Class A playoffs: Dillon Beavers rein in Havre Blue Ponies

By Bill Foley - 11/09/2008

HAVRE — The Dillon Beavers had to travel more than 650 miles round trip to play a Class A playoff football game on Montana's

Hi-Line.

It was the Havre Blue Ponies, however, who were the victim of a long drive Saturday.

Dillon senior quarterback

Bryce Carver capped a 91-yard third-quarter drive with a 9-yard TD run — his third of the game — to break the backs of the Blue Ponies in a 21-7 Dillon win at Blue Pony Stadium.

The win puts Dillon (8-2) into the semifinals, where they'll play host to defending champion Billings Central next Saturday at Vigilante Field. The Rams beat Columbia Falls 27-13 Saturday in Billings to move on.

"It was huge," Carver said of Dillon's nine-play, 91-yard march to make it a 21-0 game with 2 minutes, 37 seconds left in the third quarter. "It just shows the heart of this team. Nothing gets them down."

Carver's TD run came two plays after he found junior Garrett Banning for a 40-yard pass play to the Havre 14-yard line.

More importantly, the long drive gave the Beavers offense life it hadn't had since scoring two

first-quarter touchdowns.

"That really was the key to the second half when we were able to take that ball inside the 10-yard line and drive it all the way down and score," Dillon coach Terry Thomas said. "That was just a tremendous drive of mixing in some runs, some pass, some big plays, and just getting the first down to get us some more plays."

The Beavers opened the game making things look easy.

Carver broke loose for a 39-yard touchdown run the first time the Beavers touched the ball.

On Dillon's next drive, junior running back Sam Parke took a screen pass 44 yards to the

Havre 1 to set up a 1-yard TD plunge by Carver.

Sophomore linebacker Monte Folsom picked off a Beau Briese pass to end Havre's ensuing drive, and it looked like the rout was on.

The Ponies, though, stopped the bleeding and showed off the defense that helped Havre win five straight games and the Central A title.

"They changed up a lot how

their backers were playing," Carver explained. "They tried to keep us inside and not run outside so much. They did a good job of bringing blitzes and keeping pressure on us."

The Dillon defense was pretty impressive, too.

Of course, it helps when you have a two-score lead that early.

"It gets the momentum going," Thomas said. "When you get a couple of scores on the board you don't really relax, but at least you don't have that pressure that have to."

With Folsum, Carver, Matt Sawyer, Tanner Strozzi, Josh McRae and Tyler Dyk leading the way, the Beavers put together probably their best defensive game of the season.

"That was just tremendous," Thomas said. "We did a nice job taking away the inside power run, we rallied to the pass, we took away the screen game. The kids just really did their job. God, we couldn't play much better on defense, that's for sure."

Havre's lone touchdown came with 34 seconds left in the game when elusive senior quarterback Beau Briese, the younger brother of former Montana Tech fullback Levi Briese, hit Mike Hickman over the middle for a 10-yard TD strike.

The Blue Ponies (7-3) also appeared to find the end zone on the final play of the first half when Briese rolled out and hit for a 31-yard pass.

Briese, however, was a yard past the line of scrimmage when he threw the ball, and the penalty wiped out the score.

Briese passed for 120 yards. He ran for 36. His twin brother, Adam, ran for 37 yards, while Hickman hauled in five passes for 75 yards.

Carver, who accounted for all 21 Dillon points after kicking the PATs, used six receivers while passing for 178 yards. He found Banning five times for 58 yards.

Junior running back Evan Helle, who ran for 52 yards, and junior receiver Toby Shephered each caught four passes. Strozzi, Parke and Travis Rehm also caught passes for Dillon.

Carver, who also picked off a pass, ran for 106 yards on 26 carries.

"Everything starts with Bryce," Thomas said. "He's really a threat to run and pass the ball. He had another great game."

A win next week will put the Beavers in the championship game for the fourth straight year.

Billings Central beat the Beavers in last year's title game in Dillon. The Rams edged Dillon in overtime early this season in Billings.

"It will be a good revenge game," Carver said. "I've made a lot of good friends with half the kids on their team, so it will be fun playing against them."

Thomas said his team has improved a lot since the September meeting with the Rams.

"We've come a long way since the first of the year. We've learned a lot, and our kids are more experienced," the coach said. "I think we'll have a lot of fun getting after it.

"Right now we really feel like we're playing with confidence and we've got some things going."

Dillon 14 0 7 0 n 21

Havre 0 0 0 7 n 7

First Quarter

DIL n Bryce Carver 39 run (Carver kick), 8:47

DIL n Carver 1 run (Carver kick), 6:12

Third Quarter

DIL n Carver 9 run (Carver kick), 2:37

Fourth Quarter

HAV n Mike Hickman 10 pass from Beau Briese (John Perrodin kick), :32

DIL HAV

First downs 16 12

Rushes-yards 40-171 32-116

Comp.-Att.-Int 15-23-1 13-29-2

Passing yards 178 136

Total yards 349 252

Punts-Ave. 7-34.3 7-42.1

Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-0

Penalties-yards 10-117 7-98

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING n Dillon, Carver26-106, Evan Helle 11-52, Sam Parke 3-13. Havre, B. Briese 10-36, Adam Briese 7-37, Kent Pattison 6-13, Jarret McLain 6-9, Ethan Hinebauch 2-13, Nate Christianson 1-8.

PASSING n Dillon, Carver 15-23-1-178. Havre, B. Briese 12-27-2-120, Jordan VanVoast 1-2-0-16.

RECEIVING n Dillon, Helle 4-32, Toby Shepherd 4-16, Garrett Banning 3-58, Tanner Strozzi 2-15, Parke 1-44, Travis Rehm 1-13. Havre, Hickman 5-75, Christianson 3-24, Tyson Gruber 2-30, VanVoast 2-3, McLain 1-4.

Billings Central 27, Columbia Falls 13

BILLINGS — Aleksei Grosulak and Tyler Hawkins have been playmakers all year for Billings Central. The Rams needed all they could provide to subdue Columbia Falls 27-13 in the Class A quarterfinals Saturday afternoon.

Central ran up leads of 14-0 and 21-7 in winning its 22nd consecutive game and 10th in row this season. Things, however, did get dicey late in the game when the Wildcats scored a touchdown with three minutes left and then recovered an onside kick.

The Wildcats went nowhere and the Rams tacked on an insurance touchdown in the final seconds to secure a semifinal berth against Dillon. Columbia Falls finishes at 6-4.

"We didn't play our best, but we got a W and we're moving on,'' Grosulak said. "That's all that matters.''

Grosulak ran for 218 yards and scored three touchdowns. On defense, the 190-pound linebacker made an interception, a sack and dished out several other big hits.

Hawkins gained 100 yards and caught a 55-yard pass that set up the Rams' third touchdown. The senior safety also knocked down a pass to end the Wildcats threat after the onside kick recovery.

"We got tested a little bit,'' Hawkins said. "They were a good test for us and it's on to Dillon now.''

Central finished with 374 yards and the Wildcats had 263.

Both No. 2 seeds will host next week as Central (10-0) goes to Dillon (8-2) and Frenchtown (8-1) travels to Miles City (10-1). Central defeated Dillon in last year's state championship game and also edged Dillon 41-35 in the third game of the regular season this year.

Columbia Falls 0 7 0 6 — 13

Billings Central 14 7 0 6 — 27

First quarter

Central — Aleksei Grosulak 7 run (run failed) 7:41

BC — Grosulak 91 run (Kevin O'Brien run) 45.5

Second quarter

CF — John Woody 5 run (Mackey Nolan kick) 10:10

Central — Grosulak 5 run (Cody Linde kick) 40.9

Fourth quarter

CF — Kaleb Johnson 15 pass from Mitchell Wassam (pass failed) 3:05

Central — O'Brien 6 run (kick failed) 39.8.

CF BC

First downs 16 15

Rushes-yards 27-11 49-319

Comp-Att-Int 19-38-1 2-5-0

Passing yards 252 55

Total yards 263 374

Punts 4-36 5-24

Fumbles-Lost 1-0 1-0

Penalties-Yards 3-25 9-64

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing — CF: Stephen Baumgartner 11-14, Woody 3-9, Nolan 6-minus 1, Wassam 7-minus 11. Central: Grosulak 24-218, Tyler Hawkins 13-100, O'Brien 4-29, Max Tolstedt 3-minus 1, Cole Moller 1-minus 10, Cole Cattelan 4-minus 17.

Passing — CF: Wassam 19-38-1-252. Central: Cattelan 2-5-0-55.

Receiving — CF: Johnson 3-48, Wayde Martinson 3-33, Tanner Perry 2-81, Nathan Thompson 2-31, Baumgartner 2-31, Dustin VonFeldt 2-16, Quenton Hegel 2-8, Nolan 2-minus 2, Woody 1-6. Central: Hawkins 2-55.

Frenchtown 14, Hardin 7

FRENCHTOWN — Frenchtown middle linebacker Biller Miner intercepted a pass in the end zone with 43 seconds left in the game to secure a 14-7 quarterfinal victory over Hardin in the Class A football playoffs Saturday at Henrie Lavoie Field.

Hardin twice converted on fourth-and-long on its final drive before quarterback Ryan Gratwohl threw a pass over the middle that was picked off by Miner.

No. 4 Frenchtown, now 8-1, will travel to Miles City for a semifinal matchup next Saturday. No. 2 Miles City upended Polson 26-20.

Hardin finished the season 7-4.

Frenchtown junior running back Jonny Dilworth rumbled in from 5 yards on the Broncs' first possession of the third quarter for the go-ahead score. Cody Kirk converted the two-point conversion to give Frenchtown the 14-7 lead.

Neither team could mount much of a charge the rest of the second half, however.

Hardin fumbled twice in the second half, both times in Frenchtown territory. The Bulldogs finished with four turnovers in the game.

Kirk led the Broncs with 113 yards rushing. Dilworth added 100.

Drew Zelka rushed for 62 yards for Hardin.

Hardin 0 7 0 0 n 7

Frenchtown 0 6 8 0 n 14

Second quarter

F n J.D. Undem 2 run (kick blocked), 5:52

Third quarter

H n Nathan Murphy 1 run (Tristan Costa kick), 1:12

Third quarter

F n Jonny Dilworth 5 run (Cody Kirk run), 6:05

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

Rushing n Hardin (30-144): Drew Zelka 13-62, Chris Muhlbeier 10-46, Martin Old Horn 5-30, Nathan Murphy 2-6. Frenchtown (70-308): Cody Kirk 21-113, Jonny Dilworth 15-100, J.D. Undem 14-39, Daniel Aichlmayr 13-28, Brad Nordahl 7-28.

Passing n Hardin: Ryan Gratwohl 4-17-1n63, Zelka 1-1-0n29. Frenchtown: Aichlmayr 1-5-0n7.

Receiving n Hardin: Darin Oleyte 1-39, Old Horn 1-29, Zelka 1-20, Cody Clark 1-13, Gratwohl 1-(minus-9). Frenchtown: Nordahl 1-7.

Miles City 26, Polson 20

POLSON — The Cowboys opened up with a big 79-yard scoring strike from Jordan Bryant to Hayden Kalfell and it was off to the races for Miles City.

Bryant threw for three touchdowns and 207 yards with no interceptions, while Brennan Haughian carried the ball 19 times for 127 yards, including a 5-yard scoring sprint.

Down 12-0, Polson rallied with a touchdown pass and run from Craig Bagnell, but the Cowboys held tight thanks to a 45-yard toss from Bryant to J.T. Keith.

Miles City 12 8 0 6 — 26

Polson 0 6 7 7 — 20

First quarter

MC — Hayden Kalfell 79 pass from Jordan Bryant (Jimmy Harding kick missed) 7:13

MC — Brennan Haughian 5 run (pass failed) 00:47

Second quarter

P — Craig Bagnell 1 run (run failed) 10:15

MC — Kyle Stanton 18 pass from Bryant (Haughian run) 3:57

Third quarter

P — Tim Rausch 3 run (C. Bagnell kick) 00:37

Fourth quarter

MC — JT Keith 45 pass from Bryant (kick failed) 5:11

P— Kyle Bagnell 4 pass from C. Bagnell (C. Bagnell kick) 2:57

MC P

Rushing 34-178 41-160

Passing 9-14-207 14-23-183

First downs 13 17

Penalties-yds 4-50 4-25

Fumbles-lost 2-2 0-0

Individual statistics

Rushing — Miles City, Brennan Haughian 19-127, Cord Berg 7-25; Polson, Tim Rausch 16-94, Joe Andrews 10-39, C. Bagnell 12-16

Passing (com/att/yds/tds/int)— Miles City, Bryant 9-14-207-3-0; Polson, C. Bagnell 14-23-183-2-1

Receiving — Miles City, Kalfell 3-107, Keith 1-45, Stanton 2-44; Polson, K. Bagnell 7-71, Ryan Kelley 4-41, Andrews 3-54, Brock Picard 1-13