Opening Weekend Recap

Late August brings us the opening weekend of the high school fall sorts and the student athletes return to the halls of Missoula area high schools. Prep golf started a few weeks ago, but the remainder of the sports kicked off their 2018 fall sport seasons Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

On the football field the Missoula teams would go a combined 2-3 with the Loyola Rams and the Sentinel Spartans earning big wins, while Big Sky, Hellgate, and Valley Christian look to regroup. AA football started on Thursday when Big Sky made the long road trip to Billings to play the West Golden Bears and the Eagles returned homer 0-1 on the season. Friday brought the rest of prep football play with Hellgate falling to the Hawks in Bozeman, and Valley Christian dropping a game to West Yellowstone. For the winners it was the Loyola Rams who played a special game at Bobcat Stadium in Bozeman against Huntley Project and used all phases of the game to score a victory, and Sentinel played host to Skyview with the Spartans earning their first win of the year.

High school volleyball started in Montana Friday night with Couer D’Alene coming to town to play Sentinel Spartans and Hellgate Knights at Hellgate and the Spartans dominated against the Vikings in the inter-state match. Loyola made a trip to Mission for the annual tip off and played with inspiration, while Hellgate show improvements against both Couer D”Alene on Friday and Bozeman on Saturday.

Prep AA soccer in Montana begins with the annual Helena and Great Falls Jamborees and Hellgate returned with the same tenacity they have been known for at the Helena Jamboree. Big Sky and Sentinel returned to the Great Falls Jamboree and both teams showed they are squads that are contenders in AA boys and girls soccer. The Loyola boys and girls made a trip to Billings to play Billings Central on Friday and Laurel on Saturday, and the boys looked seasoned, while the girls faced a tough pair of girls A soccer teams and gained experience.

The Missoula AA Schools hosted the MCPS Golf Invite on Monday and Tuesday with Monday bringing rain for the first time in many years challenging the golfers. Driving the ball in the rain was not the problem, and the moister did not effect the put to much, but it was the approach that made the high school golfers work for their score. Tuesday was a clearer day giving the prep golfers a better chance to battle for the top of the leader board on the two day tournament. Fighting through the Hellgate winds at the Canyon River golf course players rallied to improve on their overall score with good game in the sun.