Columbia Falls counting on ground game, run defense against Miles City
Columbia Falls has had two weeks to think this one over every which way. As head coach Bill Coleman puts it, "We're sick of practices. We're ready to play."
Today at 1 p.m. at Satterthwaite Memorial Field, the Wildcats (4-4) will put preparation into action in the quarterfinals of the Class A football playoffs against the Custer County Cowboys out of Miles City (9-1).
Columbia Falls, the top seed out of Northwestern A, is coming off a first-round bye last week and is hosting for the second year in a row. The second-seeded Wildcats defeated Hamilton 15-8 in the opening round of last year's playoffs. The team lost 49-13 the following week at Butte Central.
Miles City, which lost in the opening round last year and won the state title in 2008, survived an offensive shootout last week at home with Havre, winning 54-26. Both teams combined for almost 900 yards total offense, with 400 coming in the air. Columbia Falls' number-one focus this week, quarterback Shane Cooley, who passed for 197 yards and three TDs and rushed for 139 yards and one score.
"He's a tremendous quarterback and a really good athlete," Coleman said of Cooley. "We need to contain him."
Coleman said the emphasis for today is stopping Cooley and establishing the running game, which has been the Wildcats' bread-and-butter this season. Senior Nate Thompson has piled up 1,606 yards on the ground and 12 TDs.
"I think the playoffs in general revolve around your ability to run the ball and stop the run," Coleman said. "I think that we've done a good job of stopping the run and Nate has shown he can run the ball well. Those are the two things that make championship teams."
But, as Coleman points out, the team behind Thompson is able-bodied and just as likely to make plays. As the coach said, opposing teams have to "pick their poison" when playing this year's Wildcats.
The record has been set straight on this team's place in history. It was previously believed that the Wildcats, which went 3-1 in conference, claimed the first conference championship since 1972. In fact, it was the graduating class of '72 which did win the conference title, but it was in the fall of 1971. That year, the Wildcats played for the state championship and lost at home to Havre in what has been remembered as the "Fog Bowl" because of big fog that rolled in in the second half.
Two years later, in 1973, Columbia Falls won the conference championship again and lost at home in the first round to Cut Bank. In '75 and '76, the Wildcats went undefeated both seasons and claimed back-to-back conference titles but lost out both times. In '75, the defeat came against Livingston and in '76 it was against Glasgow.
Polson's season continued after a close call in the opening round in Frenchtown last Saturday. The Pirates (7-2) eliminated the defending state champs 27-21 in double overtime, claiming the program's first playoff victory since 2002.
Polson plays at Butte Central (8-1) today at 4 p.m.
Class A Football Playoffs
Quarterfinals
Today
1 p.m. - Custer County (Miles City) at Columbia Falls; Belgrade at Beaverhead County (Dillon); Stevensville at Billings Central
4 p.m. - Polson at Butte Central