Rugby: Black and Blue blast Billings

The Kalispell Black and Blue pulled away from a physical Billings team in the second half to win their final home rugby match of the season 48-17 on Saturday at Evergreen Junior High.

Arik Lybeck opened the scoring for the Black and Blue, notching the first try of the game. Billings would tie the score and trailed by just a few points at half despite Kalispell taking a two-score lead.

The Black and Blue pulled away in the second half, holding Billings to one try while Logan Jones and Jacob Ridgeway broke off a series of long runs for tries.

Ridgeway scored twice, each from more than 60 meters out and Jones had three tries to help the Black and Blue in the rout.

Jarrett Broughton and Matt Gash-Gilder also added tries for Kalispell.

“Billings is so big, so physical,” Black and Blue coach Bob Kiesel said. “We’re just a little bit fitter.”

Colten Boyle and Truman Pisk helped Kalispell match up physically with Billings, which carried a much larger team into the match.

“(Boyle) just manned up so well against their size,” Kiesel said.

Kalispell also hosted MYRA Fest on Saturday, with all seven high school teams, four girls teams and a pair of middle school squads taking part in a full day of rugby.