Last-minute Gulick TD lifts Whitefish over Bigfork
WHITEFISH — This one will be talked about for years to come.
Carson Gulick dove and flipped into the endzone on fourth-and-goal with 48 seconds left to put Whitefish ahead of Bigfork for a 24-21 victory Friday in the first round of the Class A football playoffs.
Gulick’s heroics came after Bigfork erased a 17-0 deficit to take the lead midway through the fourth quarter.
“In the first half I thought we played good, sound, fundamental football,” Bulldogs coach Brett Bollweg said. “A lot of credit to Bigfork, they played a heck of a game. They came out after halftime and capitalized of some great things and made it a heck of a Friday night in Whitefish.”
Gulick finished the evening 15-for-30 through the air with two touchdowns and two interceptions; he added 11 rushes for 30 yards and a touchdown. Riley Zetooney added 105 yards on the ground on 16 carries.
“It was just a total team effort,” Gulick said. “I thought we played great both ways.”
After a scoreless first quarter, the Bulldogs broke the ice with a 5-yard touchdown pass from Gulick to Scotty Dalen on a jump ball in the corner of the end zone. Dalen caught four passes for 43 yards and the score.
“I think with the group of guys we have, we have really good chemistry,” Dalen said. “I just appreciate Gulick and my coaches for trusting in me to go make the grab. I was just thinking that I was going to go score.”
Whitefish doubled the advantage later in the second as Gulick found CJ Thew from 3 yards out, and the Bulldogs led 14-0 into the halftime break. Thew finished with five catches for 30 yards.
Out of the half the teams traded interceptions as Alex Ochs picked off Gulick — who made up for it on the next play, intercepting Cole Schmit to set Whitefish up in the red zone.
The Vikings’ defense held strong and forced a Tait Orme field goal from 22 yards out to make it 17-0 Bulldogs.
Needing points on their next possession, Bigfork got them as Schmit found Tamret Savik in the back of the end zone for a 21-yard score on third and 20.
The Vikings were right back in the game as they intercepted Gulick again — this time by Austin Savik — and on the first play Schmit found paydirt from 8 yards out.
After a Whitefish three-and-out, Bigfork took the lead midway through the fourth quarter as Tayden West scampered in for the 8-yard score.
“Our boys grew up a lot in that second half,” Bigfork coach Hunter Johnson said. “A team with two seniors to come back and take the lead in the second half ... I can’t be more proud of these boys. The sky’s the limit for this team next year.”
That set the table for Gulick, who led the Bulldogs downfield converting multiple fourth downs. After Bigfork shut Whitefish down three times from inside the 5, it all rested on a fourth-and-goal from the 2.
“I thought to myself, ‘If its open, I want the ball in my hands.’ “ Gulick said. “I trust everyone on the team to make a play, but I know what I can do and I went out there and did it.”
“It was a little option, we were trying to get him out of the box,” Bollweg said. “Any time Carson’s got the ball in his hands, something special can happen.”
The Bulldogs took the lead on Gulick’s Elway-esque leap.
The defense then closed out the game in the final seconds, forcing the Vikings into an incompletion on fourth down to heal the victory.
For Bigfork, which ended up 5-4, Schmit threw for 85 yards on 7 of 22 passing. The Vikings managed 212 yards of offense to 287 for the Bulldogs.
Whitefish (7-3) now faces a long road trip to take on the top seed in the East — Billings Central — next week.
Bigfork 0 0 14 7 - 21
Whitefish 0 14 3 7 - 24
W — Scotty Dalen 5 pass from Carson Gulick (Tait Orme kick), 7:54 2Q
W — CJ Thew 3 pass from Gulick (Orme kick), :56 2Q
W — Orme 22 kick 7:43 3Q
B — Tamret Savik 21 pass from Cole Schmit (Quinn Kerr kick missed), 4:21 3Q
B — Schmit 8 run (2-point pass good), 3:12 3Q
B — Tayden West 8 run (Kerr kick), 5:41 4Q
W — Gulick 2 run (Orme kick), :48 4Q