Football stumbles, fumbles to first loss of season at Baker, 23-6

After back-to-back big wins in its first two weeks, the Glasgow football team fell back to Earth on its road trip to Baker, falling to the Spartans 23-6.

The Scotties were hampered with mishaps early on in the game, going down 14-0 before ever gaining full control of the football.

Baker opened their first offensive drive with a touchdown, and on the ensuing kickoff, Glasgow fumbled the return, giving the Spartans a short field and another look at the end zone before the Scotties ever got an offensive possession.

“We started slow, we struggled,” head coach Dan Dale said. “We just made too many mistakes.”

Glasgow didn't take long to respond once gaining control of the ball, scoring a 59-yard touchdown on its first play on offense.

Baker tacked on another touchdown at the end of the quarter, putting the Scotties back in a 14-point hole.

The Scotties struggled to muster much offense against the Spartans, failing to score for the rest of the game. Baker scored once more on a safety in the fourth quarter.

“We just kept making too many mistakes,” Dale said. “Little things here and there just kept us from being able to establish anything. We moved the ball from 20 (yard-line) to 20 (yard-line), we just couldn't finish.”

For the first time this season the Scotties were dominated in the running game. The team rushed for only 96 yards while allowing 215 yards, though Baker spent much of the game trying to run down the clock by keeping the ball on the ground.

Though the defense did a good job of holding Baker in check after the first quarter, the Scotties' three turnovers proved too much to overcome in the game.

“It was disappointing because I feel like we were the better team, but Baker played better and they won the game,” Dale said.

The Scotties get some reprieve in playing at home on Friday after traveling nearly 20 hours over the past two weeks. Glasgow will take on Choteau at Scottie Field and will try to get the ball into the hands of their play makers, like running backs Zach Remus and Kirk Capdeville, more often, Dale said.

“I've got to do a better job of that since I call the plays,” Dale said. “There's going to be more of a focus on trying to get them the football. We're going to try to get back to running a little more. We've made a couple of adjustments we think that will help us to have more success.”

The run game should help set up the play action pass, which will take pressure off of quarterback Dylan Hughes and the passing game, which went only 11-25 at Baker.

“We have to make sure the other guys get involved so everything doesn't fall on (Hughes') shoulders,” Dale said. “It needs to be a shared load.”