Braves fight but fall to Bruins

A fourth-quarter rally was almost enough for the Flathead Braves to overcome the Helena Capital Bruins at Legends Stadium on Friday in Western AA play.

Chance Sheldon-Allen scored two touchdowns but the Braves fell 21-14 to the Bruins.

“I’m really proud of our kids,” Flathead coach Matt Upham said. “They fought hard.”

Flathead fumbled the ball three times and failed to recover it twice.

“We’ve got to protect the ball better,” Upham said. We turned the ball over too many times.”

Flathead (0-5) has had a tough start to the season but Upham has seen improvement as the season has gone on.

“Just got to keep battling, it’s gonna break,” Upham said.

“I think were trying to creat an identity. I know our record’s not what we want it to be but they keep fighting and I’m really impressed with them.

Last week, the Braves tangled with undefeated Missoula Hellgate and came up short on on the comeback.

“We came up short but our kids played 48 minutes in back-to-back weeks and I’m really proud of that,” Upham said.

Capital is 4-1 overall and has an imposing rushing game.

“Our kids rose to the occasion,” Upham said. “I thought they fought hard.”

Capital 7 0 14 0 — 21

Flathead 0 0 0 14 — 14

C — Noah Braden 22 run (Ryan Quinn kick)

C — Parker Johnston 15 pass from Bridger Grovom (Quinn kick)

C — Johnston 47 pass from Grovom (Quinn kick)

F — Chance Sheldon-Allen 36 run (Erik Gardner kick)

F — Sheldon-Allen 8 pass from Cooper Smith (Gardner kick)

Team Stats

C F

First downs 15 20

Rushing 35-262 50-258

Passing 8-17-0-101 6-15-2-50

Total offense 363 308

Fumbles-lost 0-0 3-2

Penalties-yards 10-103 4-20

Punts-avg 4-28.6 3-22.7

Individual Stats

PASSING — Capital, Bridger Groom 8-17-101-2-0. Flathead, Cooper Smith 6-14-50-2-1.

RUSHING — Capital, Noah Braden 25-213, Bridger Grovom 3-22. Flathead, Cooper Smith 19-112, Chance Sheldon-Allen 12-77, Tanner Russell 15-63, Drew Harrison 2-11.

RECEIVING — Capital, Parker Johnston 3-66, Cy Miller 2-16. Flathead, Chance Sheldon-Allen 3-35, Tanner Beyl 3-15.

Glacier 63,

Missoula Big Sky 35

MISSOULA — The Glacier Wolfpack scored six unanswered touchdowns to blow out Missoula Big Sky in Western AA.

Down 21-6 early on a pick six and fumble return, Glacier got to work and went on a 43-0 run.

“The kids rallied, got off the deck,” Glacier coach Grady Bennett said.

Glacier (2-3) seized momentum when Big Sky muffed a punt return and started rolling.

“Momentum’s such a powerful thing in sports,” Bennett said.

“Our defense played well the whole game. We just gave them two on offense, but unlike other games where we lost our composure and got down, we got the momentum tum and kept going.

Bennett said the team had been talking all week about mental toughness and staying composed in the face of adversity and this game was a perfect opportunity to put it in to action.

It was the game we needed,” Bennett said.”To have an opponent to make us scratch and claw and play that physical style of football ... I’m really proud of the guys.”

Glacier 6 22 35 0 — 63

Big Sky 14 7 14 0 — 35

BS — Everett Fred 47 run (Vlad Lemeza kick failed)

BS — Fred 64 run (PAT run Ben Maehl)

G — Luke Blau 23 pass from JT Allen (KJ Johnson PAT run failed)

BS — Hunter Meinen 2 run (Lemeza kick)

G — Johnson 5 run (Patrick Rohrbach kick)

G — Allen 1 run (Drew Deck PAT run)

G — Bradey Santens 5 run (Rohrback kick)

G — Hunter Karlstad 20 run (Rohrbach kick)

G — Santens 1 run (Rohrbach kick)

G — Blau 58 pass from Allen (Rohrbach kick)

BS — Fred 45 pass from Draven Lincoln (Lemeza kick)

G — Casey Peiffer 47 run (Rohrbach kick)

G — Mason Naomi 36 run (Rohrbach kick)

BS — Maehl 32 pass from Lincoln (Lemeza kick

Team Stats

G BS

First downs 26 23

Rushing 34-220 52-214

Passing 1 8-29-313-2 11-23-143-3

Total offense 533 357

Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-1

Penalties-yards 7-65 7-47

Punts-avg 2-48 2-36

Individual Stats

RUSHING — Glacier, KJ Johnson 22-109, Casey Peiffer 1-47. Big Sky, Jett Rebish 32-171, Everett Fred 5-47.

PASSING — Glacier, JT Allen 17-28-308-2-2. Big Sky, Draven Lincoln 11-23-143-3-2.

RECEIVING — Glacier, Drew Deck 6-85, Luke Bilau 4-155, KJ Johnson 3-12, Colin Bowden 2-48. Big Sky, Ben Maehl 5-37, Everett Fred 4-82.

Browning 32,

Columbia Falls 26

COLUMBIA FALLS — Browning (2-3) exploded for 18 points in the fourth quarter to edge out Columbia Falls (1-4) in Western A play.

The Wildcats led 20-14 at the half.

Browning 6 8 0 18 — 32

Columbia Falls 7 13 6 0 — 26

CF — Taylor Bryan 19 pass from Mason Peters (Niels Getts kick)

B — Cody Carlson 2 run (2 pt conversion failed)

CF — Cade Morgan 2 run (Getts kick)

B — Jessie Carlson 43 pass from C. Carlson (2 pt conversion run by Trevor Fiosher)

CF — Bryan 80 run (Getts kick failed)

CF — Peters 8 run (2 pt conversion failed)

B — Fisher 3 run (kick failed)

B — J. Carlson 33 pass from C. Carlson (2 pt conversion failed)

B — Cody Boggs 14 pass from C. Carlson (2 pt conversion failed)

Browning

Rushing — 32-101/3 td

Passing — C. Carlson 8-12-195/ 3 td

Recieving — Jessie Carlson 6-160

Columbia Falls

Rushing — 35-134, Peters 15-24-111

Receiving — Taylor Bryan 1-19

Libby 45, Polson 6

POLSON — Libby downed Polson to stay undefeated.

The Loggers are 5-0.

Dawson Young scored three touchdowns for Libby in the victory. Polson is 3-2.

Polson 6 0 0 O ­ — 6

Libby 14 14 7 10 — 45

L — Dawson Young 3 run (Chandler Bower kick)

L — Young 4 run (Bower kick)

P —Ryker Wenderoth 70 pass From Bo Kelley (kick failed)

L — Ryker Mcelmurry 9 run (Bower kick)

L — Aydan Williamson 1 run (Bower Kkck)

L — Young 10 Run (Bower kick)

L — Young 6 Run (Bower kick)

L — Bower 36 kick

Loyola 21, Bigfork 11

MISSOULA — Missoula Loyola blew past Bigfork (0-1, 1-3) in Western B play.

The Vikings led 3-0 at the half.

Bigfork 0 3 3 8 —11

Loyola 0 0 7 14 — 21

B — Tanner Stone 43 field goal

L — Danielson 59 pass from K Russell (P Pratt kick)

L — Danielson 14 pass from Russell (C Ogilvie kick)

B — George Bucklin 86 run (Walker Fisher PAT pass from Patrick Wallen)

L — Russell 29 run (Ogilvie kick)

Team Stats

B L

First downs 11 11

Rushing 37-71 28-167

Passing 14-91 8-90

Total offense 162 257

Fumbles-lost 1-1 2-2

Penalties-yards 4-35 4-35

Punts-avg 8-28 6-38.3

Individual Stats

PASSING — Bigfork, Patrick Wallen 14-25-91-0-1. Loyola, K. Russell 8-14-90-2-1.

RUSHING — Bigfork, Kainin Lafontaine 11-47, Levi Taylor 15-24. Loyola, K. Russell 14-150, T Albrecht 8-33.

RECIEVING — Bigfork, Kainin Lafontaine 7-47, Levi Taylor 2-24, George Bucklin 4-21. Loyola, B Danielson 3-68. B Coutinho 4-34.