Black and Blue bruise by Billings

The Flathead Black and Blue didn’t need much time to prove how they earned the top seed at the Montana Youth Rugby high school boys state tournament.

The Black and Blue scored their first try less than two minutes into their opening round game against Billings on Friday at Glacier High School. They went on to score three more times in the next 10 minutes and seven times in the first half on the way to a 68-7 rout.

It was a clinic from the opening kick.

The Black and Blue received and plowed through the Billings defense in a handful of phases, with junior Hunter Wellcome bowling over a pair of defenders to touch down the opening try.

Two minutes later it was Daniel Long’s turn, the junior romping through a pair of defenders and sprinting past the rest for a long try.

Ten minutes in, senior captain Matt Gash-Gilder tucked in a try from two meters out and junior Hunter Rauthe busted out of a tackle from three defenders to offload to Tucker Nadeau for another try three minutes later for a 24-0 Black and Blue lead.

Flathead kept the ball out of Billings’ hands for most of the match, stalling the Rattlesnakes after a few meters whenever they did gain possession.

Gash-Gilder’s try came after a Billings turnover on the shadow of its own try line and Flathead freshman Garrett Reike touched down the fifth try of the game on a loose ball in the Billings try zone after the Rattlesnakes botched a pass.

Wellcome broke free from half field and ran untouched for a second try and freshman Paxton Boyce juked his way into the try zone before halftime as Flathead took a 41-0 lead.

Wellcome added another shortly after the break and a fourth minutes later.

As the second string began to filter in, Boyce, Long and Rauthe all scored again to give the Black and Blue a 68-0 lead before Billings pushed in a try on the last phase of the match.

It was a dominant performance on a cold and rainy opening day.

“Our goal was to go out, be smart and play our hardest. Everything else will fall into place,” Wellcome said.

Flathead advances to play Missoula which beat up Bitterroot in the first round. Winner of that game advances to the championship at 5 p.m.

The Black and Blue are the defending state champions.

“I think we’re going in pretty strong,” Wellcome said.

“Our heads aren’t too high. We’re just really confident and ready to go.”