Raptors in town for Flathead home opener
A tough beginning set up Flathead for the fall last week, but now the Braves get to play a football game at home, against a similarly young opponent.
The Gallatin Raptors bring a 1-0 record from Bozeman for the battle at Legends Stadium, having beat Missoula Big Sky 13-3. Week two of the Class AA season also has Glacier visiting Great Falls Russell tonight.
Flathead is coming off a 34-7 loss at Billings Skyview in which it quickly fell behind 21-0.
First-year Braves’ coach Alex Cummings stayed positive about the trip.
“I look at them and see us,” he said of the Falcons. “I’ve watched them the last couple of years trying to build that program and they came out and just executed.”
An opening kickoff return for a touchdown sparked Skyview, which then forced a punt and scored again.
“My big takeaway is we have to eliminate mistakes,” Cummings said. “We had the ball in the red zone four times and had three red zone turnovers. That’s just unacceptable. We did do a better job moving the ball in the second half. We just need to finish drives.”
Highlights included junior quarterback Jackson Walker throwing for 122 yards and running for 70; tight end Caleb Riley had six catches for 60 yards.
On defense linebacker Chase Youso had an eye-popping 20 tackles.
“He is just an animal,” Cummings said of Youso. “He is all over the field.”
Gabe Lake added another 14 tackles and Ben McConnell nine for Flathead, and Matt Melby had a sack. The group is tasked with stopping an offense led by quarterback Braeden Mikkelson and running back Bryce Mikkelson.
Receiver Noah Dahlke is a big-play threat, and he and 6-foot-5 Tyler Nansel man the cornerback spots on defense. The Raptors played a lot of man-to-man on the outside against Big Sky, Cummings noted.
“Gallatin looks pretty good,” Cummings, who played alongside Raptors’ coach Hunter Chandler at MSU-Northern, added. “They’ve got a couple good looking kids, man. A little size to them. They play hard.”
Glacier had an easier time with Belgrade, cruising to a 52-0 win behind three touchdowns running from Jake Rendina and three more passing from Gage Sliter.
Sliter looked very sharp in his first start, completing 16 of 20 passes for 200 yards. Rendina, generally the offensive focus in 2020, had 14 carries for 74 yards.
“Being able to find some good play action is key, and obviously we need to get the ball to Jake,” Glacier coach Grady Bennett said. “If we can keep people honest and find people in our short passing game, that’s going to help us.”
Being solid on first down — Bennett calls it, “Playing ahead of the chains” — kept the Wolfpack in cruise control.
On defense Aiden Krause and Rendina had sacks, sophomore strong safety Kash Goicoechea shined in his debut and senior defensive end Rueben Hornby stood out.
“He was injured all offseason. I honestly wasn’t sure he was going to play,” Bennett said of Horby. “And he had three tackles for loss. It was great to see.”
C.M. Russell has a running back, Jackson Simonson, that reminds Bennett of former Glacier standout Preston Blaine.
Cole Taylor triggers the offense and had an impressive 18-for-31, 243-yard passing performance in the Rustlers’ last-gasp 37-35 win over Missoula Hellgate last week.
“They do a nice job with their RPO (run-pass option) game, and they use Taylor as almost a true option look where he can run it or throw it,” Bennett said. “It’s kind of a new twist. Their look is a little bit unique in putting a little more pressure on the edge.”
Raef Newbrough was the top CMR target last week, catching five catches for 96 yards. Beyond that Bennett is impressed with the Rustlers’ under second-year coach Dennis Morris, a CMR alum.
“I think Coach Morris has done a good job of returning energy and enthusiasm to that program,” Bennett said. “You can just see it; what he’s building back into that program. Having CMR be a good program, that’s a good thing for Class AA for sure.”