Tristan Butts has become a big-play receiver for unbeaten Eureka

Trevor Utter was a sophomore in high school when Jeff Casazza set Eureka’s single-game record for receiving yards: 193, in 1991.

“It was a weird thing,” Utter, in his 12th season as the Lions’ head coach, remembered. “Jeff was fast, and we were at Conrad, and it was three passes. They were stacking the box, and Jeff just ran deep. Eighty-yard bomb, 80-yard bomb…”

And, if our math is correct, one 33-yarder.

This past Saturday in Eureka, receiver Tristan Butts broke that 32-year-old record, catching six passes for 201 yards in a 40-0 win over Thompson Falls. He hauled in three touchdowns, giving him six scoring receptions this season.

As Eureka heads down I-93 to play fellow unbeaten Florence Friday at 6 p.m., it seems the 6-foot-3 senior baseball standout — he hit .348 and played catcher for the American Legion Glacier Twins this past summer — is making a name for himself on the gridiron.

“He’s a baseball guy,” Utter said, then continued: “And football and basketball guy. He’s kind of always had baseball as his first love, but he might be flipping to the reality of football being a better option for college.

“The trouble is Tristan plays baseball all summer and doesn’t do the (college) camps.”

Butts’ football numbers are, at least by Class B standards, gaudy. He has 21 catches for 493 yards for the 6-0 Lions. Not that every game has gone like the one against Thompson Falls.

“The week before against Loyola, they put a safety over the top of me,” said Butts, who had three catches for 18 yards in a 33-13 win over the Rams. “(The Blue Hawks) just played Cover-2 with no safety help, and I was covered one-on-one. And I took advantage I guess.”

Butts has also run for another 193 yards and two more scores, which makes sense when you remember last season — with senior All-State QB Caleb Utter out with

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an injury — he played quarterback and ran for 763 yards and threw for another 538.

“We move him around a lot,” Trevor Utter said. “He’s kind of the guy that goes in motion and we try to recognize coverages and try to get him matchups. He’s a super smart kid — a 4.0 student. Anything I ask him to do, he’s fully capable.”

Last season, despite being pressed into quarterback duty, Butts still caught nine passes for 238 yards and five touchdowns. Towards the end AJ Truman — second cousin to Jason Truman, the quarterback who threw the ball all over the place from 1989-91 — took a lot of snaps.

This fall the younger Truman, a slender 6-4 senior, has stepped in nicely at quarterback.

“He’s been doing great,” Butts said. “He’s always been a quarterback, I guess, since we’ve been playing. It’s been great to have him out there. The line’s given him time to throw, and he’s done well.”

Add in Caden Pecora (454 yards, 6.7 a carry) at tailback and the Lions have a more balanced offense than in 2022, when they finished 6-4 — including a 48-15 loss to Florence.

“Last year they outplayed us everywhere,” Butts said. “They were just more ready. I don’t think the skill gap was as big as the score showed, I think they were just more prepared than we were.”

Florence went on to win a second straight State B title; Eureka won in 2016-17 and 2019, so Friday’s matchup features schools that have combined for five of the last seven state championships.

The Falcons replaced their quarterback (Mason Arlington) and several receivers (but the excellent Tyler Abbott is back and has nine TDs) and continue to pile up big numbers passing and overall.

We’re in week seven of the season already, and eventually Butts will have a decision to make. He plans to play for the Twins again, but he also wishes to be an engineer — “I’d just like to make something, create something useful in the world,” he said — and wonders if he might walk on at Montana State, or draw interest from Montana Tech.

There’s no doubt in Utter’s mind he can play, somewhere, but first things first: The Lions are on the hunt.

“One last season,” Butts says. “It makes you realize how much you enjoyed it.”