2 hours away, the Greatest Show on Turf
The obvious question for Noah Fincher is if she wore pink cleats to match the shoes she’s worn the last couple basketball seasons.
“I wish I had,” the Glacier High junior said this week. “That would have been sick.”
In reality turf shoes (white) were optimal for Glacier’s inaugural flag football season, which ended with a state championship, won 20-19 in overtime at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
Fincher was a force, running under a Kai Johnson bomb for a 62-yard touchdown, then catching another TD pass from Karley Allen in OT, and then the PAT pass that turned out to be the deciding point.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention who Glacier was playing: Crosstown rival Flathead was the opponent, and the Bravettes had plenty to do with the eventual success of the Wolfpack.
Namely, after Flathead ran up 60 points and didn’t allow any in an early season jamboree with Glacier and Butte High, Wolfpack coach Mark Kessler figured he’d better retool.
“We saw what they did the first game and tried to minimize their best players,” said Kessler, referring to Flathead quarterback Harlie Roth and flanker Akilah Kubi. “They’re just phenomenal athletes. So they needed extra attention.”
Flathead still jumped ahead 6-0 on Saturday — Roth scored on a 10-yard run — and would have been up more if Johnson hadn’t made a goal-line interception to blunt another Bravette drive.
Fincher’s first TD, along with Staicia Thomas’ PAT catch, put Glacier back in front. It took a while but Roth hit Quintenn Tennisen with an 8-yard TD pass as Flathead retook the lead.
Tennisen’s score made it 13-7 with 1:55 remaining.
“The clock runs continuously until one minute is left,” Kessler noted. “Things were looking – I don’t want to say grim, but it was, ‘This is going to be a challenge.’ Flathead has a great defense, as far as scoring. But we had some stuff dialed up.”
It was Allen that caught an 8-yard pass from Johnson, tying the game 13-13 in the final moments of regulation.
Fincher added her second TD in the first overtime; Glacier answered with a 2-yard touchdown run by Roth and then went for two, meanwhile a PAT attempt from the 10-yard line instead of 3 (which is worth one point).
Roth was for once hemmed in and tackled — literally — before she could find a receiver.
“I’d say it got pretty physical,” said Fincher, who helped set up Allen’s TD with a 30-yard reception. “More toward the end especially, because it was, ‘If we don’t do this now, we don’t get the first flag football championship.’”
Full disclosure: Just three teams competed in this first season. There were still plenty of trials and drama. Fincher emerged as a receiver when teammate Kiera Sullivan tore an ACL.
“Kess,” as he is called, moved Fincher out from center; Thomas moved into center. On defense Fincher took Sullivan’s safety spot as well, while Morgan Smith and Bella Gillett handled the corner spots.
Add in players like Kenadie Goudette, Emma Cook and Zoe Allen, and Kessler had a squad.
“I’d argue that these two teams, Glacier and Flathead, could compete in a lot of these states that have already been doing this a couple years,” Kessler said.
Georgia has led the way in the sport, and by extension the Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons set up a trip to Seattle for both teams to attend their game with the Seahawks. It was exhilarating and exhausting; a reward for a job well done.
“Honestly it was everything I hoped times 10. A great group of girls to work with,” Kessler said. “It was a great game — a GREAT game. Awesome to be a part of.”
Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 758-4463 or fneighbor@dailyinterlake.com.