Big-play Bulldogs too much for Flathead

The Flathead football team scored a couple touchdowns and unleashed a good-looking outside zone play Friday, but it was the Butte Bulldogs that came up with most of the big plays.

Blake Drakos threw two touchdown passes and Christian Vetter ran for 161 yards and another score in Butte’s 42-13 Western AA win at Legends Stadium.

The Braves, playing on Senior Night, saw Alec Thomas run for 137 yards and one touchdown. The transfer from Glacier helped the hosts get in position for more, but then generally things went awry: In the first half Flathead gave up the ball on downs at Butte’s 32-, 16- and 19-yard lines.

“I don’t think there’s much more to be said,” quarterback Charlie Hinchey, who ran for Flathead’s other TD, said. “We moved the ball really well — our stuff was good. We just didn’t finish, and we have got to put the ball in the end zone.”

Butte had fewer issues, scoring on four of its first five possessions — the exception being when Flathead’s Nolan White picked off a pass meant for 6-foot-7 tight end Jake Olson.

The Bulldogs’ first two TDs signaled it might be their night.

Their first drive ended when Vetter fumbled but Olson picked up the ball and rumbled six yards into the end zone. Casey Kautzman’s PAT made it 7-0.

Their second possession was capped by a 28-yard strike from Drakos to Braydon Cetraro, though Cetraro had the ball stripped at the goal line. The touchdown counted, and it was 14-0 at 3:58 of the first quarter.

The gap grew to 21-0 when Vetter powered in from 3 yards out; his TD was set up by a 60-yard burst from his brother Gavin Vetter.

Flathead (0-5), shut out in its last two games, finally found paydirt at 8:00 of the second quarter, when Hinchey tucked the ball on a rollout and crashed into the end zone from 3 yards.

The score was set up by Thomas’ 36-yard run on an outside zone.

“That was working really well,” said Hinchey, who threw for 125 yards. “Our run game was working well for us and our pass game was too — our whole offense was there. We have to finish.”

“And defensively we didn’t help anybody out tonight,” Flathead coach Matt Upham added. “We could not stop the running game — we gave up way too many yards — and that’s on me.

“I need to get a better scheme, I need to get us ready to play, more tackling drills, things like that. It just wasn’t a good defensive performance and I take the whole blame for it.”

After Hinchey’s TD, Butte marched right down, getting runs of 11 and 21 yards from Christian Vetter ahead of a 13-yard pass to Cole Stewart. Tucker LeProwse capped the 64-yard drive with a 2-yard scoring run, making it 28-7 at 5:52 of the second quarter.

Butte lost Gavin Vetter to a leg injury late in the half, but Christian Vetter added bursts of 16, 23, 16 and 43 yards after intermission. He had 115 yards after halftime. The Bulldogs rushed for 321 yards and outgained the Braves 474-256.

But for some unfinished drives those numbers might be closer. As it was, Flathead drew to 28-13 by scoring to open the third quarter, on a 4-yard run from Thomas. He contributed a couple 10-yard bursts to the drive; he had 27 carries overall.

“Alec had another great game,” Upham said. “He’s a tremendous football player and a tremendous kid. He has a bright future if he wants to play college football — I think he can — and it’s really fortunate and awesome to have that kid in our program.”

Elijah Owen recovered a fumble for Flathead during a fourth quarter that had three turnovers and a ball lost on downs.

Nicolas Gustafson had 116 yards in kickoff returns - including a 47-yard return of the second-half kickoff — and 73 yards in receptions.

Drakos’ other TD pass covered 27 yards to Cameron Gurnsey, and put the Bulldogs (2-3) up 35-13.

Flathead and Glacier play their annual crosstown game next Friday at 7 p.m. at Legends Stadium.

Butte 14 14 7 7 - 42

Flathead 0 7 6 0 - 13

B - Jake Olson 6 fumble return (Casey Kautzman kick), 9:21-1Q

B - Braydon Cetraro 28 pass from Blake Drakos (Kautzman kick), 3:58-1Q

B - Christian Vetter 4 run (Kautzman kick), 10:40-2Q

F - Charlie Hinchey 4 run (Conner Skalsky kick), 8:00-2Q

B - Tucker LeProwse 2 run (Kautzman kick), 5:52-2Q

F - Alec Thomas 4 run (kick failed), 7:12-3Q

B - Cameron Gurnsey 27 pass from Drakos (Kautzman kick), 5:08-3Q

B - Aiden Lee 5 run (Kautzman kick), 11:20-4Q

Individual statistics

RUSHING: Butte (40-321) - Ch. Vetter 18-161, Gavin Vetter 8-91, Kautzman 1-24, Kenley Lear 1-16, Drakos 3-9, Hunter Hotalen 5-7, Lee 1-5, LeProwse 1-2, Team 1-0. Flathead (39-131) - Thomas 27-137, Kaden Henshaw 1-2, Hinchey 11-minus 8.

PASSING: Butte - Drakows 12-19-1 for 153 yards. Flathead - Hinchey 13-30-2 for 125 yards.

RECEIVING: Butte - Cole Stewart 3-37, Olson 3-23, Guernsey 2-50, Ryan Neil 2-5,

Cetraro 1-28, Dylan Snyder 1-10. Flathead - Nicolas Gustafson 7-73, Tommy Wells 4-44, Coby Berkey 1-7, Thomas 1-1.

Helena 34, Glacier 14

HELENA -- The Helena Bengals got 291 yards and four touchdowns passing from Kaden Huot and won the battle of the Western AA unbeatens Friday, 34-14 at Vigilante Stadium.

Huot’s mobility and throwing ability was too much on a night when the Wolfpack (4-1) got little going through the air while falling behind 34-7.

“He is good,” Glacier coach Grady Bennett said of Huot. “He played a really good game tonight. He obviously was the difference. He made some throws on the run you just don’t see a high school kid make.”

Junior running back Jake Rendina ran 25 times for 109 yards and two touchdowns for the Pack. He now has 20 touchdowns on the year. His 4-yard run in the third quarter cut Helena’s lead to 13-7; from there the big plays went Helena’s way. Helena (5-0) came up with a couple interceptions by Ben Swanson, and the Bengals’ Chase McGurran caught two scoring passes.

Rendina’s second TD came with 34 seconds left.

“I told the boys that Helen’as a really good football team,” Bennett said. “They just played a solid game the whole game.

“I feel like if we make the plays we know we can make, it’s toe-to-toe.We can hold our heads high, but it comes down to those 6, 7, 8 plays on both sides of the ball that they made and we didn’t. We’ll get better and see if we don’t see them down the road again.”

Glacier 0 0 7 7 - 14

Helena 7 6 7 14 - 34

H - Marcus Evans 1 run (Raef Miller kick)

H - Miller 50 pass from Kaden Huot.(kick failed)

G - Rendina 4 run (Patrick Rohrbach kick)

H - Chase McGurran 15 pass from Huot (Miller kick)

H - Dexter Tedesco 9 pass from Huot (Miller kick)

H - McGurran 7 pass from Huot (Miller kick)

G - Redina 3 run (Rohrbach kick)