Wildcats Hold Off Broncs To Earn First Class A Football Title

The Columbia Falls Wildcats claim their first Montana Class A football title in school history after beating the Hamilton Broncs 26-14 in front of the Wildcat home crowd on Saturday.

The Wildcats hosted their third state football title game in school history Saturday, the second being in 2016 when they lost to the Beaverhead County Beavers 34-17. Columbia hosted and appeared in their first title game in 1970 when the Havre Blue Ponies beat the Wildcats 34-18. The Hamilton Broncs have seen the title game multiple times in their history with the Broncs going in 1997, 1998, and 1999, with Hamilton winning the Class A title back to back in ’97 and ’98.

Columbia Falls and Hamilton battled in the opening week of the season with the Wildcats scoring late to squeak out a 23-20 win over the Broncs. Saturday’s game started out to be a repeat of the first meeting with the Wildcats holding a 10-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. Hamilton found their feet in the second and marched down the field and put themselves on the board with a touchdown to pull within three.

The Wildcats started the second half with a 16-7 lead and the ball and promptly drove down the field, but the Bronc defense would hold and for the third time on the day Hamilton forced Columbia Falls to a field goal. Late in the third Hamilton went on a drive that resulted in a touchdown to start the fourth quarter. The Wildcats put a drive together for themselves in the fourth and after am Austin Green 42 yard touchdown pass, the Wildcats put the dagger in the game and played keep away with their run game to hold off the Broncs.

The number one offense in Class A was held in check by the Wildcat defense only gaining a season low 269 total yards and 14 points. The Columbia Falls defense was anchored by their three front lineman who were lead by their defensive captain, 6’1″ 240 Logan Kolodejchuk who set the tone early.

It would be the ground and pound game of the Wildcats that would prevail on Saturday as their two headed run machine in junior running back Colten McPhee and quarterback Austin Green. The offensive line of Columbia Falls owned the line of scrimmage allowing McPhee to rip off large chunks at a time. The Wildcat running game put up a stagering 369 yards despite Hamilton holding to force turnover on downs multiple times.

Columbia Falls finished the season with a 9-1 record with their only loss coming in week two to the Beaverhead County Beavers 16-14. The Hamilton Broncs ended their season with a Class A runner up and a 10-2 record. Both teams will return an impressive underclassman squad for next season.