Class AA football: Flathead rally falls short against Helena Capital

Facing a prove-it game and with a chance validate their revelation of a season, the Flathead Braves fought yard-for-yard in a wildly entertaining battle with one of the state’s best teams.

Yet again, however, a defining victory proved elusive.

Helena Capital took advantage of a handful of Flathead miscues and held off a valiant Braves comeback to win, 24-21 Friday night at Legends Stadium.

“We just made too many mistakes,” Flathead coach Kyle Samson said following the loss.

“Capital’s a good football team, but turnovers and a couple big plays hurt us.”

The Braves (5-3) lost the turnover battle — something that’s happened in each of their three losses — and put themselves in an early hole with a nightmarish first quarter. Flathead was outgained 149-1 in the game’s first 12 minutes and trailed 10-0 early.

“It was just mental mistakes,” Braves quarterback Bridger Johnson said of his team’s sluggish start.

“I don’t know, we might have been jittery or something. We weren’t ourselves. We didn’t play a full game, obviously.”

Capital (6-2) went 68 yards on 11 plays — nine of them runs — on the game’s opening drive, capped by a three-yard Daniel O’Malley touchdown plunge. The early deficit is, like the turnovers, something the Braves have faced in each of their defeats.

“They had a good first drive and we put ourselves in bad situations like second and long and had a couple penalties,” Samson said.

“I thought in the second quarter we played pretty dang good, we just can’t dig ourselves in a hole like that.”

Indeed, the Braves responded in the second despite a Josh McCracken fumble on the penultimate play of the first that set up Capital in great field position. Braxton Kent, who had made a 43-yard field goal earlier in the game, pulled a 35-yard attempt wide left and it seemed to turn the momentum for the home team.

McCracken got into the end zone later in the quarter, but, as would be a theme, the Braves could not sustain their edge. Flathead’s defense forced a three and out to get the ball back with 2:28 to go in the half, but Seth Adolph fumbled and Capital converted the turnover into a touchdown just before the half.

The Braves fumbled three times, losing two, in the game after having lost only three fumbles all season through seven weeks.

“It’s hard to say (what caused the fumbles) until you watch the film,” Samson said.

“Sometimes that stuff just happens but we have to do a better job with ball security.”

The Braves took the opening kickoff in the second half and marched into Capital territory, but on a fourth down play Johnson heaved one into coverage and was intercepted.

On the very next play, O’Malley went 74 yards down the sideline to set up Payton Pappas, who ran it in from 15 yards to put the visitors up 24-7.

Johnson hit McCracken out of the backfield for a touchdown late in the third quarter, but Flathead was still trailing 24-14 late in the fourth quarter. Backed up to their own 11, the Braves managed to rack up 89 yards in 14 plays and get into the end zone when Johnson hit Adolph with a 10-yard touchdown pass.

The touchdown drive, however, burned up most of the clock and left the Braves with less than a minute to go and no timeouts.

Because of injuries along its offensive line earlier in the game, Flathead wasn’t able to run a no-huddle offense in the game’s waning minutes.

“We wanted to get the right plays in and, honestly, some of that was because of our personnel,” Samson said.

“Our young offensive linemen haven’t worked in that situation so I was a little nervous doing that, but I thought Bridger (Johnson) managed it very well. We had an opportunity at the end with the onside kick, we just didn’t get it.”

Johnson continued his maturation as a quarterback, going 18 for 36 for 221 yards and a couple touchdowns despite seeing constant pressure from the Bruins defense.

“He got hit quite a bit tonight but he showed a lot of toughness,” Samson said of his junior signal caller.

The Braves outgained Capital 325-158 after the first quarter and finished with more yards than the victors.

Flathead’s run game was held mostly in check, picking up just 105 yards on 37 carries. McCracken toted the ball 23 times for 57 yards and did go over 1,000 yards for the season.

The Braves turn their attention now to their crosstown rivals and prepare for a showdown at Legends with Glacier (6-2) on Friday at 7 p.m.

Helena Capital 10 7 7 0 — 24

Flathead 0 7 7 7 — 21

First quarter

CAP — Daniel O’Malley 3 run (Braxton Kent kick), 7:48

CAP — Kent 43 field goal

Second quarter

FLT — Josh McCracken 2 run (Justin Gardner kick), 3:49

CAP — Payton Pappas 5 run (Kent kick), 0:37

Third quarter

CAP — Pappas 15 run (Kent kick), 8:25

FLT — McCracken 13 pass from Bridger Johnson (Gardner kick), 2:34

Fourth quarter

FLT — Seth Adolph 10 pass from Johnson (Gardner kick), 0:46

CAP FLT

First downs 12 17

Rushes-yards 35-209 37-105

Passing yards 98 221

Comp-Att-Int 8-19-0 18-36-1

Punts-avg 5-41 4-33

Fumbles-lost 2-1 3-2

Penalties-yards 9-74 9-74

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — CAP: Daniel O’Malley 8-121, Carter Pappas 18-76, Payton Pappas 7-11, Danny Burton 2-1. FLT: Josh McCracken 23-57, Seth Adolph 5-28, James Flannigan 1-25, Bridger 7-minus 2, Ryan Skramovsky 1-minus 3.

PASSING — CAP: Carter Pappas 8-19-0-98. FLT: Bridger Johnson 18-36-1-221.

RECEIVING — CAP: Will Hunthausen 2-43, Danny Burton 2-35, Brad Heller 3-16, Robert McCarvel 1-4. FLT: Seth Adolph 7-69, James Flannigan 4-61, Josh McCracken 4-48, Keaton Krantz 2-29, Wyatt Smith 1-14.