Bozeman downs Flathead

It was definitely a tale of two halves Friday night.

The Flathead Braves played listless football in the first half and dug themselves a four-touchdown hole against the visiting Bozeman Hawks.

The Braves, after a halftime personnel switch, outscored the Hawks in second half.

Unfortunately for Flathead (1-5), it was too little, too late as the Braves fell 34-14 to Bozeman (4-2) at Legends Stadium..

"I felt like we were lifeless everywhere," said Flathead coach Russell McCarvel of the first half.

"I was pretty disappointed defensively. It didn't seem like we were playing hard, like we were tackling hard. We couldn't put a full drive together," he said.

The Hawks ran over the Braves in the first half - senior running back had more than 125 rushing yards and two touchdowns and junior Tanner Roderick had two quarterback dives for touchdowns.

Meanwhile, the Braves couldn't put together a drive of more than seven plays.

So, Flathead moved former starter Mike VanArendonk to quarterback and moved sophomore George Sherwood to wideout for the second half.

VanArendonk was the starter at the beginning of the season, but broke his thumb in the Billings West loss three weeks ago.

"He came in and gave us a little spark," McCarvel said of the senior.

"I didn't really think that George (Sherwood) played bad. We just needed a spark. We worked on some option game (this week). With Mike's thumb, I didn't know if we could just line up and start throwing it around, but I thought maybe we could run the option. We worked on it a little bit this week and told Mike that if the situation arises, that would be something we would go to a little bit.

"The offense and defense kind of fed off each other for the first time. We were able to get some stops and make some plays on offense ... it was a nice way to finish, no question," McCarvel said.

"By the same token, George played pretty good wideout and defensive back. They both gave us good contributions. George went out and played a great second half defensively, batted a couple balls downs and caught a couple balls," he added.

It took a little while for the Braves to get going - Bozeman opened the half with an 84-yard scoring drive.

The first sign of the turning of the tide was a defensive stop. The defense followed that with a fumble recovery on Bozeman's next possession - and the Braves put together their first sustained drive.

VanArendonk gained 27 yards on the option and completed one pass to Dominic Eickert to get the Braves to the 2-yard line. Travis Ozegovich scored on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Ozegovich scored again, this time from four yards away, on Flathead's next possession.

Bozeman 7 21 6 0 - 34

Flathead 0 0 0 14 - 14

First Quarter

Bozeman - Tanner Roderick 1 run (Roderick kick), 6:19.

Second Quarter

Bozeman - TJ Leep 15 run (Roderick kick), 11:08.

Bozeman - Leep 1 run (Roderick kick), 5:30.

Bozeman - Roderick 1 run (Roderick kick), :00.

Third Quarter

Bozeman - Leep 40 pass from Roderick (Kick failed), 8:56.

Fourth Quarter

Flathead - Travis Ozegovich 2 run (Kick failed), 11:30.

Flathead - Travis Ozegovich 4 run (Trevor Beaman run), 3:41.

F B

First Downs 14 20

Total Net Yards 202 396

Rushes-yards 32-130 39-248

Passing 72 148

Comp-Att-Int 9-18-0 10-23-0

Fumbles-Lost 3-2 2-1

Individual Statistics

Rushing - Bozeman, TJ Leep 25-181, Tanner Roderick 12-57, Tanner Burgard 1-10, Trevor O'Brien 1-0. Flathead, Mike VanArendonk 7-45, Travis Ozegovich 16-71, George Sherwood 5-1, Zach Diest 1-4, Trevor Beaman 2-5, John Collins 1-4.

Passing - Bozeman, Tanner Roderick 10-23-148-0. Flathead, George Sherwood, 5-9-48, Mike VanArendonk, 4-9-24.

Receiving - Bozeman, Trevor O'Brien 4-34, TJ Leep 2-59, Jake Owsley 2-42, Heath Hunter 1-9, Matt Kallstorm-cho 1-4. Flathead, Mike VanArendonk 2-28, Jackson Spooner 2-17, Trevor Beaman 1-3, Dominic Eickert 1-6, George Sherwood 2-12, Travis Ozegovich 1-5.

Missed field goals: None.