Flathead fired up to battle Bulldogs

The Flathead Braves of 2023 have moved the football capably, second-year coach Caleb Aland noted this week. It’s the last 25 yards or so that have been difficult.

With the explosive (and first-place) Butte Bulldogs coming to Legends Stadium Friday for a Western AA battle, racking up some points will be important.

“We’ve only been good about finishing drives in one game, and that was Belgrade,” said Aland, whose 1-3 club beat the Panthers 17-14 on Sept. 1. “It seems like we get to the 25 and we look for ways to shoot ourselves in the foot. If we can eliminate that, I like our chances.”

Glacier, coming off an encouraging 35-7 win over Helena, travels to take on winless Missoula Hellgate in another Western AA game.

Butte at Flathead

The Bulldogs’ 3-1 record (2-0 in league) is notable for comeback wins over both Billings West and, two weeks ago, Glacier.

“Going back and watching the Glacer game — that was the one I was most curious about — it looked like they just got desperate and started throwing go routes,” Aland said of the Bulldogs, who scored 28 fourth-quarter points against the Pack. “Usually when you throw the go-balls you’re not consistent, but they hit about three out of four.”

It helps that Bo Demarais has stepped in so nicely at quarterback for Butte; he has three excellent receivers in Rueso Battermann, Hudson Luedtke and Cayde Stajcar.

Aland said Stajcar, a corner, and linebacker Kyler Stenson stood out on film but noted neither played in the Bulldogs’ 36-29 win over Missoula Big Sky last week. Trey Hanson is the Bulldogs’ top rusher.

Brett Pesola has thrown for 581 yards for the Braves, and a good number of them — 271, on 14 catches — have gone to Brody Thornsberry. Stephen Riley has another 11 catches for 173 yards.

Jaden Williams has run 39 times for 123 yards this season, and one touchdown. The Braves are coming off a 46-7 loss at Missoula Sentinel; they trailed 14-0 at halftime, thanks in part to a pick-6.

“We made a lot of Day 1 mistakes last week,” Aland said. “Our defense held them to seven points in the first half. It’s disappointing because our defense has played pretty well and our offense has put it in difficult situations.”

Aland said a tendency to try to do too much was part of the reason for six turnovers.

“We’re trying to eliminate those and if we play our brand of football, we should be OK,” he said. “We have good playmakers: Go execute. When we can do that, we’re pretty good.”

Glacier at Hellgate

The Wolfpack did a convincing job of putting that Butte loss behind them with the win over Helena; coach Grady Bennett’s goal now is to keep them focused on an 0-4 opponent.

“We just have to really make this about us,” he said. “I was interested to see how our guys were going to come back this week. I really think that the Butte loss, as ugly and hard as it was, taught us a lot of lessons.

“They don’t care who their opponent is now, they know we have to be at our best each and every week.”

Hellgate has some athletes like receiver Parker Link and quarterback Rylen Davis.

“They’re young,” said Bennett. “They have a big sophomore class. I think they feel their future is good.

“They like their freshman class, and they liked last year’s freshman class. Ryne (Nelson, the Knights’ head coach) is a good guy and good coach and I know he’ll get things going. They just have to hang in there.”

Glacier has a large set of playmakers led by receiver Cohen Kastelitz, running backs Kobe Dorcheus and Kash Goicoechea and quarterback Jackson Presley.

Defensively, linemen Aiden Krause and Henry Sellards made things tough on Helena last week; Linebacker Kaleb Shine is the top tackler.

It’s a crew that figured to be 4-0 and isn’t, and has responded well.

“We had our best practice of the year on Tuesday,” Bennett said. “I like where we’re at.”