PR Sports

POCATELLO — The scoreboard and the statistics told two very different stories in Saturday’s 2A state playoff game between North Fremont and Aberdeen at Holt Arena.

The North Fremont Huskies controlled the clock and dominated the stats, outgaining the Tigers 256-94.

The score was much closer. The Huskies, in the playoffs for the first time since 2003, got touchdown runs from Will Bollinger and Tayler Martindale to earn a 14-6 win.

The Huskies (7-1) will play Glenns Ferry in the second round of the playoffs next week. The date has not been announced.

“(The scoreboard is) all that matters,” North Fremont coach Rod Coverley said.

That was both good and bad news for North Fremont. The Huskies moved the ball at will between the 20s throughout the game, then stumbled in the red zone.

“What we thought we could do didn’t work (in the red zone),” Coverley said. “We didn’t have a Plan C.”

Plan A, handing the ball to Bollinger and letting him run behind the blocking of lineman Todd Hess, Tyler Hess, Jared Dalton, Tyrell Hymas and Mark Loosli worked just enough.

Bollinger finished with a hard-earned 154 yards on 32 carries. His longest run went for 19 and he was caught behind the line only twice. Martindale added 70 yards on 14 carries. The Huskies had five drives of more than 10 plays.

“Will’s a great runner, but gosh, it’s the guys up front,” Coverley said.

While the offense milked the clock and scored just enough (Bollinger had a 2-yard TD run in the first quarter and Martindale added a 5-yard TD run in the fourth), the defense overpowered the Tigers.

Aberdeen (4-5) finished with 2 yards rushing on 21 carries and completed five passes for 77 yards. The Tigers gained all but 11 of those yards to score its lone touchdown, a 66-yard pass from Cody O’Brien to Cavin Duffin in the fourth quarter.

Coverley said his coaching staff conferred with friends at the University of Utah for advice.

“(Aberdeen) runs the same offense as Air Force, so we asked them what they did,” he said. “Then we pretty much copycatted what they did, and it was sound against pretty much everything they tried to do. The kids didn’t have to think. They just had to line up and play fast.”

Loosli, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound senior, said it was a matter of winning the battle up front.

“We stopped their front line,” he said. “We stopped them up front so they couldn’t get any yards.”

Now the Huskies will try and recover from playing on Holt Arena’s artificial turf and try and figure out a way to reach the third round.

“I start a freshman (Tyler Hess), and he told me after the game that he’d never been so tired or sweat so much after a game,” Coverley said. “The kids were less excited – of course they were really tired – than they were at (league rivals) Butte (County) and Ririe. I don’t think it’s hit them yet that we’re going to another round.”

NORTH FREMONT 14, ABERDEEN 6

Aberdeen 0 0 0 6 – 6

North Fremont 6 0 0 8 – 14

First quarter

NF-Will Bollinger 2 run (kick failed)

Fourth quarter

NF-Tayler Martindale 5 run (Jevin Pocock pass to Randy Bean)

A-Cody O’Brien 66 pass to Cavin Duffin (run failed)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING-Aberdeen: Greg Bartholoma 6-6, Wade Wahlen 5-(-12), O’Brien 10-8. North Fremont: Bollinger 32-154, Martindale 14-70, Pocock 1-(-1), Brandon Moon 2-2.

PASSING-Aberdeen: O’Brien 5-7-0 92. North Fremont: Pocock 5-7-0 31.

RECEIVING-Aberdeen: Duffin 2-72, Wahlen 1-14, Jake Ponce 1-8, Stetson Palmer 1-(-2). North Fremont: Martindale 3-18, Bean 1-10, Zeb Dye 1-3.