Crosstown on the rise

It’s not there quite yet.

Now eight years since the split, either Flathead or Glacier will finish the football season with a losing record again this season. Being played on the last week of the season for the second-straight year, this weekend’s game also marks the seventh time in those eight years that only one Kalispell team will make the playoffs.

The dream of coaches and administrators that Kalispell, long the largest school in Class AA, could split up and have the same run of football success as the schools in Helena and Billings, will have to wait at least one more year.

It nearly happened though. And it’s certainly getting closer.

There were hints this year that Flathead could get out of its now-six-year string of losing seasons.

The Braves offense has been dynamic at times and the team has looked like it could break out, shocking even some of the top teams in the state. Playing at home against Helena High, a team that will likely enter the playoffs as the second-overall seed, Flathead gave the Bengals all they could handle, playing within a touchdown for most of the game before a late collapse.

It was one of a handful of games that was a few plays from turning the Braves way in a season that didn’t see them knocked out of the playoff race until last week.

Despite what will go down as another season with a losing record, things seem to be trending up for the Braves and a program looking to re-establish itself as a state power.

The program on the north end of town has been trending upward for quite some time.

Now in its sixth-straight winning season, Glacier is in the middle of one of the most dominant seasons in state history.

The Wolfpack is off to a 9-0 start to the season and with a win against Flathead on Friday would complete just the sixth perfect regular season in the last 10 years. Five of those teams have gone on to win the state championship. It would be the first program outside of more traditional powers Billings West, Great Falls C.M. Russell, Helena Capital and Bozeman to complete the feat in that stretch.

This season is the culmination of a growing Glacier program that has proven to be a threat in its infancy.

The Wolfpack has been to the state semifinals in three straight seasons, making its first final last season. This season has guaranteed the Pack will have hosted a playoff game the last four years and a win against Flathead would give Glacier the state’s top playoff seed for the second time in three years.

While this season’s game is likely to turn out like every other game in the series — decided by at least 10 points — the future of the rivalry looks bright.

With each team trending for the better, there’s hope that one day, maybe in the near future, that Kalispell’s crosstown game will mean more than just intra-city dominance and bragging rights. There’s hope that it could sway playoff positions, hope that it could decide the best team in the state.

It’s not quite there yet.

But it’s getting closer.