Dillon ‘Carves' out win over Whitefish

By Bruce Sayler - 11/02/2008

Photo courtesy of Megan Conrow Dillon receiver travis rehm comes down with a first down pass reception on a fourth-and-13 play Saturday at Vigilante Field in Dillon.

DILLON — Bryce Carver ran for 127 yards, passed for 187 and directed the Dillon offense to 18 first downs and four touchdowns.

That was the first half.

The senior quarterback was at the controls of a good Dillon club that beat Whitefish 48-28 Saturday at Vigilante Field during a first-round game in the Montana Class A high school

football playoffs.

Third-ranked Dillon (7-2) moves on to play

at fifth-ranked Havre (7-2) in next Saturday's quarterfinals. Havre had a bye in the first round as the top seed in the Central A Conference.

By the time the win over unranked Whitefish was finished, Carver, working behind a

crisp-blocking line, had passed for 297 yards while completing 23 of his 32 throws, including TD aerials of 55 yards to Travis Rehm, 4 yards to Garrett Banning and 20 to Toby Shepherd.

Carver also ran for 167 yards on 24 keepers, including TD carries of 2, 2 and 3 yards. He added field goals of 24 and 28 yards.

Also the punter, Carver once kept for a fake punt in his own territory in the first half for a 20-yard gain and first down to help ignite a

24-0 Dillon second quarter after Whitefish led 14-7 at the end of the first period.

"That's happened twice," Carver said about a Bulldogs alignment that left a soft spot behind the middle on the punt return set. "They have kind of a funny (different) rush and I saw a

running lane and went for it."

Carver was inside his own 20 when he made the decision. But making the first down kept him out of trouble with head coach Terry Thomas, the quarterback said.

It was the first of four fourth-down situations Carver converted for first downs.

Whitefish got two touchdown throws from sophomore quarterback Mac Roche — 6 yards to Alex Elespuru, 47 to Aaron Tkachyk. The Bulldogs, finishing a 4-6 season, scored their other TDs on a 2-yard carry by Daniel Simmons and on a 3-yard plunge by Tanner Benedict, the latter coming with only 43 seconds left in the game and after the Beavers had built the lead to 48-21.

Shepherd finished with nine catches for 127 yards. Simmons led Whitefish's ground game with 117 yards on 18 carries. Tkachyk was the Bulldogs' top receiver with two grabs for 76 yards.

It took a couple of series before defenses got stops. That Dillon did propelled the Beavers on to the win.

Whitefish took the opening kickoff and marched 79 yards in 12 plays, mostly on the running of Simmons and Derek Crittendon. The 6-yard flip to Elespuru from Roche and Elespuru's ensuing extra point put the Bulldogs ahead 7-0.

Dillon responded with a nine-play, 61-yard drive. Carver passed twice and kept five times for gains, including the last play, a 2-yard sneak. He kicked the extra point and the score was level at 7.

Again, Whitefish rolled down the field with an 11-play, 69-yard drive. Dillon looked to have stopped it on a fourth-down Roche pass that fell incomplete. But defensive holding was called and the Bulldogs had a fresh set of downs at the Beavers' 2-yard line. A pass interference ruling on Dillon inched the ball up to the 2 a couple plays later and Simmons busted into the end zone for Whitefish's go-ahead touchdown.

The Bulldogs took a 14-7 lead into the second period. But it disappeared fast.

Carver clicked off 52 yards on a keeper on the quarter's first play before being caught at the Whitefish 2-yard line. The Dillon QB scored on the next play, a sneak, kicked the extra point and it was a 14-all game.

Dillon then accomplished the game's first three-and-out on Whitefish and took over on its own 6-yard line after a 51-yard punt. Carver's fake-punt carry pumped life into the possession and his 24-yard field goal put the Beavers ahead for good, 17-14, with 5 minutes, 8 seconds left in the half.

The Beavers scored 24 unanswered points in the period for a 31-14 halftime command. The performance include a 94-yard drive just before halftime that started with 2 minutes left before intermission. Dillon had one timeout to use, but didn't. Carver passed to Tanner Strozzi, Shepherd, Banning and Shepherd for gains and stopped the clock with the sideline routes and three spikes. Three seconds were left in the half when Carver found Banning for their 3-yard TD pass.

"We work on that drill a lot in practice and because we use the no-huddle anyway, it's something we're used to," Carver said.

"(The Bulldogs) were able to put drives together, get in the end zone and we were fortunate to score," Thomas said of the game early-going. "Once we got a stop, the momentum went our way and our offense made some plays.

"The two-minute drill is all execution. Bryce did a great job of knowing what to do and where to do it."

Thomas said stopping the Bulldogs' running game, which was strong in the first quarter, keyed the momentum shift. He credited defensive coordinator Rick Nordahl with moving some personnel around to develop better gaps for the linebackers to make tackles.

"He changed some shading," Thomas said.

The only turnovers fell in Dillon's favor. Rehm, who came up with an acrobatic fourth-and-16 catch at the Whitefish 1-yard line in the second half to set up a touchdown, intercepted a Roche pass in the end zone while playing cornerback. It was a diving grab. Josh McRae recovered a fourth-quarter Whitefish fumble to halt a Bulldogs drive and launch one for the Beavers.

"Rehm is a heck of an athlete and you like to see that when you're a quarterback," Carver said, referring to Rehm's catch against two defenders near the goal line. "My first read was covered on that and Rehm had told me he thought that he would be open. I saw him and threw it up there."

Whitefish 14 0 7 7 — 28

Dillon 7 24 8 9 — 48

First Quarter

Whi — Alex Elespuru 6 pass from Mac Roche (Elespuru kick), 7:21. Drive — 79 yards in 12 plays. Key play — Daniel Simons 3-yard run to Dillon 6-yard line on 4th-and-inch.

DIL — Bryce Carver 2 run (Carver kick), 4:04. Drive — 61 yards in 9 plays. Key play — Carver 16-yard scramble to Whitefish 45-yard line.

WHI — Daniel Simmons 2 run (Elespuru kick), :16. Drive 69 yards in 11 plays. Key play — Holding penalty on Dillon on 4th-and-goal put ball on Dillon 4-yard line for Whitefish with a first down.

Second Quarter

DIL — Carver 2 run (Carver kick), 11:27. Drive 73 yards in 4 plays. Key play – Carver 52-yard run to Whitefish 2-yard line.

DIL — FG Carver 24, 5:06. Drive 83 yards in 14 plays. Key play — Carver 20-yard run to own 37-yard line on 4th-and-7 fake punt play.

DIL — Travis Rehm 55 pass from Carver (Carver kick), 3:01. Drive 66 yards in 3 plays. Key play — Scoring play.

DIL — Garrett Banning 4 pass from Carver (Carver kick), :03. Drive 94 yards in 13 plays. Key play — Toby Shepherd 20-yard pass from Carver to Whitefish 4-yard line.

Third Quarter

WHI — Aaron Tkachyk 47 pass from Roche (Elespuru kick), 10:18. Drive 47 yards in 2 plays. Key play — Scoring play.

DIL — Toby Shepherd 20 pass from Carver (Carver run), 6:56. Drive — 65 yards in 9 plays. Key play — Scoring play, on 4th-and-9.

Fourth Quarter

DIL — Carver 3 run (run failed), 10:55. Drive 80 yards in 15 plays. Key play — Travis Rehm 32-yard pass from Carver to Whitefish 1-yard line on 4th-and-13.

DIL — FG Carver 28, 4:20. Drive — 52 yards in 8 plays. Key play — Dillon's Josh McRae recovered Whitefish fumble at Dillon 48-yard line.

WHI — Tanner Benedict 3 run (Elespuru kick), :43. Drive — 71 yards in 12 plays. Key play — Sam Wiley 13-yard pass from Roche to Dillon 9-yard line.

Whi Dil

First downs 18 30

Rushes-yards 37-201 39-265

Passes 10-21-1 23-35-0

Passing yards 146 297

Return yards 0 23

Punts-avg. 3-48.0 1-30.0

Fumbles-lost 1-1 0-0

Penalties-yards 0-0 3-11

Individual Statistics

RUSHING — Whitefish, Daniel Simmons 18-117, Derek Crittendon 10-39, Tanner Benedict 7-37, Mac Roche 2-8. Dillon, Bryce Carver 24-167, Evan Helle 5-54, Sam Parke 11-45, Team 1-(-1).

PASSING — Whitefish, Roche 10-20-1-146, Team 0-1-0-0. Dillon, Carver 23-32-0-297, Team 0-3-0-0.

RECEIVING — Whitefish, Aaron Tkachyk 2-76, David FauntLeRoy 2-21, Alex Elespuru 2-17, Matt Whitehead 2-16, Sam Wiley 1-13, Dalton Rice 1-3. Dillon, Toby Shepherd 9-127, Travis Rehm 3-96, Tanner Strozzi 4-35, Garrett Banning 4-26, Kyle deGolia 1-10, Parke 2-3.