Football: Bengals bomb Braves
<p>Flathead's Jacob Link breaks up a pass to Helena's Paul Hart in the end zone during the second quarter. (Aaric Bryan/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
<p>Flathead's Aaron Siderius sacks Helena quarterback Jackson Thennis during the first quarter. (Aaric Bryan/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
<p>Flathead quarterback Easton Johnson escapes the pocket for a long run in the first quarter against Helena at Legends Stadium Friday. (Aaric Bryan/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
The Flathead Braves were hanging with the No. 2 ranked team in the state, and suddenly the wheels fell off their wagon of momentum.
After taking an early 6-0 lead, the Braves surrendered 42 consecutive points to the Helena Bengals, who left Legends Stadium with a road victory to remain undefeated on Friday night.
The Bengals stretched a mere 14-6 halftime lead into a rout by capitalizing on the Braves’ miscues, including three turnovers that lead to 21 points and a botched punt snap that gave Helena the ball on the Flathead 1-yard line.
“We started off well,” Braves senior quarterback Easton Johnson said.
“I don’t think the score was relevant to how we played. We came out and competed with (Helena) until about four minutes left in the third (quarter). Then we had four big mistakes that led them to touchdowns and basically gave them the game.”
Johnson, whose 28-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Keaton Krantz in the second quarter gave the Braves a 6-0 lead, finished with 119 passing yards on seven completions while rushing for a team-high 38 yards.
“Keaton is a really great athlete,” Johnson said. “They were in Cover 3, manned up on the outside, so I just dropped back and gave it up to him. He made some great plays on a couple of those deep balls.”
Krantz finished with 81 receiving yards on four catches.
The Bengals were led by quarterback Jackson Thennis, who rushed for three consecutive touchdowns to rally Helena. Thennis dropped back to pass and fled the pocket to his left before taking off down the sideline on each of his first two scores —the first from 16 yards, while the second was a 10 yard-scamper.
His quarterback sneak with 2:01 to play in the third was the only score of the quarter for either team, and the Bengals’ 21 fourth quarter-points put the game away for good.
“I was proud of the way the kids started. I thought we played a good first half against a good football team,” Flathead coach Kyle Samson said.
“Helena High has a lot of talent and we just let it slip away from us. They had a couple of big plays, and we had a couple of turnovers. Our kids played hard, they fought hard, but you can’t give good teams opportunities like that.”
Helena’s 323 total yards of offense towered over Flathead’s 192.
The Braves leading rusher, junior running back Josh McCracken, was limited to just 31 yards on the ground while playing with a cast over his left hand. Flathead came into the game averaging 175 rushing yards, but managed only 79 against one of the state’s best defenses.
“We’re in a little bit of a rut with a three-game losing streak,” Samson said. “We can’t let this break us apart. We’ve got to come together even stronger and work a little harder. I don’t think it’s a lack of effort on our team. They’re are working their butts off week in and week out. We’re just missing a couple of opportunities in these game, but I think we’re learning from it. We’ll get there.”
The Braves will hit the road for the final time of the season when they travel to Bozeman for a Week 7 matchup against the Hawks scheduled for 7 p.m. next Friday.
Helena 0 14 7 21 — 42
Flathead 0 6 0 0 — 6
2nd Quarter
F — Krantz 28 yard pass from Easton Johnson (Kick failed) 11:53
H — Jackson Thennis 16 yard run (Willem Morris kick) 8:22
H — Thennis 10 yard run (Morris kick) 6:52
3rd Quarter
H — Thennis 1 yard run (Morris kick) 2:01
H — Nick VanHorssen 1 yard run (Morris kick) 11:09
H — Chase Benson 20 yard interception return (Morris kick) 10:02
H — Nick Winfield 2 yard pass from Thennis (Morris kick) 7:18
Individual statistics
RUSHING — Helena (43-229) Jackson Thennis 12-93, Nick VanHorssen 15-79, Nick Winfield 8-33, Chase South 2-14, Chase Bickle 1-5, Lane Kokoruda 1-3, Trey Weist 1-1, Tre McMillan 2-1. Flathead (37-79) Easton Johnson 21-38, Josh McCracken 7-31, Keaton Kratnz 3-20, Colton Boyle 1-4, Payton Boyce 4-(-1) Bram Booth 1-(-13).
PASSING — Helena: Jackson Thennis 10-20-0 for 94 yards. Flathead: Easton Johnson 7-23-2 for 119 yards.
RECEIVING — Helena: Nick Winfield 4-47, Paul Hart 2-20, Kameron Enright 2-14, Derek Jenneskens 1-9, Henry 1-2. Flathead: Keaton Krantz 4-81, Blake Wilson 3-38.