AA Football: McCracken, Flathead run over Great Falls

Josh McCracken ran for 214 violent yards and Flathead pounded previously undefeated Great Falls, 41-12 Friday night at Legends Stadium.

McCracken ran over, around and through tacklers on his way to four touchdowns, logging 31 rushes before being relieved early in the fourth quarter.

“I can’t say enough about the kid,” Flathead coach Kyle Samson said.

“He’s a great running back but he’s a tougher kid. He was just tough tonight.”

The senior running back has totaled 468 yards in the first three games of the season to help the Braves to a 2-1 start for the second year in a row.

McCracken scored a pair of touchdowns on the ground in the first half and tacked on a couple highlight-reel scores after halftime.

With the Braves in front 13-6 midway through the third quarter, McCracken capped a 12-play drive with a 3-yard run that featured a pair of broken tackles behind the line of scrimmage and a powerful thrust across the goal line.

The 5-foot-9, 195-pound bruiser put the home team up two scores again early in the fourth when he reeled in a screen pass from Bridger Johnson and barreled through a handful of defenders on his was to a 22-yard score. That run sent his position coach, former NFL rusher Lex Hilliard, smiling onto the field to greet McCracken.

“We wanted to re-establish our identity as a power football team,” Samson said. “The offensive line did a great job. They were opening up holes and Josh (McCracken) was breaking tackles.”

Friday was a different story in the trenches from a week ago, when Helena piled up sacks and forced three interceptions. The Braves did not turn the ball over against the Bison and Johnson was sacked just twice.

“I can’t say enough about our offensive line and our offensive line coaches,” Samson said. “Last week we may not have had our best game up front but they really responded.”

Defensively, Flathead held Great Falls to just 172 yards of total offense, with 86 of those yards coming on one Bison scoring drive late in the first half. Three long kick returns from Jamison Hermanson gave the Bison great field position, but the Flathead defense responded, allowing the Great Falls offense to convert only one of those returns into points.

“We put ourselves in some bad situations with our coverage teams,” Samson said. “But I was proud of our defense. We got pressure on them, we stopped their fly sweep for the most part and our defensive backs made some great plays.”

The Bison’s late first half scoring drive was a lightning quick strike that gave Great Falls (2-1) life heading into the locker room. Down 13-0 and on their own 29 with less than a minute before halftime, the Bison took only four plays to reach the end zone despite absorbing a personal foul penalty on the penultimate play. Kaleb Sukut capped the drive with a 32-yard pass to Maxx Sitzmann to make it 13-6.

McCracken ran for 120 yards before the break, accounting for more than 60 percent of Flathead’s first half yards.

Playing in front of a near-capacity crowd, the Braves put the game out of reach with a pair of late scores with McCracken on the sidelines. Payton Boyce had a McCracken-like bruising 8-yard touchdown run with under five minutes left to make it 34-14 and, after a Tucker Cronk interception, Seth Adolph took the shotgun snap and ran in from 32 yards out.

“(The atmosphere) was electric,” Samson said. “It was awesome to look up in the stands at the end of the game, see the crowd packed and see our guys go sing the fight song. We’ve been waiting for that.”

The physicality of the game spilled over after the whistle in the fourth quarter, with the referees bringing both teams together at one point to try and restore order. There were four personal foul penalties whistled in total.

Flathead outgained Great Falls 453-172 and owned a more than 18-minute edge in time of possession. Boyce added 74 yards rushing of his own with Adolph, operating as the wildcat quarterback, chipping in 48 more.

Johnson was efficient, taking advantage of play action to go 9 for 14 for 103 yards through the air. James Flannigan was his favorite target, catching four balls for 41 yards.

The Braves (2-1) return home next week to take on Missoula Big Sky (0-3) at Legends Stadium at 7 p.m. A win would match the Braves’ total from a year ago.

“It’s an awesome win for our program,” Samson said. “We’ve just got to keep building now.”

Braves 41, Bison 12

Great Falls 0 6 6 0 — 12

Flathead 6 7 7 21 — 41

First quarter

FLT — Josh McCracken 10 run (kick blocked), :50

Second quarter

FLT — Josh McCracken 4 run (Gardner kick), 5:51

GF — Maxx Sitzmann 32 pass from Kaden Sukut (kick blocked), :05

Third quarter

FLT — Josh McCracken 3 run (Gardner kick), 5:21

GF — Kaden Sukut 1 run (conversion failed), 2:16

Fourth quarter

FLT — Josh McCracken 22 pass from Bridger Johnson (Gardner kick), 11:27

FLT — Payton Boyce 8 run (Gardner kick), 4:56

FLT — Seth Adolph 32 run (Gardner kick), 2:19

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GF FLA

First downs 6 28

Rushes-yards 57-350 23-65

Passing yards 103 107

Comp-Att-Int 14-9-0 22-11-1

Punts-avg 2-35 4-42

Fumbles-lost 0-0 2-1

Penalties-yards 9-112 6-63

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INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — GF: Austin Dees 13-66, Jamison Hermanson 5-7, Maxx Sitzmann 1-minus 3, Kaden Sukut 4-minus 5. FLT: Josh McCracken 31-214, Payton Boyce 13-74, Seth Adolph 4-48, Ryan Skramovsky 5-18, Bridger Johnson, 3-minus 10

PASSING — GF: Kaden Sukut 11-22-1-107. FLT: 9-14-0-103.

RECEIVING — GF: Maxx Sitzmann 4-102, Robert Bruskotter 2-12, Jamison Hermanson 3-minus 2, Austin Dees 2-minus 5. FLT: James Flannigan 4-41, Josh McCracken 2-27, Wyatt Smith 1-14, Ryan Skramovsky 1-12, Keaton Krantz 1-9.