The Box Elder Bears football team picked up win No. 8 on the season, beating up on Absarokee, (67-24) this past Saturday to open the 6-man playoffs. New Media Broadcasters asked head coach Thomas Dilworth about the balanced attack that the Bears carried out to earn the victory.
“(Quarterback) Tuarie (Stiffarm-Rosette) connected on his first 12 passes. We had 11 different kids catch a pass from Tuarie on Saturday,” Dilworth said. “That’s pretty phenomenal when you’ve got 16 kids playing and 11 of them are catching passes.”
“We ran the ball pretty well and our game plan was to try and shut down their running game and put them into a passing situation,” Dilworth continued. “We felt like we could take advantage of that. It just seemed to work out.”
Now that the first playoff game is out of the way, Dilworth and his squad can focus on the next matchup, which will feature the co-op power of Denton-Geyser-Stanford-Geraldine. Coach Dilworth has been planning on this being the way the playoffs would go and said he has been scouting the Bearcats for weeks now.
“They’re loaded,” Dilworth said. “We felt like this would be the matchup in the second round after we beat (then No. 1) Chester (Joplin-Inverness).”
“I’ve been to see (D-G-S-G) play three times this season,” Dilworth continued. “That (senior athlete Axel) Becker kid, he’s going to be a handful. Their quarterback (Tyce Smith), he’s a great runner.”
“They’ve just got some athletes and some speed,” Dilworth said. “I think if we can contain their speed and not let them get outside and contain that Becker kid when he releases for a pass, we’ll be alright.”
The (8-0) No. 1 seed out of the north in Box Elder hosts (9-1) two-seed central D-G-S-G on Saturday with kickoff scheduled for 1pm.
