Football Roundup: Bigfork Blanks Troy; Columbia Falls Overwhelms Corvallis

The high school football season kicked off last weekend with several of our local teams picking up big victories. Here’s a breakdown of the scores.

Columbia Falls 48, Corvallis 12

Senior quarterback Dakota Bridwell passed for six touchdowns to lead the Wildcats to a monster victory over Corvallis at home on Friday night.

Columbia Falls erupted for 41 points in the second quarter. Braxton Reiten scored three TDs, including an 80-yard kickoff return and Trevor Hoerner caught three touchdowns from Bridwell. Sean Miller added a touchdown.

The Wildcat defense limited Corvallis to two TDs, including a 78-yarder.

Columbia Falls (1-0 overall) hosts Stevensville (2-0) on Sept. 2.

Bigfork 62, Troy 0

Matt Farrier scored four touchdowns and the defense shut out the Trojans as the Vikings picked up an impressive road victory in the season opener.

Farrier rushed for two TDs, caught a pair of scoring passes from new quarterback Augie Emslie and returned an 82-yard kickoff for a score.

Emslie also connected with Anders Epperly for a pair of TDs in the first quarter, including a 65-yarder. Luke Taylor rushed in a touchdown and returned an interception for a score.

Bigfork (1-0) hosts Ronan (0-1) on Sept. 2 at 7 p.m.

Glacier 35, Helena 7

Tadan Gilman combined for three touchdowns and passed for 334 yards to lead the Wolfpack to a big win over the Bengals in the season opener in Helena.

Gilman, a senior in his first season as the team’s starting QB, was 19 of 32 for 334 yards and no interceptions to lead Glacier. He rushed in a 1-yard score in the first quarter and connected with Drew Turner on a 35-yard TD in the fourth. Turner finished with three scores and 123 yards rushing on 26 carries. Patrick O’Connell caught a 23-yard TD pass in the second and finished with 36 yards receiving. Pepe Larson had 78 yards receiving, Scout Willcut had 50 yards receiving and Andrew Durado had 75 yards.

The Wolfpack defense held Helena to 192 yards, including only 14 yards rushing, and only one TD.

Glacier (1-0) travels to Bozeman (0-0) on Sept. 2 to play the defending state champs. The Hawks did not play last week.

Great Falls CMR 41, Flathead 31

The Rustlers outscored the Braves 28-17 in the first half and held off a late rally to defeat Flathead in the season opener.

Great Falls CMR piled up 492 yards of offense to overwhelm Flathead.

Seth Adolph tallied 161 yards — 70 rushing and 91 receiving — with a 37-yard TD run in the first quarter to put the Braves on the scoreboard first. Cody Cusker kicked a 26-yard field goal to put Flathead up 10-0. Tanner Troutman recovered a fumble for a TD as Flathead jumped ahead 17-7 early in the second quarter before the Rustlers scored 28 unanswered points. Blake Counts added a 1-yard TD for the Braves and James Flannigan caught a 16-yard TD pass from Bridger Johnson late in the fourth quarter.

Johnson finished 12 of 31 for 189 yards with an interception. Johnson added 22 yards rushing.

Flathead (0-1) hosts Helena (0-1) on Sept. 2 at 7 p.m.

Havre 18, Whitefish 6

The Blue Ponies outscored the Bulldogs 12-6 in the second half to pick up a season-opening victory.

Tyler Cote scored Whitefish’s lone TD, a 39-yard pass from Derek Kastella late in the fourth quarter. Cote finished with 42 yards rushing and 54 yards receiving.

Kastella was 16 of 26 for 121 yards passing.

Whitefish (0-1) travels to Dillon (0-0) on Sept. 2 for a rematch of last year’s Class A title game.