Helena Capital 43, Butte 3
BUTTE-- Helena Capital's defense forced turnovers on Butte's first two drives and Joey Michelotti hit Eric Cockhill for a 17-yard touchdown in the first quarter to spark the Bruins to a 43-3 blowout win over the Bulldogs and halt Butte's win streak at four games. Both Capital and Butte now sit at 4-2.
Tyler Kovick and Dylan Graham scored on touchdown runs of 10 and 13 yards respectively to put Capital up 21-3 before the half and Tom Carter returned the second-half kickoff for a touchdown to put the Bruins up 29-3.
Capital travels to Missoula Hellgate next week while Butte hosts Kalispell Glacier.
Helena High 48, Kalispell Glacier 24
HELENA -- In a match-up pitting two of the Western AA's pre-season favorites, the Helena High Bengals dashed the Kalispell Glacier Wolfpack, 48-24.
The Bengals and the Wolfpack traded touchdowns in the first two possessions of the game on a 65-yard rushing effort by Helena's quarterback Kaden Huot and a passing touchdown from Glacier's Gage Sliter to Jake Turner to bring it to 7-7 early. From there the Bengals scored 21 unanswered through the air when Huot found Chase McGurran for about a 20-yard touchdown and Kade Schlepp twice to make it 28-7 late in the first half.
Needing a spark, the Wolfpack got it on a pass from Sliter to Turner to bring the first-half score to 28-14.
The Bengals were able to extend their lead on a fumble recovery by Forrest Suero that led to a rushing touchdown by Huot and a Chase McGurran kick return for a touchdown to highlight a stellar second half and lead the Bengals to victory.
Billings West 63, Billings Skyview 0
BILLINGS-- Billings West is on a mission in the Eastern AA.
The Golden Bears defeated Billings Skyview 63-0 on Friday night to improve to 5-1 and 4-0 in conference play, where they’ve only allowed three total points.
After Skyview left West a short field off a shanked punt early in the first quarter, the Bears took advantage. Michael DeLeon plunged in from a yard out to give West a 7-0 lead, and the Bears were just getting going.
A touchdown catch by Montana State commit Taco Dowler and another short DeLeon touchdown run quickly put West up 21-0. An impressive 44-yard catch and run by Caden Dowler gave West a 28-0 lead before Dowler added another touchdown catch.
Navy commit Riley Bergeson had an interception that set up Caden Dowler’s touchdown, then came through with a score of his own to cap the first half. After a delay of game by the field goal unit pushed West out of range, the Bears opted to go for it. Isaiah Claunch found a diving Bergeson in the end zone for a 28-yard score to push West’s lead to 42-0.
West will play Billings Senior next week, while Billings Skyview (1-5, 0-4) will visit Great Falls High.
Great Falls CMR 36, Bozeman Gallatin 20
GREAT FALLS-- The upstart No. 5 Great Falls CMR football team climbed into the Montanasports.com power rankings with a big win last week, but Friday's match-up with Bozeman Gallatin was no cake walk. By halftime, a pair of touchdown tosses from Braedon Mikkelson put the Raptors up 14-12.
In the third quarter though, the Rustlers came alive as Raef Newbrough punched one in on the goal line as well as threw a touchdown to go up 26-14 at the end of the third. CMR cruised through the fourth to improve to 5-1. Gallatin falls to 2-4.
Great Falls High 25, Belgrade 13
BELGRADE-- After starting the season 0-4, the Great Falls High Bison have consecutive wins after beating Belgrade 25-13 on Friday.
The Bison got cooking on the first drive. They wasted no time as just over a minute into the game quarterback Reed Harris aired it out to his receiver Garrett Stone who hauled it in for a 25-yard touchdown, making it 8-0 Great Falls after the two point conversion.
Panther linebacker Asher Feddes intercepted Harris later, and Belgrade would make the most of the turnover. Quarterback Diego Casas rushed for a 12-yard touchdown to trim the Bison lead to 8-6. With a little under a minute remaining in the first half, Harris found Stone again for a 6-yard touchdown pass over the middle to make it 15-6 Bison.
The Panthers would have a chance to score before the end of the first half as Casas threw up a prayer, but it was picked off by Devron Brewer. Great Falls High controlled the second half and hung on to win 25-13. Great Falls improves to 4-2, while Belgrade falls to 0-6.
Missoula Big Sky 42, Missoula Hellgate 35
MISSOULA -- Late scoring helped propel the Missoula Big Sky Eagles to a crosstown win over Missoula Hellgate, 42-35, on Friday night at MCPS Stadium.
Big Sky quarterback Caleb Hren completed 14 of 24 passes for 166 yards and three touchdowns while Cole Sandberg ran the ball 35 times for 98 yards and two more scores for the Eagles.
Big Sky started the scoring on its first play from scrimmage after a punt return put the Eagles on Hellgate's one-yard line, where Sandberg punched it in to make it 7-0 Big Sky.
Hellgate quickly responded with back-to-back strikes between quarterback Connor Dick and Ian Finch, as the duo connected for a pair of scores that went 27 and 75 yards to give the Knights the lead.
Hren then found Tre Reed later in the second quarter to tie the game again, but a touchdown from Jacob Sweatland made it 21-14 Knights leading again.
Hren connected with Isaac Ayers on the final play of the first half and the Eagles converted the 2-point conversion to head into the break up 22-21 and they never trailed again. Kolbe Jensen scored on a 20-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter, then Sandberg punched in his second score to make it 35-21 Big Sky with 7:45 left in the game.
But Hellgate didn't go away, as Dick and Finch connected on a 14-yard score to bring the Knights within one possession again. But Big Sky again milked the clock, before Hren found Isaac Widder for a 33-yard touchdown to effectively seal the game.
The Knights again responded as Dick found Finch for their fourth touchdown connection, this one from 35 yards out with 1:22 left. Big Sky recovered the onside kick and converted a third down with Hellgate out of timeouts to seal the crosstown win.
Dick completed 21 of his 36 passes for 375 yards and four touchdowns, all to Finch. Finch finished the game with 13 catches for 230 yards while Reed led Big Sky with eight receptions for 104 yards.
Big Sky improves to 2-4 with the win while Hellgate falls to 2-3.
Class AA Scores
Billings Senior 31, Bozeman High 28 (Thursday)
Missoula Sentinel 54, Kalispell Flathead 0
