Friday Night Gridiron Recap

Big Sky        7-2
Loyola         6-3
Sentinel       4-4
Hellgate       0-9

Week nine in Missoula high school football had playoff implications all over the board, two teams looking to host with a win and a third needing a win to stay alive in the postseason hunt.

The Big Sky Eagles went into Friday night’s game looking at hosting the first round of the playoffs with a win over the Glacier Wolfpack. The Eagles rumbled out to a good start with a touchdown on the legs of their leader, Levi Janacaro. With the help of good field position through the first half, Big Sky found themselves with a 27-14 lead at the break. The second half would be filled with fireworks as the Wolfpack mounted a comeback, but the Eagle’s would hold Glacier off and secure a 43-41.

Friday night under the lights at Rollins field would be the final regular season game for a number of Loyola Ram seniors, and night would start with honoring them. Things did not look good for the Rams out of the gate as Ryan Tirrell fumbled the ball on the opening play getting the hand off from Scott Twite. Coach Hughes settled his boys in and the on the legs of the their three headed running machine the Rams picked up a 28-8 win over the Florence Falcons to secure home field for next weeks first round playoff game against Malta.

For the second week in a row the Sentinel Spartans would take to the road, with this weeks trip a must win situation to secure a postseason birth. The Helena Bengals looked to play spoiler to the Spartans as they took an earlier 13-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. Sentinel found the end zone in the second quarter to make it 13-7 Bengals, but Helena had other plans and held a 19-6 lead over Sentinel at the break. Helena continued to keep their foot on the pedal and cruised to a 40-17 win over the Spartans.

The Hellgate Knights played their second road game in a row Friday night under the lights in Kalispell against the Flathead Braves. The Knights were able to find their way into the end zone to lead the game 7-0 right out of the gate. The Braves settled in on the offensive side of the ball and lead the Knights 33-7 at the half. Flathead went on a spree in the third quarter scoring 23 unanswered points to lead 56-7 after three quarters. Hellgate was able to earn another eight points in the fourth to finish the night with a 56-15 lose to the Bengals.