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Wolves battle down-to-the-wire in season opener against Missoula Loyola

Three Forks High School Football Head Coach Connor Sullivan is proud of how his team battled in a down-to-the-wire 21-14 loss to Missoula Loyola in a game played at Washington-Grizzly Stadium. In this week’s matchup on the road against Shepherd, Sullivan will be looking for the team to finish drives in the red zone.

The Wolves were the first to score in the season opener, with quarterback Shane Williams connecting with Tallyn McCauley for a touchdown to take a 6-0 lead with 4:39 left in the first quarter. Missoula Loyola would score the only second-quarter points to make it a 6-6 game going into the half.

Three Forks would take a 14-6 lead in the third quarter after a Williams touchdown run.

Sullivan felt Williams was very poised in his first start at quarterback and was pleased with his team’s performance on offense.

“The offense did a great job all night. We were moving the ball consistently, now we just have to finish those drives. We will go back and take a look at the tape and see where we went wrong for that not to happen,” Sullivan said.

Missoula Loyola would score the final 15 points of the game to take the one-possession victory.

Sullivan said first games are always learning curves, but he thought the team came out and executed on both sides of the ball pretty good.

“Now we have to correct our mistakes, finish drives in the red zone, and clean up some technical stuff going into week two. Overall, though, our boys competed, and it was a great football game to start the year,” said Sullivan. “I thought the defense flew around and played physical all game. It was fun to watch.”

Looking towards this week’s road matchup against the Mustangs, Sullivan said the team must come ready to go at practice.

“Shepherd runs the wishbone on offense, so we will have to shift our focus on defense to align properly. Offensively, we’re going to emphasize ‘finishing’ all week. Shepherd is a good ball club. This will be another great test for us,” Sullivan said.