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The Plains Horsemen have an official bye this week; the rest of the teams in this part of the world may have had unofficial byes by the time the weekend ends.

Originally scheduled to play at Ennis, coach Eddie Fultz and his Horsemen had that game cancelled before the season even began, but Fultz thinks it may not matter anyway.

“The way it looks right now, everybody could be sidelined this weekend,” he said in view of the heavy wildfire smoke blanketing western Montana. “We lost the game with Ennis due to all non-conference games being canceled before the season began.”

The Horsemen fell to 1-1 in 8-Man Western Conference action with a deceptive 50-0 loss to the Vikings in Charlo Friday.

Fultz said three miscues by the Horsemen played a large role in Charlo taking a 24-0 lead by halftime. He also said the game was close up until then.

First off, a Plains fumble at their own 24-yard line led to Charlo’s first touchdown a few plays later. Then a bad snap on a punt attempt gave the Vikings the ball at the Plains 2-yard line and Charlo scored their second touchdown shortly thereafter.

To end the first half, the Horsemen drove all the way down deep into Charlo territory before a Viking interception and runback – a pick-six – put Plains in a 24-0 hole by halftime.

A very young team made younger by the recent dismissals of a few experienced players due to breaking training, the Horsemen could not recover in the second half.

Besides giving up the easy scores, the Horsemen had four offensive drives fizzle inside Charlo’s red zone, or 20-yard line. The score looks a little bloated as a result.

“We really feel the game was closer than the score would indicate,” Fultz offered, “but mistakes like that can really turn a game around. I am not saying we would have won, but the score should have been much more respectable.”

Fultz said one bright spot in Charlo was the fact that the Horsemen were able to get their passing game going some. Team captain Tucker Foster, who has signed a letter of intent to play college football at Western Montana, and Gavin Regalado were on the receiving end of several passes from quarterback Tristan Subatch.

Foster finished the game with five pass receptions and Reglado six to lead the Horsemen offensive effort in Charlo.