Wildcats whip Browning

COLUMBIA FALLS - Early and often.

Columbia Falls' Devyn Rocker returned the opening kickoff 89 yards and the Columbia Falls Wildcats (1-2) never looked back, downing the visiting Browning Indians 45-12 to pick up their first win of the season on Thursday.

That was just one of three scores on the night for Rocker, who also gathered in two scoring passes (15 and 20 yards).

"We executed in all three phases of the game. We played good defense, good special teams and we had good balanced offense. We are definitely moving in the right direction," said Columbia Falls coach Bill Coleman.

"We had a focus on special teams this week. We wanted to be sure we brought one back," he added.

It wound up being two - senior Kaleb Johnson returned a kick 86 yards in the third quarter as the Wildcats answered one of Browning's two second half scores.

"We still need to clean some things up, but we were able to run when we wanted to run and throw when we wanted to throw," Coleman said.

"(Quarterback) Austin Barth really played well this week. He got the ball up field safely," Coleman said.

"The thing I like about this game - we took a step forward. We're better than we were last week," he added.

"I was proud of the way we threw the ball and I was proud of the way we played," he said.

The Wildcats made it look easy - Nate Thompson ran for 174 first half yards (unofficially and finished the night with 184) and the Wildcats scored 32 first half points.

"It's good to get a win," Thompson said. "I felt pretty good - little tired playing both ways at running back and cornerback. The line blocked extremely well. They get all the credit (for the first half yardage."

But the Wildcats put Dan Jones at running back as well and that's been a huge help, Thompson said.

"I was able to come out for a few breaths, then go back in and play hard," he said.

"We're settling into the pace and we're looking forward to taking this win and going into next week," he added.

Browning never quit, though. It came out in the second half with a little different look, what Coleman called a ‘pseudo Wildcat' and ran up some decent yardage.

Running back Marcus Cobell finished the night with 163 yards unofficially. The Indians scored twice in the third quarter and got as close as the Wildcat six-yard line on one occasion and the four-yard line on another.

"They've got good size and they're pretty physical. They came out with a little different look," Coleman said.

But for every move the Indians made, the Wildcats countered.

One Browning touchdown was instantly answered when Johnson returned the ensuing kickoff 86 yards - right up the middle.

And when Browning turned the ball over on downs deep in Wildcat territory - the next play from scrimmage was a 95-yard score by Jones.

"I was proud of the way the kids defended our field.

"Now we've got to get better than we were this week," Coleman said.

Browning 0 0 12 0 - 12

Columbia Falls 12 20 7 6 - 45

CF - Devyn Rocker 89 kickoff return (Kick failed), 11:47.

CF - Nate Thompson 2 run (run failed), 4:54.

Second Quarter

CF - Kaleb Johnson 18 pass from Austin Barth  (pass failed), 8:54.

CF - Rocker 15 pass from Barth  (Rocker pass from Barth), 4:40.

CF - Rocker 20 pass from Barth (pass failed), :56.

Third Quarter

B - Unknown 20 pass from Kurt Redcrow (run failed), 6:31.

CF - Johnson 86 kickoff return (Barth kick), 6:20.

B - Marcus Cobell 43 run (pass failed), 4:30.

CF - Dan Jones 95 run (kick failed), 1:10.

CF B

First downs 10 10

Rushing 283 261

Runs-yards 34-283 44-261

Passing 77 85

Comp/Att/Int 6-14-0 7-16-2

Fumble-Rec 2-2 4-2

Individuals

Rushing - CF, Nate Thompson 18-184, Dan Jones 7-116, Cole Jones 1-3, Austin Barth 3-minus 30, Kaleb Johnson 2-13, Brendan Windauer 3-minus 3. Browning, Marcus Cobell 17-163, Brendon RunningWolf  7-37,  Kurt Redcrow 14-50, Dillion Conway 3-10, Zach Wagner 1-minus 3, Unknown 2-3.

Passing - CF, Austin Barth 6-14-3-77. Browning, Kurt Redcrow 6-12-1-80, Cobell 0-1-0-0, Zach Wagner 1-1-0-5.

Receiving - CF, Dan Jones 1-8, Kaleb Johnson 2-25, Nate Thompson 1-9, Devyn Rocker 2-35.