Pirates plunder Rams

POLSON — Building a three-touchdown advantage in the third quarter can lead to some serious clock-squeezing, B-gap running offense for any football team.

That’s not Polson’s style.

“All gas, no brakes,” said Coach Kaden Glinsmann, after his Pirates put the finishing touches on a 49-28 State A quarterfinal win over Billings Central on Saturday.

Junior quarterback Jarrett Wilson threw for 372 yards and six touchdowns as Polson moved to 10-0 ahead of a semifinal game at defending state champion Laurel (9-0) next Saturday.

He complimented his fifth 6-touchdown performance of the season with 90 yards rushing and a 50-yard fumble return — he stripped the ball from Central standout Kade Boyd and broke away from the pack to put Polson up 13-7 early in the second quarter.

That was the first of three lead changes, and it should be noted the final score doesn’t indicate how close this battle was. Boyd ended up running for 208 yards, including a 1-yard run that closed a 35-14 gap to 35-28 with 8:18 left in the game.

This, it turned out, was right in Polson’s wheelhouse — though the Rams came within a hair of recovering the ensuing onside kick before the Pirates’ Trent Wilson jumped on it.

Three plays later, on fourth-and-6, Wilson rolled right and found Xavier Fisher up the sideline for a 47-yard touchdown. It was back to a two-score game with 7:44 left.

“We had a different play called,” said Fisher, who had five catches for 82 yards. “But Jarrett can audible out of it. I was supposed to go to the left side and he goes, ‘No, go to the right and run this route.’ I was like, ‘OK.’ I ran out there and nobody came and I was just gone.”

“I just was hoping the linebackers were blitzing and nobody was going to pick him up,” Wilson, who was 29 of 45 passing, said. “He was wide open. Let him do the rest.”

Polson led 35-14 on two Wilson TD passes barely over a minute apart. Polson scored on the first possession of the second half on a short TD pass to Perez, at 10:50 of the third quarter. They then onside-kicked and the Pirates’ Brock Henriksen recovered.

That set up another Perez TD catch, covering 22 yards at the 9:29 mark.

“We know that we’ve got to steal possessions,” said Glinsmann, who tried an onside kick in the first half as well (Central recovered, but eventually gave up the ball on downs). “Teams, shoot — Libby, Ronan, every team that we play wants to bleed the clock. They don’t want our offense on the field. That’s part of our identity; we have to do it.”

The Rams (7-3) led 7-0, then 14-13 on two Adam Balkenbush TD passes to Preston Hubley. Central’s Brayden Lennan picked off Wilson twice — Wilson’s first two picks of the year, to go against 47 touchdowns.

Central also put the ball on the ground three times, to which coach Jim Stanton responded by holding up five fingers: He was counting a late interception and that successful onside kick.

“We knew they were going to make plays, that they were going to have opportunities and put up points,” Stanton said. “Too many chances for them.

“We needed to control the ball and for the most part did a decent job of that. ... Our offense just turning the ball over is just not a good recipe for this team.”

The most critical fumble came after Lennan’s first interception: The Rams took over at their 25, had a 71-yard TD pass undone by an illegal formation, then reached the Pirates’ 19 before a bad exchange with 2:20 left in the half.

Justin Jordan recovered, and the Pirates went 83 yards in eight plays. Robert Perez had the big gain, 27 yards down to the Rams’ 2. Colton Graham caught the second of his three TD passes on the next play, and the home team led 21-14 at intermission.

“He’s a beast,” Wilson said of Graham, who had 12 catches for 180 yards, and TD receptions covering 40 and 13 yards “When I’m in a pickle and I can count on him to get me out of it.”

Central piled up 468 yards, compared to 461 for Polson. Balkenbush threw for 231 yards and three scores.

Keyen Nash recovered a fumble for Polson, and Fisher had a late interception. And Wilson did his usual.

“He’s a special kid,” Fisher said. “The coaches trust him a lot, we trust him a lot. He can call his own plays and the trust in him — we knew he’ll get us the ball.”

BC Rams 7 7 7 7 - 28

Polson 7 14 14 14 - 49

BC — Preston Hubley 34 pass from Adam Balkenbush (Myles Ragar kick), 5:58-1Q

P — Colton Graham 40 pass from Jarrett Wilson (Kaden Nelson kick), 4:27-1Q

P — Wilson 50 fumble return (pass failed), 10:52-2Q

BC — Hubley 30 pass from Balkenbusch (Ragar kick), 9:19-2Q

P — Graham 2 pass from Wilson (Robert Perez pass from Wilson ), :32-2Q

P — Perez 2 pass from Wilson (kick failed), 10:50-3Q

P — Perez 12 pass from Wilson (Graham pass from Wilson), 9:29-3Q

BC — AJ Ulrichs 22 pass from Balkenbush (Ragar kick), 7:42-3Q

BC — Kade Boyd 1 run (Ragar kick), 8:18-4Q

P — Xavier Fisher 20 pass from Wilson (Nelson kick), 7:44-4Q

P — Graham 13 pass from Wilson (Nelson kick), 2:42-4Q

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: Billings Central (49-237) — Boyd 25-208, Clay Oven 8-34, Balkenbush 13-7, Team 3-minus 12. Polson (22-89) — Wilson 20-90, Alex Muzquiz 1-minus 3, Fisher 1-2.

PASSING: Billings Central — Balkenbusch 13-19-1 for 231 yards. Polson — Wilson 29-45-2 for 372 yards.

RECEIVING: Billings Central — Hubley 3-71, Hunter Doyle 3-68, Ulrichs 3-63, Boyd 3-24, Oven 2-22. Polson — Graham 12-180, Perez 7-88, Fisher 5-82, Muzquiz 5-22.