The scoreboard still showed off Drummond's 54-0 win over Park City in the Class C football championship game Saturday.
Jim Oberweiser sighed.
His six senior starters - linemen Alex Verlanic, Cody Baker and Eric McGregor; quarterback Cody Alt; safety Clay Cantrell, and tailback Chase Reynolds - aren't quite ready for Pomp and Circumstance.
While they posed with the other 34 blue-clad players for team photos after the game, a fan called, "Drummond Trojans, you've just won your third state championship. What are you going to do?"
After a few moments of silence, someone ventured, "Play basketball."
Drummond qualified for the state hoops tournament last winter for the first time in 16 years, and won a game there.
Then there's that state track championship they'll get busy defending come April.
Alt came up big for the Trojans on Saturday, scoring five touchdowns on runs ranging from 7 to 56 yards.
Four of his TD runs came on option sprints around end that caught Panthers defenders off guard.
"Just miscommunication," said Park City senior Nathan Michael, who played outside linebacker in the Panthers' rare 4-4 defense.
On Alt's 56-yard run in the first quarter, off a play the Trojans call 23 Veer, Reynolds was the dive man up the middle. Alt pulled the ball back, then headed around left end with no defender in sight, only fullback Tyrel Cochrell trailing for a pitch that never had to be made.
"I had three people hit me all at the same time," said Reynolds. "I stood up and saw them both running down the sideline all by themselves."
"I think we're pretty much known as an option team with our quickness and speed, and we just ran it to perfection today," said Alt, who'll be the Trojans' point guard in basketball.
"We were able to use our quickness, I think," Oberweiser said. "One of the things we talked to our offensive line before the game about was let's see if we can't get Tyrel and Chase and Cody 3 yards.
"These guys (the Panthers) are going to play us real tough up front, but let's fall back on all of our drill work and all of our fundamentals and see if we can't get a good push and then these kids definitely have the talent to break it."
Done, said the 265-pound Verlanic and 200-pounders Baker and McGregor, and blocking ends Cantrell and Petey Carillo. That front is the latest in a lineage that has dominated throughout the Trojans' 35-game winning streak.
Verlanic, the center, is the common thread throughout. Both Montana and Montana State have recruited Verlanic, who has plenty of ties to both Missoula and Bozeman.
His father, Pat, is a rancher who walked on with the Bobcats for a year in his college days. Cousin Jim Verlanic, from Anaconda, played backup center for MSU this year as a redshirt freshman. Jim's father, Ken, started on Sonny Holland's line when the Bobcats won the 1976 Division II national championship.
Another cousin, Jennifer Verlanic of Missoula, is married to Ciche Pitcher, a former All-American defensive end for the Grizzlies.
"Both the Grizzlies and the Bobcats have been very nice. I like both," said Verlanic. "It feels nice to be wanted."
Cantrell, who can match the fleet Reynolds stride for stride, competed in seven events at the Class C state track meet last May. He has attracted attention from Wyoming but says he's "leaning toward Carroll," the three-time defending NAIA national champion in Helena.
Carroll College and the Grizzlies figure most prominently in the picture for Reynolds, a sculpted 6-foot, 190-pounder who rushed for more yards in his four-year career (5,216) than anyone else in Montana prep history.
Reynolds said Carroll coach Mike Van Diest, who isn't under as many recruiting restrictions as NCAA schools, calls "quite a bit."
"He's a great guy to talk to," said Reynolds. "He says I could play running back for them. I like the coach and I like the team. What's going on right now with them (working on a fourth straight national championship) is about the same as what's going on with us."
Montana remains a tantalizing possibility for Reynolds, though he mentioned to a reporter on the sideline of the quarterfinals, "The Griz stopped talking to me a while ago. I guess they don't think I'm good enough."
He says now he misunderstood where Bobby Hauck and his coaches were coming from. They're allowed phone contact just once a week with recruits.
"They didn't call me that week," Reynolds said. "I guess I took it as not interested."
He's talked to the Grizzlies since and found out otherwise.
"They're interested," he said. "I just don't know for what (position), and how interested they are."
He added, "If I played for the Grizzlies, I think I'd want to play defense. I don't know if I've got the ability to run the football at that level."
People who saw him run for 183 yards in the quarterfinals, 257 in the semifinals and 187 in the championship game might question Reynolds' doubts. He finished his prep football career with the three top rushing performances of his life.
"Reynolds is a man among boys," one opposing coach said this week. "Chase Reynolds can play at any level with any kid."
Drummond's systematic destruction of every opponent - good, mediocre or bad - the past three years is remarkable. The Trojans' win Saturday was their 12th straight of 50 points or more and marked their 23rd shutout in 35 games. They've outscored their last 35 foes 1,887 to 83, an average of 53.9 to 2.4.
They had just two touchdowns of consequence scored against them in the last 140 quarters. Sheridan tallied one in the first half of the final regular-season game in 2003, and Stanford had another in the 2004 state title game. Otherwise, the Trojans have been so far ahead that a six-pointer here and there hasn't mattered.
"Imagine how many points they could score if they played their varsity kids against the other teams' varsity for a full game without a running clock," Sheridan coach Ed Burke said. "You wonder how many times they could put up 100."
Oberweiser would never do that, of course. He has too much class, and besides, this era of blowouts has to end sometime.
That's been a topic of discussion lately. Just two Trojan starters weren't seniors this year - Cochrell, a junior who's been a contributor since he was a freshman, and Carillo, an end and linebacker who came into his own this fall. Both ran on Drummond's state championship 400-meter relay team.
Junior Brandon O'Dell appears to be the next 5-10 quarterback in line. James Hane, whose older brother Tyler played on the first two championship teams, is a promising 6-foot, 200-pounder who could start both ways. So many others were tested nightly in practice by perhaps the best starting eight in Class C history.
"Next year's Drummond team won't be able to dominate like these past three, but they could very well be right in the thick of things," said Burke. "Twin Bridges is a team to be reckoned with, but at this time I'd still have to pick Drummond to be the favorite to win our conference next year. They just won't be beating people 50-0 with the running clock in the third quarter."
"It'd be nice if they at least became a little more human," said Alberton coach Art Walsh. "But I don't know. They're still looking pretty strong. I think Tyrel Cochrell is kind of the unheralded hero. They've still got some pretty fast kids. I think we've got at least one more year of battling hard. I don't see them dropping off hugely."
"I try to keep the blinders on and focus on one game at a time and not worry about those records or the number of wins, or streaks, or anything like that," Oberweiser said. "But yeah, it's unbelievable. It's hard to fathom what's happened to us, with us, for us. What a special group of kids."
"I definitely wouldn't want to be in any other class," Reynolds said. "These guys are awesome. I've loved growing up with them. We all went to kindergarten together. We went through everything together."
He took a deep breath before he too walked off the field for the last time Saturday.
"This is perfect," said Reynolds. "There isn't any other way I'd want it."
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)