In this last regular season home game of 2008, the Cats showed the home crowd that they were in fine form.
If you blinked and missed the first quarter on this unseasonably-warm night in CFalls, you weren’t alone. Bigfork might have wished they missed it as well.
When the second quarter began, Mackey Nolan already had two touchdown runs totalling 84 yards, three successful PAT kicks and over 100 yards in rushing. After one quarter, Columbia Falls led 21-0.
But they weren’t done there.
Nolan slowed down a little after that, or perhaps more accurately, handed the torch to John Woody, who rushed for one score and returned an interception for another. The entire roster seemed bent on turning things around from the Polson game and giving the home crowd plenty to cheer about, which kept the game fun despite the lopsided score. Nolan took things back into his own hands in the second half, scoring two more rushing touchdowns to bring his total to four for the game.
Even with a four touchdown lead and Columbia Falls clearly having the game in the win column, Bigfork players continued to put in great second effort to make first downs, while Columbia Falls first stringers and reserves were doing the same to stop them.
Perhaps best of all, the crowd got the chance to see a lot of “clean jerseys” – in other words, younger players who might not have seen much varsity game time prior to Friday night.
Naturally, there are more photos…
In this sequence, Wayde Martinson (6) and Travis Knoll (24) battle one-on-one in the open field after Knoll cut through a hole. Even while laying on the ground, Martinson never gave up, and in the last frame, Knoll finally goes head over heels to end the play.
Dustin VonFeldt (5) sheds the Vikings’ freshman defensive back Cody Dopps (25) and heads down the sideline for big yardage.
Quenton Hegel (10) looks for a good angle to the goal line late in the game as running back/defensive back Travis Knoll (24) takes his turn on the other side of the ball.
After evading Bigfork’s Shane Hessler (64), John Woody (24) heads upfield.
