No. 2 CMR defeats Flathead

Frustration is the recurring theme.

Here's how the evening went for the Flathead Braves on Friday at Legends Stadium.

They stuffed the No. 2 ranked Great Falls Russell Rustlers on CMR's opening drive, then drove 40 yards in 13 plays. They had a first down on the Rustler 13-yard-line.

Then the Braves threw an interception, which was returned 75 yards.

CMR scored two plays later.

Trailing 16-0 right before half, the Braves drove from their own 21 to the CMR one-yard line. Flathead had first-and-goal from the one. The Braves came away empty-handed a second time.

"We tried to go behind our best guys. We just didn't get in," Flathead coach Russell McCarvel said of that series.

In the end, the Rustlers came away with a 35-6 victory and the Braves were left to ponder the coulda, shouldas and wouldas.

"At times, we played some of our best football of the year. And at times, we made some of the same mistakes we've been making all year, which is frustrating," McCarvel said.

Stats-wise, the Braves were close to the Rustlers.

CMR had 16 first downs, Flathead had 17. The Rustlers had 383 total yards. Flathead wasn't too far off with 266. Passing yards were very close - 179 for CMR to 171 for Flathead.

But the CMR running game more than doubled Flathead's output with 204 yards to 95.

And the Braves struggled at key moments.

"We had some opportunities to make it even a better game than it was. It's very frustrating to have that many scoring opportunities and come away with only one touchdown," McCarvel said.

"At times, we play really well. At times, we're a pretty good football team. But for the second week in a row, we don't execute the punt team, we give up field position and throw an interception that was returned a long way."

The second half was all CMR - the Rustlers got the ball on the Flathead 19 when the Braves couldn't get the punt away. Two plays later, Rustler quarterback Jake Bleskin found Greg Osgood. Osgood planted one foot in the end zone for a 14-yard touchdown.

Just over five minutes later, Bleskin hooked up with tight end Kurtis Parsons for a 16-yard strike to put the Rustlers up 32-0.

All in all, Bleskin was 13-for-24 for 179 yards and two touchdowns.

Running back Gavin Hagfors also ran hard - 94 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries.

The Braves' lone score came early in the fourth quarter. Travis Ozegovich dove in from a yard out after an 84-yard, 16-play drive.

Ozegovich finished the night with 42 yards rushing. He also caught four passes for 17 yards. Quarterback Mike VanArendonk was 17-for-28 for 171 yards with one interception. George Sherwood had seven catches for 69 yards and Dominic Eickert had four catches for 65 yards.

"I look at it this way. We're very close to being a good team. We make lots of improvements. We've obviously made some improvements from week to week, which I'm happy about," McCarvel said.

"But we need to play better. There's no moral victories and we need to execute better. At times, there were a lot of good things, but we've got to play better," he added.

The Braves (1-7) play host next Friday to Missoula Hellgate in the final home game of the season.

"Hellgate has made a lot of improvements during the year. They've played a lot of close games. We have to eliminate those mistakes or we'll be just as frustrated next week," McCarvel said.

CMR 10 6 16 3 - 35

Flathead 0 0 0 6 - 6

First Quarter

CMR - Gavin Hagfors 11 run (Brian Spencer kick), 5:12.

CMR - Spencer 33 field goal, :48.

Second Quarter

CMR - Hagfors 1 run (Kick failed), 8:45.

Third Quarter

CMR - Greg Osgood 14 pass from Jake Bleskin (Jordan Harper pass from Bleskin), 8:48.

CMR - Kurtis Parsons 16 pass from Bleskin (Hagfors run), 3:38.

Fourth Quarter

F - Travis Ozegovich 1 run (pass failed), 10:37.

CMR - Spencer 30 field goal, 7:19.

CMR F

First downs 16 17

Total Net Yards 383 266

Rushes-yards 26-204 44-95

Passing 179 171

Punt Returns 1-10 2-10

Kickoff Returns 1-9 6-78

Interceptions Ret. 1-75 0-0

Comp-Att-Int 13-24-0 17-28-1

Punts 2-34.0 3-36.3

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 0-0

Penalties-Yards 12-108 5-45

Individual stats

RUSHING -CMR, Gavin Hagfors 14-94, J.J. Harrington 4-29, Zach McKinley 3-27, Jake Bleskin 3-32, Jade Klette 2-22. Flathead, Mike VanArendonk 22-59, George Sherwood 1-minus 14, Travis Ozegovich 16-42, Trevor Beaman 3-7, Zach Diest 1-0, Jon Collins 1-1.

PASSING - CMR, Jake Bleskin, 13-24-2-179. Flathead, Mike VanArendonk 17-28-0-171.

RECEIVING - CMR, Hagfors 2-37, Greg Oswood 3-54, Kurtis Parson 2-33, Jordan Harper 5-49, Payton Skawinski 1-6. Flathead, Sherwood 7-69, Ozegovich 4-17, Dominic Eickert 4-65, Braxton Nimmick 1-6, Gaige Mower 1-14.