5 hours Ago By Chris Peterson 406 MT Sports
HELENA — If you feel like the high school football season just started, you aren't alone. But that doesn't change the fact that the playoffs begin Friday night. Four AA teams have earned the right to skip this weekend as Bozeman Gallatin and Helena Capital earned the top seeds in their respective conferences.
Kalispell Glacier and Billings West will also be off this week with first-round byes. Since Class AA adopted this format, No. 1 seeds are unbeaten before facing each other in the championship round, meaning no seed lower than a No.
1 has reached the title game. Teams with first-round byes are 13-3 overall in the Class AA quarterfinals and no team playing on the first weekend has ever made the state title game. There's always a first for everything though and here's a look ahead at the four first-round matchups in the Class AA high school football playoffs.
. The Bison are the only team ranked in the in action this week and they will play host to the Butte Bulldogs, who are fresh off a 42-0 loss at the hands of Helena Capital. Butte won a playoff game against Great Falls High back in 2022 on the same field and in order to get a repeat of that, quarterback Colton Shea will need to have a big night.
He's averaging 235 total yards per game. That's the same number as Great Falls High quarterback Riley Colette, who does more damage on the ground than Shea and throws for 227 per game. The Bison average 30 points per game and behind a stellar pass rush, they allow 22 per game.
Butte is scoring 23 points but the defense gives up 28.4. The Bulldog passing attack is dangerous though and if they can protect Shea, Sam Sampson (720 receiving yards and 6 TDs) and Hudson Luedtke (559 receiving yards, 7 TDs) should be able to do some damage.
That won't be easy considering the Bison have two most productive pass rushers in Class AA, Colter Devoss (13.5 sacks) and Isaac Tolan (8.5 sacks).
Another thing to watch is the fact that the Bison average 218 rushing per game on the ground, especially after the Bulldogs surrendered over 200 to the Capital Bruins last week. CMR and Helena High are meeting for the first time since 2019 when they also met in the first round of the playoffs. Helena won that game but each team enters Friday's contest coming off a loss.
The Bengals lost in double overtime to Missoula Big Sky. Prior to that, the Bengals won three games in a row to earn a home playoff game. Wideout/defensive back Jaxan Lieberg has been a huge part of that push with 706 receiving yards and a Class AA-leading 14 touchdown receptions.
Helena quarterback Mac Lundstrom has also been on fire, which might be the biggest difference from earlier this season. The senior tossed 11 touchdown passes over the last month of the season compared to just one interception. For the season, he's tied for fourth in Class AA in touchdown passes (19) and had the second-fewest interceptions of any regular starter.
The Bengals average 353 yards per game, while the Rustlers average just 219 yards per game to go along with 12 points per game. QB Caleb Taylor and running back Keegan Fuller (96 rushing yards per game) lead the offense for CMR and will face a Helena defense led by Alex Swenson (8.5 sacks) and Carter Petre (three interceptions).
In addition to his 8.5 sacks, Swenson leads Class AA with 18.5 tackles for loss.
. There are lots of similarities between Billings Senior and Missoula Big Sky, not the least of which is that both teams scored exactly 168 points this season (18.6 ppg).
The Eagles and Broncs also possess some of the most productive tacklers in Class AA as six of the top seven play for Big Sky or Senior. Class AA's leading tackler is Senior's Ryan Barnhart (119 tackles) and is followed by Big Sky's Colter Jensen with 100. Despite less than 300 total yards last week, Big Sky notched a 35-34 win over Helena to get the No.
3 seed in the Western AA. The Eagles rushed for 160 yards and quarterback Avery Omlid managed 154 total yards (38 rushing) and two touchdowns in the win. Like Omlid, the Senior offense goes much the way of quarterback Ryder Murdock, who accounts for 208 total yards per game.
Omlid averages 212. One big difference between the two teams is that Senior has allowed 11 more points per game than the Eagles defense which doesn't bode well for the Broncs on Friday night, especially since the Eagles have held three of their five home opponents to single digits. Bozeman, the defending state champions, lost three games in a row during the middle of the season but have bounced back with consecutive wins ahead of a playoff game against Sentinel on Friday.
The Spartans were blown out by Glacier last week and on paper, the Hawks have the edge. They average more than 200 yards on the ground behind Brady Casagranda (702 rushing yards) and QB Kash Embry (549 rushing yards) who are each among the top 10 in rushing yards in Class AA. Embry has also thrown for 1,285 yards this season and has 23 total touchdowns (12 rushing).
Sentinel averages just 18 points per game and doesn't have a player that ranks among the top 10 in Class AA in passing yards, receiving yards or rushing yards, so points could be hard to come by against a Bozeman defense allowing 21 points per game..
