Great Falls upends Flathead in overtime

The Daily Inter Lake

GREAT FALLS - Fans at the Flathead Braves-Great Falls Bison Class AA football game got a little extra adrenaline for their money on Saturday.

The Braves (4-3) rallied from a 14 point deficit in the second half to force overtime at Great Falls' Memorial Stadium.

Great Falls (5-2) went first in overtime and scored on a Jeremy Strong six-yard run.

The Braves advanced the ball to the five-yard line in their portion of the overtime, but stalled at that point. Brock Osweiler's fourth-down pass fell incomplete, ending Flathead's hope to force a second overtime, and the Braves fell 28-21.

"They made some plays. We came up a couple plays short," said Flathead coach Russell McCarvel.

"But I want to say how proud I am of my team and how proud I am of the Flathead Braves. It was a tremendous effort in the second half," he said.

"We really came out and scratched and clawed and did everything we could," he said.

"We shut them out in the second half, got two scores, got it tied up. It was a great effort. It was a great high school football game. Our kids have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of," McCarvel said.

"I couldn't be prouder of their effort."

The Braves started the game on a tremendous note - Sam Tedrow returned the opening kickoff 96 yards to put Flathead on top.

But Great Falls came right back with three first-half touchdowns - and the Braves couldn't get into the end zone.

But the Braves didn't give up. They fought back with two fourth quarter touchdowns - both one-yard dives by Osweiler - and were within one point at 21-20 with 2:55 left in the game.

The Braves lined up for a two-point conversion try, but were flagged for offside and instead had to kick the extra point.

"Maybe we wouldn't have gotten it, but I felt like we had a lot of momentum at that point. We had a play lined up that we had worked on. We just didn't get a chance to run it," the coach said.

Still, the Braves held Great Falls out of the end zone and had one last chance in regulation, but couldn't get anything going.

There was an added cost in the loss. Senior Josh Harris hurt his knee in the fourth quarter. The Braves won't know the extent of the injury until next week.

"But the guys who came in really stepped up and we still ended up shutting them out in the fourth quarter," the coach said.

Flathead finished the night with 310 total yards - 290 through the air. Osweiler was 22-for-37 with two interceptions on the night. His leading receiver was Mike Gallagher with eight catches for 130 yards.

Flathead 7 0 0 14 0 - 21

Great Falls High 7 14 0 0 7 - 28

First Quarter

Flathead - Sam Tedrow 96 kickoff return (C.J. Manning kick), 11:46

Great Falls High - Aaron Booth 38 pass from Andrew Hafliger (Reid Tramelli kick), 4:16

Second Quarter

Great Falls High - Jeremy Strong 5 run (Tramelli kick), 10:10

Great Falls High - Logan Hodke 49 pass from Hafliger (Tramelli kick), 5:40

Fourth Quarter

Flathead - Brock Osweiler 1 run (Manning kick), 11:58

Flathead - Osweiler 1 run (Manning kick), 2:55

Montana Playoff

Great Falls High - Strong 6 run (Tramelli kick)

F GFH

First downs 18 19

Rushes-yards 26-20 40-221

Passing 290 141

Total yards 310 362

Comp-Att-Int 22-37-2 9-21-1

Punt returns 3-21 2-20

Kickoff returns 4-158 4-128

Punts-Avg. 4-30.2 3-35

Fumbles-Lost 1-1 1-1

Penalties-Yards 10-87 10-91

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

RUSHING-Flathead, Bryce Stacy11-16, Brock Osweiler 15-4. Great Falls High, Jeremy Strong 37-211, Andrew Hafliger 4-16, Aaron Booth 1-(-6).

PASSING-Flathead, Brock Osweiler 22-37-2-290. Great Falls High, Andrew Hafliger 9-21-1-141.

RECEIVING-Flathead, Mike Gallagher 8-130, Travis Andrus 6-69, Sam Tedrow 3-58, Bryce Stacy 3-12, Kyle Van Eimeren 2-8. Great Falls High, Aaron Booth 3-56, Tanner Schmid 2-17, Logan Hodke 1-49, Brennan Freeman 1-8, Ty Vinson 1-6, Mike Zook 1-5.

Standings

League

Overall

W - L

Billings West 6 - 1

Billings Senior 6 - 1

CMR 6 - 1

Helena Capital 6 - 1

Helena High 5- 2

Great Falls High 5 - 2

Flathead 4 - 3

Big Sky 3 - 4

Billings Skyview 3 - 4

Bozeman 2 - 5

Butte 2 - 5

Hellgate 1 - 6

Glacier 0 - 7

Sentinel 0 - 7

Saturday's Games

Helena High 55, Glacier 7

Billings Skyview 14, Butte 2

Great Falls High 28, Flathead 21, OT