MISSOULA – We’re already one week into the high school football season, and the Missoula Big Sky Eagles would like a do-over. Billings West jumped out to a 35-0 halftime lead before the Eagles knew what hit them in the opener.
Big Sky put up an 8-2 record a year ago and feels it has the talent to compete at the top of Class AA again. The painful first loss taught the Eagles some lessons, but they did play even with the talented Golden Bears in the second half. Big Sky now works to bounce back with a huge game coming up this Friday.
“Once we started going and our kids started to execute what we were doing, we felt like that was good stuff,” said head coach Matt Johnson. “So we found some good things. We found a lot of things we need to fix, and that’s why we’re going to practice hard this week.”
“We’ve got a lot of guys playing both ways,” added fullback and linebacker Zane Holland. “Some younger guys getting some great opportunities, and some injuries we’ve had to move forward from. We’re all pretty coachable. We’re all willing to go wherever for the team.”
Big Sky will be plenty motivated to have a better performance on Friday at 7 p.m. The first crosstown clash of the season kicks off in Missoula when the Eagles meet Sentinel.
The two teams met twice a year ago, with Big Sky winning a thrilling regular-season matchup in the final moments and Sentinel getting revenge with a 20-point win in the first round of the playoffs.
