Whitefish, Columbia Falls football teams open playoffs at home

Montana’s high school football playoffs take off in earnest today in Class A and below, with deserving teams celebrating successful seasons with a home game.

Whitefish would be one of those teams: The Bulldogs began the year 7-0, fell to two very good opponents and then were rewarded with a rematch against Frenchtown, at 3 p.m. in the Dawg Pound.

“I always like to play somebody new,” Whitefish coach Chad Ross admitted. “But it’s just nice to be back in the playoffs.”

A few miles east, Columbia Falls is playing host to Miles City at 1 p.m., while Libby is across the state at Billings Central. In Class B, Bigfork has a long trip to Glasgow while Eureka is home against Fairfield at 1 p.m.

Here’s a quick look at each game:

Frenchtown at Whitefish

The Bulldogs won the first matchup, also at home, 20-14 over the Broncs on Sept. 3.

Eli Quinn quarterbacks Frenchtown and has a very capable receiver in Devin Shelton, who had seven catches for 86 yards on both Bronc scores the first time around.

“We had a hard time controlling him in the first half, the first time we played them,” Ross said. “He still caught the ball the second half, but at least it wasn’t for a touchdown.”

Add in running back Peyton Hicks and the Broncs look similar to Whitefish, which has Fynn Ridgeway handing off to Ty Schwaiger or Cody Berry and throwing to Jaxsen Schlauch.

“We’re kind of disappointed about the last couple of weeks, just how we finished,” said Ross, whose club lost to Columbia Falls 35-19 and to Polson 38-24. “We’ve had a couple injuries, a couple kids sick. This is the first week back for a lot of kids.”

Miles City at Columbia Falls

The visiting Cowboys are 4-4, with a defense that pitched three shutouts but also was gashed in 47-32 loss to Sidney.

Dalton Tvedt was piling up big yards rushing — and Miles City was 4-1 — before he was hurt in a 21-7 loss to Laurel. Tvedt’s possible return would obviously help Miles City, which has gotten big yards from another Dalton: Polesky, the senior quarterback.

“He’s an accurate thrower,” Columbia Falls coach Jaxon Schweikert said of Polesky. “They’re a spread team like us, and we both like to run the ball. They want to establish the run, get you in the box and then they have a lot of speed at receiver.”

Jackson Whicker is the speedster, while Aidan Cline is a more physical receiver. The Wildcats counter with quarterback Cody Schweikert, running back Isaiah Roth and receivers Cade Morgan and Jace Duval. Only one Class A receiver, Frenchtown’s Shelton (nine), has more TDs than Duval’s eight.

Libby at Billings Central

This is a matchup of run-happy teams, so don’t be late because this game could go quick. The Central Rams run out the Wing-T, and quarterback Adam Balkenbush throws just often enough to catch people sleeping.

Central’s stats are incomplete but through four games junior Kade Boyd was averaging nearly 11 yards a carry for the Rams.

The Loggers’ Ryder Davis is just as likely to keep it as throw and they have a surplus of runners besides: Cy Stevenson, Trevor Collings, Jace DeShazer.

Fairfield at Eureka

This is another rematch: Fairfield beat the Lions at home 26-19 on Sept. 10. After that the Eagles — State B runners-up last season, state champions in 2011, 2015 and 2018 — lost to Malta and, in a mild upset, Glasgow.

“They’ve got a fantastic running back in Miguel Perez,” Eureka coach Trevor Utter said. “He’s kind of the focal point of their offense.”

He was in September, running 18 times for 163 yards and three TDs.

The Lions’ other loss came to unbeaten Florence, and they won State B titles in 2016 and 2019. Leadership continues to be no problem: linebacker/H-back/kicker Danny Dunn; linemen Gavin Pilkington and Johnny Fehr; quarterback Caleb Utter and top running back Remington Little. Utter has run for 792 yards and 10 touchdowns; Little has piled up 567 yards and nine TDs on the ground.

“We’re kind of anxious to get another crack at it,” Trevor Utter said. “Because we feel like we’ve come a long ways.”

Bigfork at Glasgow

The Scotties’ 32-22 win over Fairfield on Oct. 1 snapped the Eagles’ conference winning streak at 48 games; a kickoff return sparked Glasgow, which also had a touchdown running and throwing from Mason Donaldson. Kyler Hallock is a 185-pound running back for the Scotties.

“They’ve got a couple good backs,” Bigfork coach Jim Benn said. “They seem faster this year than maybe year’s past. Defensively, they get after it.”

Benn faced Glasgow twice while coaching Malta, and went 2-0. That was then; now Benn has a different, more balanced team this year as well. Vikings quarterback Patrick Wallen has thrown for 960 yards and 14 touchdowns (to five different receivers), and Levi Taylor has run for 658 yards and eight scores.

“After last year we wanted to improve our passing game,’ he said. “We’re not having to grind it out and run it 60 times. We’re more effective because we can spread the ball around a little bit.”