The winless Flathead Braves will look to get their season on track against another struggling team when they take the field against Missoula Sentinel in Missoula today.

Flathead is off to an 0-4 start, while 1-3 Sentinel’s only win came against winless Missoula Hellgate.

Despite its rocky start, Flathead quarterback Matt Tokarz said his team isn’t focusing on wins and losses.

“When we come to practice, no one’s down,” he said. “We’re always joking around, picking each other up. No matter what, we try to keep high hopes because right now we can’t really lose anything. We’ve just got to go out there and give it our all.”

Flathead struggled to run the ball last week against Helena High’s top-ranked run defense, which held the Braves to 2.9 yards per carry, so re-establishing the running game is a priority against Sentinel. The Spartans are giving up 274 rushing yards per game, which ranks 13th out of 14 in Class AA.

“We’ve got to run over them,” said Tokarz, who leads the Braves with 311 rushing yards. “Last game we had a tough time getting a push off the ball.”

Flathead coach Russell McCarvel echoed Tokarz’s statement. “We want to establish the run,” he said. “That’s our game plan.”

Running back Austin Root got banged up against Helena, but McCarvel said he is ready to play against Sentinel. When Root and Tokarz are on, they give the Braves a potent rushing attack, as evidenced by their combined 261 yards against Great Falls on Sept. 8.

Defensively, Flathead will have to defend Sentinel’s pass-heavy spread offense. The Spartans average 210.8 yards through the air and quarterback Tres Cunningham is completing 60.9 percent of his pass attempts.

The only other pass-oriented team Flathead has seen this season is Missoula Big Sky, which racked up 366 yards in a 44-7 win over the Braves Sept. 1, but McCarvel said Sentinel is a different kind of team.

“They’re more of a spread you out team, whereas Big Sky is kind of a maul you team,” he said.

“Even though they throw it, they’re mauling you inside, whereas Sentinel is going to try to scheme you up and do some different things.”

Key to stopping Sentinel’s passing attack will be pressuring Cunningham, so Flathead defensive lineman Gage Marcum said rushing the passer has been a focal point in practice.

“We’ve been doing a lot of twists, stunts, and we’ve been working on rushing the passer,” he said.

“That’s one of the most important things this week. If their quarterback gets time to throw, he can just pick us apart.”

Cunningham’s top target in the passing game is Jake Messerly, who averages 82.3 receiving yards. Messerly was all-state honorable mention last season as a kick returner and showed off his speed at the AA state track meet where he finished fourth in the 100-meter dash. Tokarz, who also plays safety, said it will be important not to let Messerly get loose downfield.

“He’s just straight up fast,” Tokarz said.

“He was one of the fastest guys in AA in track last year. I look for him to run a lot of deep routes, try to get over us, and we just have to try to keep him contained.”

Messerly had seven catches for 86 yards against Flathead last year when the Braves defeated Sentinel 28-21.

“They’ll move him to receiver, running back, they really want to get the ball to him,” McCarvel said of Messerly. “We’re really going to have to identify where he is.”

Sentinel and Flathead rank 13th and 14th respectively in total defense. Sentinel is giving up 447 yards per game while Flathead has allowed an average of 453.2 yards.

Today’s game kicks off at 7 p.m. at Missoula County Stadium.