the end of the season. For the youngest players, that was especially true in the final game.

"We had a handful of freshmen that played quite a bit on Friday," Emslie said. "So it's exciting to look to the future. There's some other kids in the school that I'd like to get out for football next year, too."

Even though the Vikings finished the regular season at the top of District 7B, they do not get to advance to the playoffs. Bigfork lost to Eureka but beat Plains. Eureka was defeated by Plains. However, the tie is broken based on the fact that Bigfork's loss was by more points than Plains' and Eureka's losses.

"It is disappointing, but the ruling came down from the president of the district Rick McElmurry, the football coach in Troy," Emslie said. "There's nothing we can do about it. It's out of our hands. We just have to look at it as, we ended the season with a win and we are going into the 2010 season as district champions."

Friday night's game was not only the final game for the Vikings and senior night, but it was also a special night for area middle school and Flathead Valley Little Guy football players all of which were invited to spend time with the team before the game and watch the game at no charge.

"We had a good turn out," Emslie said. "We had kids from Columbia Falls, Fair-Mont-Egan, Somers and Lakeside."

This was Emslie's first year back coaching at BHS after taking five years off to spend more time with his family.

Coaching a team that hadn't won a game the past three seasons to a district championship is no small feat for any coach, especially one that's been away from the program for so long. But, Emslie said the credit has to be shared with his assistant coaches.

"I can't thank Fred Sterhan, Jim Epperly, Jake Hill, Ed Buttery, Saia Misa and John Little enough," Emslie said. "There were a lot of guys in there working for the same goal. It is a coaching team. No coach can do anything alone. It was a great year and in an lot of ways it was like we never left. It was just like old times."