Bitterroot Game Day, October 28

a shot at the title Friday, October 28, 2011

Hamilton girls head to state championship game vs. Billings Central

LAURA LUNDQUIST / Ravalli Republic

2 - Ravalli Republic, Friday, October 28, 2011

LAURA LUNDQUIST - Ravalli Republic

The Hamilton girls’ soccer team won a hard-fought semifinal game against Whitefish last weekend after a thrilling shoot-out to advance to the state title game this Saturday.

Hamilton Lady Broncs looking for some payback DAVID ERICKSON Ravalli Republic

The Hamilton Lady Broncs are headed to the Class A state championship soccer game this Saturday against three-time defending state champions Billings Central. It’s truly a David vs. Goliath story, but for senior midfielder Casey Schifflett and her teammates,

Saturday is a chance for a little payback.

“They beat us 8-1 in the first weekend of the season,” she said.

“That was definitely tough. But we feel like we are a different team now and we’ve worked hard. I think we’re all ready to play them again.”

Billings Central has been an absolute juggernaut for the past

Ravalli Republic, Friday, October 28, 2011 - 3

several years. Last Saturday’s convincing 5-0 win over Columbia Falls was their 11th playoff victory in the last four seasons, including some victories over Hamilton, and they went undefeated for back-to-back seasons in 2009 and 2010.

For Schifflett and her teammates, though, Saturday is a chance to show that Hamilton belongs in the conversation with the best teams in the state.

“We’ve kind of had a semifinal curse the past few years,” Schifflett said. “We’re really excited to be playing for the state title, and we’ve really worked hard and come a long way as a team this year.”

The Hamilton girls won state in 2002 and made it back to the title game in ‘03, according to Greg Schifflett, but have since fallen short in the playoffs. They needed a heart-stopping shoot-out win over Whitefish last Saturday to make it back to the title tilt.

This Saturday’s outcome will depend on stopping the Lady Rams’ formidable offensive attack, he said.

“They have two really great forwards,” he said. “We have to limit their chances, and try to stop them from getting the ball. Billings Central isn’t a very big, physical team but they are a fast team.”

Billings Central junior forward Holly Davison and fellow attacker Allie Lucas – a duo coach Laurie Stergar told the Billings Gazette that she affectionately calls “Team Hally” – combined for four goals and an assist for the Rams last weekend against Columbia Falls. Lucas, just a sophomore, scored a hat trick that included back-to-back goals

15 minutes into the second half.

However, the Hamilton girls have some offensive weapons of their own with Schifflett, freshman revelation Bri Huggans, junior Jill Toews and others.

Coach Schifflett said that having a long road trip won’t be easy, but he expects nothing less than a great game.

“The girls are just excited, ready to play,” he said. “State championship games are what it’s all about. There’s nothing better.”

Saturday’s game is set for 10 a.m. at Rocky Mountain College in Billings.

Reporter David Erickson can be reached at 363-3300 or david.erickson@ravallirepublic.com

4 - Ravalli Republic, Friday, October 28, 2011

The Hamilton Broncs are headed to Libby this Saturday to face the Loggers in a Class A football playoff showdown.

DAVID ERICKSON - Ravalli Republic

Hamilton Broncs headed to Class A playoffs WHITNEY BERMES Ravalli Republic

The Hamilton football team is going to attempt to do something that has eluded the squad all season long – win on the road.

The Broncs will board a bus bound for Libby to take on the Loggers in the opening round of the Class A playoffs. The game kicks off on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Hamilton, which has a 4-5 overall record, has a perfect 4-0 record

at home, but is 0-5 outside of Hamilton.

“We’ve talked about that,” said first-year coach Travis Blome. “We have to figure something out between now and Saturday to motivate us to come and play a better game.”

But that doesn’t mean the Broncs aren’t excited to be in the postseason.

“We’re excited to make the playoffs,” Blome said. “It was a long year. Our kids are excited.”

Ravalli Republic, Friday, October 28, 2011 - 5

matchup is over four hours, Blome said that isn’t on his team’s mind.

“It’s a long drive for us, but we can’t really think about that,” Blome said. “We have to understand it’s just one game at a time.”

Ticket prices for Saturday’s game are $6 for students and $7 for adults. Student activity passes will not be honored.

No advance tickets will be sold. Tickets go on sale the day of the game at 11:30 a.m. at Logger Stadium in Libby. The Libby Logger Booster Club will offer an open invite tailgate lunch also starting at 11:30 a.m.

Reach reporter Whitney Bermes at 363-3300 or whitney.bermes@ ravallirepublic.com.

Congratulations to Branden Butt, Corvallis High School’s quarterback, on receiving the “Game Day Ball.”

He scored a touchdown in Corvallis’ upset win over Stevensville last Friday night.

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The winner of Saturday’s first-round game will move on to face a 6-3 Havre squad on the road in the quarterfinals on Saturday, Nov. 5.

The Libby Loggers come into Saturday’s matchup with a 5-4 overall record, 3-1 in Northwestern A play.

The Loggers have dropped two of their last three games. But they are coming off a tight 35-28 league win over Columbia Falls in the regular-season finale.

“Libby’s got a big fullback they rely on pretty heavily,” Blome said.

“Offensively, they are able to run the ball and defensively they get after the quarterback.”

Hamilton rounded out the regular season with a must-win victory over Anaconda. The Broncs outscored the Copperheads 26-8 in the second half on the way to a 40-20 win.

Quarterback Josh Bauder was 12 for 23 passing with 287 yards and three touchdowns. He tacked on a rushing touchdown from eight yards out.

Bauder’s favorite target was Tyler Murray, who came away with nine catches for 198 yards and three scores.

Michael Bienusa ran for 68 yards on 21 carries, punching in two touchdowns in the process.

“Offensively, we made some big plays when we needed to,” Blome said. “Defensively, we played well except for two plays.”

Blome said the key to winning will be his reliant playmakers making the big ones when it counts.

And while the drive to Libby for Saturday’s win-or-go-home

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6 - Ravalli Republic, Friday, October 28, 2011

david erickson- Ravalli Republic

Stevensville quarterback Caleb Vance said that for the Yellowjackets to stand a chance against a fiesty Whitefish team this Friday, they will have to limit their mistakes.

Yellowjackets to host Whitefish in playoff battle DAVID ERICKSON Ravalli Republic

The Stevensville Yellowjackets are back in the Class A football playoffs for the second year in a row, and they will be hosting the Whitefish Bulldogs on Friday night at 7 p.m. behind Stevensville High School.

Head coach Hank Praast said the Whitefish team is very similar to the 2010 version of the Yellowjackets.

“To be honest with you, they kind of remind me of us last year,” he said. “They had a tough year last year, but they worked hard and made the playoffs this year. They found a real good quarterback, he reminds me of Caleb Vance (Stevi’s quarterback). He runs, he’s really

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quick, he’s a playmaker. Their other quarterback they have throws real well, and they can put the other guy in the slot and turn him into a wide receiver. They play great defense. They had a tough year last year, but they worked really hard in the off-season. They’re playing with a lot of moxie right now. They played better than we did in their last game, that’s for sure.�

The ‘Jackets are coming off a tough loss in Corvallis last week, but Praast said he believes that was an aberration. “We just lined up incorrectly a lot, to be honest with you,� he said. “But you give Corvallis a lot of credit. Their kids played as hard as I’ve seen a team play. We gave up 3.8 yards a carry, that’s a lot.

And Corvallis stuck to what was working for them. We need to line up where we’re supposed to line up on defense. Offensively, we dropped passes and had penalties. It seemed like there was little things here and there that kept coming back to bite us, so we need to get that fixed.�

Praast said that hosting a playoff game was one of the team goals at the beginning of the year. “Stevensville hasn’t hosted a playoff game since 2005,� he said. “So none of the kids on the team know what that’s like. We set out to do that at the beginning of the year, and we accomplished our goals.�

Stevi quarterback Caleb Vance said he and his teammates know they are in for a fight. “We’re expecting they are going to pass a lot,� he said. “We’re hopefully going to get pressure on their quarterbacks and execute on offense. They have two really good quarterbacks.�

The Bulldogs’ defense is holding opponents to under 27 points a game, and they had a huge 52-7 win over Belgrade two weeks ago.

In that game, senior Whitefish quarterback Connor Donahue tossed three touchdowns, including passes of 40 and 53 yards to Logan Harwood. Fellow signal caller Chris Forrest had TD passes of 19 and 29 yards to Harwood and Bryce Wehrli. The Whitefish team is dangerous on both sides of the ball, and Stevensville will have to limit their mistakes if they hope to win.

Vance said he and his teammates are ready to move on from last week’s tough loss. “That game is over with, and there is a new game this week,� he said. “It still hurts, but we are learning from it. It was just a poorly executed game.�

Vance is proud that he has been able to be a part of the turnaround for the Stevensville football program, which suffered through several losing seasons before making the playoffs last year. “With coach Praast coming in, it’s a good new thing here,� he said. “We’re excited and we’re ready to rock on Friday night.�

Reporter David Erickson can be reached at 363-3300 or david. erickson@ravallirepublic.com.

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8 - Ravalli Republic, Friday, October 28, 2011

Florence Falcons earn wildcard playoff spot LAURA LUNDQUIST Ravalli Republic

david erickson - Ravalli Republic

The Florence Falcons lost a tough game against their rivals Loyola last Friday, but they will have to rebound against Bigfork this weekend.

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The Florence-Carlton Falcons are hoping to take to the air when they meet the Bigfork Vikings in the first round of the Class B playoffs on Saturday.

The Falcons enter the playoffs as a North-West wildcard with a 6-2 record, after coming off a tough loss to LoyolaSacred Heart, 27-7, on Friday night. The loss was the end bracket of an otherwise strong season that started with a front bracket loss to the Broadwater Bulldogs.

A steady rain pelted the players Friday night and might have hindered the Falcons’ passing game somewhat. But coach Terry Maki said the rain works both ways and Loyola was just a tough team.

Now comes Saturday’s contest.

The two-time defending Class B champion, Bigfork has lost only one game during the season. The good news for the Falcons is that the Vikings lost that game to Ronan, a team the Falcons beat handily 31-14 two weeks ago. But that same weekend, Bigfork beat Loyola

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21-12. “I think we have a chance against Bigfork, but we do every week,�

Maki said. “I thought we had a chance against Loyola. Bigfork will take a great effort.�

That effort is required because both Loyola and Bigfork are strong north-south running teams with big physical fronts, Maki said. So his defenders are really going to have to step it up.

The Falcons need to focus on shutting down the running of Cody Dopps. Dopps had a 55-yard run against Loyola, but really poured on the coal last weekend against Eureka, leading the Vikings to their 49-7 win.

Dopps tied a school record with five touchdowns, one of which was a 50-yard pass reception. So Dopps can be a double-threat, although the run is his strong suit. He ran 21 times for 271 yards against Eureka.

Maki said his team is going to have to throw the ball, and the partly sunny forecast for Saturday should make that easier. His quarterback, Zach Newbury, can pass and run, and demonstrated his versatility during Florence’s Homecoming game on Oct. 8. Newbury passed for five touchdowns and ran for another in a game where his total passing yards hit almost 270.

In the Falcons’ win against Ronan the following week, Newbury made a 10-yard pass to Riley Phillips for a touchdown. And last weekend, Newbury earned the Falcons their one touchdown in the Loyola game when he hit Dylan Reynolds with an almost identical pass. “If we can get the ball out to Dylan and Riley, they can do some great things,� Maki said.

But the Falcons will try to keep the Vikings guessing by keeping up a running game with the help of running back Tanner Cobbs. “We’ll just keep chipping away, down by down, and hopefully get lucky once in a while,� Maki said.

Maki’s team isn’t the only one staring down a champion. Maki himself will be pacing across the field from Todd Emslie, the 2010 Class B Coach of the Year. “Bigfork is really well-coached,� Maki said. “We’re not even looking beyond Bigfork at this point.�

The team might not be looking any further out, but Maki can’t help but keep an eye on the future. Pointing to the Montana High School Association’s Class B bracket, he said it appears to indicate that whoever wins Saturday’s game will have home field advantage for the follow-on game. So the Falcons could be playing the winner of the Choteau-Malta game in the Bitterroot Valley. “If we can win, it looks like we’d play Malta at home,� Maki said. “That would be good for us because Malta is tough.�

Game time is 1 p.m. on Saturday in Bigfork.

Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at 363-3300 or laura.lundquist@ ravallirepublic.com

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10 - Ravalli Republic, Friday, October 28, 2011

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Griz face distractions heading into Weber State game FRITZ NEIGHBOR for

Bitterroot Game Day

A tough win over Northern Arizona was in the books and questions about the legal problems concerning Gerald Kemp and Trumaine Johnson were declared off-limits, but there was plenty to talk about Tuesday: Weber State.

The Montana Grizzlies go from a tough win over possibly the best 2-5 team in the Football Championship Subdivision to probably the best 3-4 team around. The 11th-ranked Griz host Weber on Saturday at 1:05 p.m. inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

“They’ve played some tough opponents,” Montana coach Robin Pflugrad said of the Wildcats, who are 3-1 in Big Sky Conference games, with the loss coming at Eastern Washington, 27-21. “They really should’ve beat Wyoming in Laramie, which is hard duty - the elevation, the crowd, all those issues that come into play on the road.

“But Weber really had them beat up until the last 20 seconds of that game.”

The Wildcats led it for a couple minutes early and for almost 12 minutes late, before Wyoming scored on a touchdown pass to prevail 35-32. The Cowboys of the Mountain West Conference are 4-2.

Weber State also lost to future Big Sky foe Southern Utah, 35-28, Saturday, in Ogden, Utah.

“I believe Southern Utah right now would be tied with Montana State - undefeated in the Big Sky,” Pflugrad noted, and it’s not too big a reach. The 4-4 Thunderbirds are 2-0 against the Sky, including a 35-14 win over Sac State. They also won at UNLV, 41-16.

This is also a Weber State team that handed Montana a critical 30-21 loss last season in Ogden. The Wildcats have become a major rival, in no small part because of their success under sixth-year coach Ron McBride.

“I don’t believe our players will take Weber lightly,” said Pflugrad.

“They were the one team that last season pushed us around a little on both sides of the ball. ... We know where we stand and what’s at stake.”

Weber graduated record-setting quarterback Cameron Higgins but moved up backup Mike Hoke, like Higgins a Hawaiian, and hasn’t missed many beats on offense.

Hoke went 196 passes without an interception before throwing one in a 39-12 win over Idaho State on Oct. 15; he threw another last week, in a game in which the Wildcats had 11 penalties and two turnovers.

“Former Griz coach Tommy Lee knows him very well,” Pflugrad said of the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Hoke. “And his family over in Hawaii.

And he was very high on him last season.”

Lee spent a couple months as a consultant for Weber State in 2010; the former UM-Western coach also was UM’s offensive coordinator from 1986-90.

Montana defensive tackle Bryan Waldhauser remembers last year’s game well.

“We got pushed around,” he said. “I’d definitely say the front four for sure, and as a defense, we got pushed around. There were a lot of injuries, guys were playing hurt, but that’s football. That’s no excuse.

“I think we’re really looking forward to the opportunity to go out and show what kind of defense we are.”

The game was notable in that Vai Tafuna scored four touchdowns.

He’s gone but in his place is Josh Booker, a sophomore who has averaged 6 yards a carry for his career, and a few others running behind a solid offensive line.

“All you have to do is turn on the video,” Pflugrad said. “They don’t have super height but they are big, strong, physical blockers.

“The other thing Weber State brings is really a stable of tailbacks.

Where they just destroyed Sacramento State (49-17), they had four tailbacks that had to have close to 70, 80 yards each.”

Tanner Hinds, the most Tafuna-like of the backs (at 6-foot-9 and 200), had 104 yards in that game. Booker (6-0, 215) had 86 and Barrinton Collins had 70. C.J. Tuckett averages 58. Weber ran up 324 rushing yards.

“It’s going to be a challenge,” Waldhauser said. “But I like what I’ve been seeing out of our defense.”

Well, except for one thing.

“We didn’t tackle particularly well against NAU, and that’s a focus this week,” he said. “I feel like if we tackle and finish plays when we get a chance to make them, then we should be in a good position to win.”

There were some special teams oddities from UM’s 28-24 win over NAU: The Lumberjacks fair-caught every UM punt they could; and they kicked off the ball deep ... until they went ahead on Matt Myers’ field goal.

That fifth kickoff, Peter Nguyen fielded and took back 49 yards.

“Every once in a while there’s a thing called luck,” said Pflugrad.

“And I don’t know if we’ve had a whole bunch of it the last two seasons, but we’ll definitely take that one.

“Sometimes you prepare so well you get a little luck sometimes.

That’ll be definitely a thank you card to Coach (Jerome) Souers, or a Christmas card. Because I know he’s very frustrated, because he can’t explain it either.”

QUICK KICKS: Both Kemp and Johnson practiced Tuesday, though Kemp, who has an injured shoulder from the Portland State game, wore a non-contact jersey. ... Both remain in UM’s depth chart. ... Montana’s net punting at NAU was 43.9; NAU’s was 31.7. ... Weber is second only to Montana State in the Big Sky in total offense, at 443.3 yards. UM is sixth at 389 yards. ... Weber’s Booker (499 yards) and UM’s Jordan Canada (463) are 5-6 in Big Sky rushing. The league’s top rusher (930 yards) is MSU’s Cody Kirk of Frenchtown. ...

Canada was UM’s nominee for Big Sky offensive player of the week.

Brody McKnight was nominated on special teams. ... Sambrano’s 80-yard TD run tied him for the longest such run with four others in modern Griz history: Jefferson Heidelberger (2003), Mike Mickey (1975), Doug Egbert (‘75) and Bob Smith (‘73) are the others. ... The Griz dropped six spots in this week’s Sagarin Ratings, to 21st among FCS teams. Weber State is No. 38. MSU is No. 7, down one spot from last week. ... Weber gave up 32 second-half points last week. ... Hoke is the 12th-rated passer in the FCS, with a rating of 158.6.

NAU’s Cary Grossart (168.3) is fourth. ... Griz safety Mike McCord, who was shaken up near the end of the NAU game, practiced at full speed Tuesday.

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