Capital, West widen eyes to open season

By CARL HENNELL

CMR RB Prosperie rushes for 269 yards

The Daily Inter Lake

Although the Flathead High School football team did not open its season Friday night, the rest of Montana's Class AA did.

… And what an opening weekend it was. The two teams that battled for the state championship last year both graduated a ton of players but still trampled opponents. The top-ranked Butte High Bulldogs - which hadn't had a winning team in 14 years before last season - held off the Great Falls Bison, 15-10, in Great Falls to get their season started off on the right foot. And how about that double-overtime Helena High-Great Falls C.M. Russell game?

Billings West defended its state championshp with a big 42-14 victory over Missoula Hellgate. That's a pretty scary score for the rest of Montana considering the Golden Bears graduated 20 starters from last year's squad.

But it may have been Helena Capital that widened the most eyes across the state with a 42-7 victory over Billings Skyview. The state runner-up Bruins, who lost the state championship 21-17, returned only five starters from last year. They bulldozed the Falcons with a balanced offense. Junior quarterback Jared Hunt completed nine of 14 passes for 147 yards and eight different ball carriers rushed for 222 yards on 5.6 yards per carry.

Run-oriented Skyview, which comes to Kalispell Friday night to open the Braves' season, turned the ball over only twice in the lopsided loss. Eleven different Falcons combined to rush for 182 yards on 56 carries. Fullback Chris Molen led the way with 93 yards on 23 carries. Skyview's lone score capped a time-consuming 17-play, 77-yard drive in the second quarter that put the score at 14-7.

A ball-controlled, 90 percent-running offense will be an extremely tough test for the pass-heavy Flathead Braves.

West's victory was a hodgepodge of success against Hellgate. The Golden Bears had big punt and kickoff returns, forced six fumbles, scored on defense, had a running back (Nathan Ray) scored three touchdowns and had a quarterback (Gary Fox Jr.) go 8-for-12 for 135 yards while scrambling for 33 yards on just two carries.

Ironically, Hellgate rushed 67 times for 214 yards in the 28-point loss - and the Bears had a 35-6 halftime lead. The Knights come to Kalispell on final regular season Friday.

Butte High's victory was a nailbiter. The Butte offense gave the Bulldogs a 15-7 halftime lead then clunkered down in the second half. And Great Falls nearly rallied. But Butte's senior linebacker Connor O'Neill came up big twice in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.

Midway through the fourth quarter, the Bison had a six-play, 25-yard drive stopped on third- and fourth-and-1 on Butte's 19-yard line. O'Neill tackled junior running back Jeremy Strong on the fourth-down play.

Great Falls coach Gregg Dart was disgusted. "If we can't get our six seniors up front to get us six inches, it's going to be a long year," he told the Great Falls Tribune and Montana Standard. "Butte played like a veteran team … Give credit to the Butte defense."

After the turnover on downs, Butte chewed up about five minutes on offense before missing a 28-yard field goal. O'Neill sealed the victory on the Bisons' ensuing drive by recovering a fumble on the GFH 47-yard line.

Bengals 34, Rustlers 31 2OT

Both teams scored touchdowns and tacked on PATs in the opening overtime then CMR kicked a field goal to open the second overtime before halfback Jake Sandau scored from 10 yards out on Helena's first play to win it.

CMR senior halfback Christian Prosperie rushed for 269 yards and two long touchdowns but the Rustlers blew a 21-7 fourth-quarter lead when the Bengals scored two touchdowns in the final 3 minutes, 16 seconds.

Prosperie - a 5-foot-10, 160-pounder - scored a 77-yard TD on the first play of the second half to tie the game, 7-7, then gave CMR a 21-7 lead on an 84-yard TD with 6:36 left in the game. CMR took its first lead, 14-7, eight seconds after Prosperie's 77 yarder when it recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff and scored from 24 yards out on the next play.

But that wasn't the only dramatic game Friday night.

Bozeman beat Missoula Sentinel, 7-6, when the Spartans missed their fourth-quarter PAT. And Missoula Big Sky scored a TD in the final minute to beat Billings Senior 17-13.

Big Sky's victory was dubbed the "Frustration Bowl" by the Missoulian as both teams had to overcome mistakes in a "sloppy, entertaining and sometimes bizarre" game. There were lots of penalties, including a holding call that nullified what would have been the winning touchdown on the game's final second. There were plenty of offensive stars. Big Sky senior QB Steve Tuttle went 16-for-23 for 230 yards and a TD. Big Sky senior fullback Beau Donaldson rushed 23 times for 93 yards and the game's winning 1-yard TD with :57 left. Big Sky receiver Taylor Jordan had eight catches for 105 yards and a 32-yard TD. Billings Senior running back Marice Burroughs rushed for 113 yards and a 3-yard TD on 17 carries.

Bozeman running back Craig Baldrus rushed for 94 yards and the Hawks' lone TD in the first quarter and QB John Stinson added 87 yards on the ground. Inside the 2-minute mark of the game, Sentinel QB Jordan Graves hit Justin Mueller for a 33-yard TD. But the PAT went wide right.

"We talked about going for two," Sentinel coach Pete Joseph told the Missoulian. "There was a real strong wind, but our defense had been playing great and we felt like kicking it was giving our kids the best chance to win."

Graves went 16-for-36 for 167 yards and running back Cole Lockwood rushed for 92 yards on 17 carries.

Class AA

Standings

Bozeman 1-0

West 1-0

Butte 1-0

Capital 1-0

Helena 1-0

Big Sky 1-0

Flathead 0-0

CMR 0-1

Great Falls 0-1

Hellgate 0-1

Sentinel 0-1

Senior 0-1

Skyview 0-1

Results

Bozeman 7, Msla. Sentinel 6

Blgs. West 42, Msla. Hellgate 14

Butte 15, Great Falls 10

Capital 42, Blgs. Skyview 7

Helena 34, CMR 31 (2OT)

Msla. Big Sky, Blgs. Senior 13

Schedule

Butte at Blgs. Senior

Blgs. Skyview at Flathead

Blgs. West at Helena

Bozeman at Msla. Sentinel

Highland (Idaho) at Great Falls

Msla. Big Sky at CMR

Capital at Msla. Sentinel