GREAT FALLS — This past Friday night in Missoula at Washington-Grizzly Stadium, a high school football game was played, and the visiting Great Falls Bison breezed by Missoula Hellgate 53-14.
A win like that has the team feeling confident in itself going in to Week 3.
"We were just all locked in," senior Tyber Hagen said at Tuesday's practice. "We had a tough Week 1 and we all just wanted to put a statement out there like we are one of the top teams, and we can play."
"It was a great team effort," senior Jace Kirkhart said. "We just came out and executed and did our job."
The team dropped a Week 1 game to No. 1 Kalispell Glaicer at home 28-3, and at the start of last week, the Bison planned to put their best foot forward.
"We all came together and just decided, you know we can't have this 'L' ... give us our full attention," Hagen said. "We just need to come back stronger next week, and we did."
"We feel great," Kirkhart said. "The one loss we wish we could've had back, but it's all good."
Head coach Coda Tchida was impressed by how his team bounced back.
"I thought in practice we really spent time dialing in on what we wanted to do, and making it a very big point in our game plan," Tchida said. "We executed it really well on Friday night."
"We were just so dialed in after a loss."
Great Falls now sits at 1-1 and returns home this week for its first conference matchup against Belgrade (1-1).
"Hoping to accomplish a great win, team win just like last week," Kirkhart said. "Just execute everything, do our job, focus on our assignment."
"Everyone's super excited," Hagen said. "It's a home game, and everyone's hungry for a win. So, I think we're extremely eager to get this one."
"We're excited to host the Panthers, and we're excited to have a great game on Friday night in front of a big crowd," Tchida said.
Belgrade at Great Falls has a kick off time of 7 p.m. Friday night at Great Falls Memorial Stadium.
