Butte stuns Wolfpack, 28-27
BUTTE — Down 21-0, the Butte Bulldogs scored 28 fourth-quarter points Friday, then blocked an extra-point kick with 12 seconds left to preserve a 28-27 win over the Glacier Wolfpack.
Rueso Batterman caught scoring strikes from Bo Demarais covering 23, 57 and 43 yards, all in the final 11 minutes of the game.
“Kind of feels like one of those, ‘Snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory’-type games,” Glacier coach Grady Bennett said after his team fell to 2-1, and 0-1 in the Western AA. “We felt we were in total control. We got down deep a couple times, and didn’t score, and felt like we could have been 35-0.”
The Wolfpack turned it over on downs twice in Bulldog territory, and Butte (2-1, 1-0 in leauge) also recovered a fumble at its 31. Then the Bulldogs, who scored 21 straight points to beat Billings West on Aug. 25, got hot — especially after Torre Tempel intercepted a Jackson Presley pass and returned it 25 yards for their second TD.
“Momentum is such a crazy thing,” Bennett said. “Like I told (Bulldogs coach) Arie Grey after, credit Butte, their coaches and their kids. They kept after it and made some great plays and won it.”
Glacier piled up 437 yards, including 266 passing from Presley, who threw two touchdown passes to Cohen Kastelitz, and another to Alex Hausmann.
The second one to Kastelitz came just 25 seconds after Butte went up 28-21 on Betterman’s third touchdown. The Wolfpack covered 57 yards in three plays, the last 36 to Kastelitz.
Then Butte blocked the PAT, and that was that.
“I tell you every week, if you don’t play your best Friday night, anybody can beat anybody,” Bennett said. “Credit Butte, but we did not play well. I felt like our defense played great all night, but we didn’t help out our defense at all. We left them on the field the whole second half. That’s on us, offensively.
“I know these kids will respond. This might be the best thing for a team like this.”
Kash Goicoechea had a 40-yard touchdown run and finished with 87 yards on eight carries. He also had nine tackles on defense. Carter Lake and Kaleb Shine each had 10 stops.
Kole Johnson, Hausmann and Bridger Smith all picked off Demarais passes.
Kobe Dorcheus ran for 86 yards on 22 carries for the Pack. Kastelitz had 100 receiving yards.
Glacier 0 14 7 6 - 27
Butte 0 0 0 28 - 28
G — Kash Goicoechea 40 run (Rhett Measure kick), 4:01-2Q
G — Alex Hausmann 25 pass from Jackson Presley (Measure kick), 1:12-2Q
G — Cohen Kastelitz 10 pass from Presley (Measure kick), 7:58-3Q
B — Rueso Battrman 23 pass from Bo Demarais (Boyd DeWitt kick), 10:54-4Q
B — Torre Tempel 25 interception return (DeWitt kick), 10:35-4Q
B — Batterman 57 pass from Demarais (DeWitt kick), 6:30-4Q
B — Batterman 43 pass from Demarais (DeWitt kick), :37-4Q
G — Kastelitz 36 pass from Presley (kick blocked), :12-4Q
Individual Statistics
RUSHING: Glacier (37-171) — Goicoechea 8-87, Kobe Dorcheus 22-86, Kaleb Shine 1-1, Presley 6-minus 3. Butte (36-84) — Trey Hansen 17-81, Karson Pumnea 10-39, Sterling Tymofichuk 1-minus 4, Team 2-minus 5, Demarais 6-minus 27.
PASSING: Glacier — Presley 17-30-1 for 266 yards. Butte — Demarais 22-44-2 for 286 yards.
RECEIVING: Glacier — Kastelitz 8-100, Van Scholten 2-55, Kole Johnson 2-36, Evan Barnes 2-33, Hausmann 1-25, Measure 1-11, Bridger Smith 1-6. Butte — Hudson Luedtke 9-73, Batterman 5-140, Cayde Stajcar 4-34, Tocher Lee 3-21, Will Taylor 1-18.