In a fast-paced game of back and forth football, it really didn’t seem that close. A mere 11 yards.
A last minute defensive stop by Dillon left the Wildcats 11 yards short with 0:20 left in the fourth quarter, giving Dillon a 24-19 win in Columbia Falls on Friday night.
In a game full of big hits and turnovers, Columbia Falls created plenty of opportunities. Rather than waste them, quarterback Mitchell Wassam (#13) was able to find Kaleb Johnson (#19, 103 yards receiving) for three TD passes (6, 40 and 59 yards). Wassam finished the game with 7-19 passing for 147 yards. John Woody contributed 86 yards rushing on 21 carries.
Dillon had their struggles at times. Wassam (#13) grabbed a tipped-ball interception and the Wildcat special teams wisely took advantage of muffed receptions to recover two fumbled punt receptions. (Correction: Apologies to Dillon’s Torrey Vezina, who was mistakenly identified as fumbling two punts. Photos of the fumble sequences do not show the player’s entire number. Another punt reception photo sequence shows a different player whose # ends in 2 receiving, dropping a punt and recovering it. Now that I reexamine all the photos, I think it was the other player but I’m not positive so we’ll leave the muffs unassigned.)
As Wassam pulled off a clutch third down conversion inside Dillon’s 20 in the final minutes, it had the makings of a storybook ending, but it wasn’t to be.
| Wayde Martinson (#6) goes horizontal in a last ditch effort to snag Dillon’s MacKenzie McGrath (#81) |  |
| Kaleb Johnson (#19) tries to elude tacklers as John Woody (#24) approaches to throw a block. |  |
| Mitchell Wassam (#13) takes off down the left side as Nate Thompson (#11) welcomes Sam Parke (#20) to Columbia Falls. |  |
| In this three shot sequence, Johnson (#19) gathers in a Wassam pass… |  |
| …drives downfield taking McGrath (#81) with him while Toby Shepherd (#82) pursues, and … |  |
| …bulls his way into the end zone, as a young fan celebrates in the background. |  |
| As his defender tries to get up after slipping on the turf, MacKenzie McGrath (#81) gathers in the TD pass that breaks the Wildcats’ back. |  |