Osweiler, Braves drop Bozeman

Flathead defense makes last minute stop to preserve 35-27 win

The Daily Inter Lake

BOZEMAN - Brock Osweiler threw three touchdown passes and ran for another and the Flathead defense got a big stop at the end as the Braves defeated Bozeman 35-27 at Van Winkle Stadium Friday night.

Osweiler was 16-for-26 for 207 yards with scoring strikes to Bryant Eickert (14 yards), Bryce Stacy (24 yards) and Travis Andrus (14 yards).

On the defensive side, Flathead held the Hawks on a fourth-and-16 on the Brave 41-yard line with less than a minute to play in the game.

"That's a great win," said Flathead coach Russell McCarvel.

"The AA has a lot of close teams. There are a couple teams out in front, but there are a lot of teams in the mix. By winning that game, we're now one of those teams in the mix.

"Had we lost that game, we wouldn't have been," he said.

"We kind of let them have a couple cheap touchdowns. They got a couple of trick plays (a halfback pass and a double pass). Other than that, the defense played pretty well," he said.

"Got a big stop when it counted."

Offensively, in McCarvel's opinion, the Braves put together their best half of the season in the first half.

"Twenty-eight points on the board is a lot," he said.

McCarvel complimented the efforts of Flathead's offensive line - Tyler Thomas, Connor Thomas, Charlie Farrington, Jeremy Grosswiler and Paul Streich.

"Our offensive line did a good job. We ran the ball really well," he said.

Osweiler was Flathead's leading rusher with 28 carries for 136 yards. Stacy had 56 yards on 14 carries. He was Flathead's leading receiver with five catches for 85 yards.

Defensively, McCarvel gave compliments to the Brave defensive front and to middle linebacker Trevor Beaman.

"He did a good job stopping the run," the coach said.

Flathead 7 21 7 0 - 35

Bozeman 12 0 7 8 - 27

Scoring summary

First quarter

B - Cody Davies 1 run (kick failed)

F - Bryant Eickert 14 pass from Brock Osweiler (Mike Windham kick)

B - Brock Coyle 6 run (kick failed)

Second quarter

F - Bryce Stacy 5 run (Windham kick)

F - Travis Andrus 5 pass from Osweiler (Windham kick)

F - Osweiler 2 run (Windham kick)

Third quarter

F - Stacy 24 pass from Osweler (Windham kick)

B - Harrison DeHaan 27 pass from T.J. Leep (Tanner Roderick kick)

Fourth quarter

B - Limpus 47 pass from Roderick (Coyle rush)

Individual statistics

Passing: Flathead - Osweiler 16-26-207. Bozeman - Davies 17-35-263; Leep 1-1-27; Roderick 1-1-47

Rushing: Flathead - Osweiler 28-136; Stacy 14-56; Archer 1-3; Beaman 1-1. Bozeman - Coyle 12-80; Davies 1-1; Leep 6-36; Bartholomew 1-1.

Receiving: Flathead - Stacy 5-85; Andrus 3-20; Eickert 3-56; Bouley 2-14; Grosswiler 1-7; Stinger 1-15. Bozeman - Leep 7-96; Limpus 5-132; Miller 4-44; Richards 1-30; DeHaan 1-27; Roderick 1-8.