Cooley leads Cowboys over Wildcats

COLUMBIA FALLS - Sooner or later, that Columbia Falls defense was bound to get tired. Shane Cooley made sure of that.

Working behind a hardy Eastern Montana line, Custer County's sly 5-foot-10 senior quarterback wore out the Wildcats with 225 yards rushing on 24 carries and the Cowboys left Satterthwaite Memorial Field with a 34-13 victory in the Class A football quarterfinals on Saturday.

The Eastern A second-seeded Cowboys (10-1) out of Miles City ran the ball 41 times for 339 yards and limited Columbia Falls to two first downs in the second half. Cooley finished with four rushing TDs.

The Cowboys will host Beaverhead County (Dillon) in the semifinals next Saturday.

Eliminated in the quarterfinals for the second year in a row, Columbia Falls finishes its historic season 4-5 overall after winning the first Northwestern A conference championship since 1976.

"I just told them how proud I was of their efforts and the way that they played as a team all year long and they never quit," Columbia Falls head coach Bill Coleman said of his postgame speech to the team. "We didn't finish the way that we wanted to, but I'm proud of the way they played all year long."

For the first 24 minutes there was plenty to be happy about on both sidelines. But Cooley and the Cowboys grabbed the momentum in a big way in the third quarter. Leading 14-13 coming out halftime, Custer County sidewinded 68 yards on 11 plays on its first possession and capped the drive with a 5-yard TD run by Cooley.

Just over a minute later, after Columbia Falls was forced to punt, Cooley and crew were back at it, this time scoring with a 9-play, 72-yard drive.

In the whole third quarter, the Columbia Falls defense was on the field all but six plays. The Wildcat offense just couldn't get rolling and went into the fourth quarter having tallied only two yards in the previous 12 minutes of game time.

"I thought we hung tough with them in the first half. That's a good football team, they just wore us down in the third quarter," Coleman said. "We had a couple opportunities and we didn't capitalize on them, and that gave them momentum and once they got momentum it was tough for us to get it back. This is not the type of team that you can really rally against, especially when you're two scores down."

The Cowboys' defense did what no other team could this season, find an answer to Nate Thompson. Custer County contained the star senior running back and limited him to 70 yards and no scores. Thompson finishes his final prep season with 1,668 yards rushing and 12 TDs.

"I thought Columbia Falls came out and played real hard," Custer County coach Dan Stanton said.

"They had us up against the wall a couple times and I thought our kids just battled back. We had to establish the run because they were taking away our passing game, so I'm real happy with our kids. They just gutted it out."

Senior Devyn Rocker put the Wildcats up early 7-0, catching a 7-yard score on a slant from quarterback Austin Barth, who finished with 201 yards passing. Rocker ended up with 70 yards. Senior Kaleb Johnson finished with six catches for 161 yards and a TD.

Following the disappointing loss, the Columbia Falls seniors made one last walk down their home field as family, fans and coaches looked on, clapping.

"I'm proud of the way they represented us and themselves today," Coleman said. "They played hard all day long and that's how they played all year long. We're going to miss those seniors. We've got some good kids that we're losing, but we have a good core of kids that we can build on to. Hopefully this building tradition carries into next year."

Custer County 7 7 13 7 - 34

Columbia Falls 7 6 0 0 - 13

First quarter

CF - Devyn Rocker 7 pass from Austin Barth (Kaleb Johnson kick), 5:22

CC - Shane Cooley 48 run (Andrew Abel kick), :25

Second quarter

CC - Cooley 5 run (Abel kick), 10:27

CF - Johnson 5 pass from Barth (kick blocked), 5:03

Third quarter

CC - Cooley 5 run (kick failed), 5:54

CC - Cooley 25 run (Abel kick), :50

Fourth quarter

CC - Kyle Stanton 15 run (Abel kick), 11:34

Individual

RUSHING - CC, Cooley 24-225, Stanton 17-114; CF, Nate Thompson 18-62, Chris King 7-22.

PASSING (com/att/yds/int/td) - CC, Cooley 1-5-20-0-0, Brian Askin 1-1-15-0-0; CF, Barth 11-21-201-2-2.

RECEIVING - CC, Stanton 1-20, Kyle Larson 1-15; CF, Johnson 6-131, Rocker 5-70.