Helena — It was a tale of two halves on Friday night at Vigilante Stadium between Helena Capital and Kalispell Glacier.
In the first, the Glacier offense, led by star QB Gage Sliter looked unstoppable, racking up nearly 300 yards and building a 27-14 lead. However, after intermission, Capital flipped the script and pitched a shutout, while scoring three touchdowns of its own in a 35-27 win that leaves the Bruins as the last unbeaten in Class AA.
“I just don’t think we were ready to play,” Capital head coach Kyle Mihelish said. “And I take the blame for that. Sometimes when you are having success and going into a big game, sometimes you react like Glacier did. They out-hustled, us, they out-hit us. They did everything. We dropped balls. We missed assignments. We missed tackles.”
Of course, it wasn’t all Bruin mistakes. In a battle of top-three teams in the AA rankings, the fireworks started early as the Wolfpack opened the scoring at the 10:16 mark of the first quarter when Sliter connected with Cohen Kastelitz on a 56-yard touchdown strike.
Capital also got on the board on a Sliter throw, one that was deflected and intercepted by Nick Michelotti, who returned it 30 yards for the tying score at the 6:22 mark of the first quarter.
On the next possession, Sliter who completed 12-of-18 passes for 208 yards in the first half, converted a 3rd-and-long with a 40-yard pass play. Jackson Henley eventually scored after taking a direct snap 30 yards to the house at the 2:32 mark in the opening stanza.
Yet, the scoring wasn’t over and Capital tied things up (14-14) less than two minutes later on a touchdown run by Hayden Opitz, which followed a 40-yard completion from receiver Nick Michelotti to Tom Carter.
Early in the second, Glacier made another big play as Kaid Buls caught a 75-yard pass which set up Hensley’s second TD run. Sliter and the Wolfpack closed the half on an eight-yard touchdown pass to Van Scholten and after 24 minutes, it was 27-14.
“They made a lot of big plays,” Mihelish said. “But we told the guys, you can’t lay down. You have to fight back and they did and we were able to make some adjustments.”
Capital’s playmakers also started making plays.
On a third-and-11 to start the third, Joey Michelotti connected with Opitz to convert and after an eight-play, 76-yard drive, Dylan Graham hit pay dirt from six yards out to cut the lead to six.
Soon after, Michelotti made his second game-changing play on defense. The first tied the score at 7-7, the second, which was also an interception of Sliter, swung momentum to Capital’s side for good.
“That was a huge momentum change for us,” Mihelish said of the interception. “Big plays are what generate momentum and we have to be the ones making them.”
In the first half, it was Glacier making the big plays. In the second it was all Capital and a couple plays after the interception, it was Carter’s turn to make a big play, hauling in a 31-yard reception from Joey Michelotti.
Two plays later, the 200-meter state champion was running into the end zone, giving the Bruins a 28-27 lead, their first of the game at the 2:57 mark of the third quarter.
“I just wanted to go make a play,” Carter said of his catch. “It was a good enough ball by the quarterback and I was just able to come down with it.”
It wasn’t Carter’s last big play of the night, or his final time in the end zone.
After what was the fourth sack of the game for Capital’s Talon Marsh (two in each half), Glacier was forced to punt the ball with just under 10 minutes left in the game, down by one.
The Wolfpack wouldn’t see the ball again until less than five minutes remaining on the clock. Capital QB Joey Michelotti converted a key first down by finding Opitz again and a few plays later, Carter found the end zone again on a 31-yard run that proved to be the dagger.
“There was a great block on the corner and I just hit a gear,” Carter said. “I was able to separate but we did a great job upfront. We are a hard-nosed football team. We know we have the guys up front and if we can run the ball, we are going to do it any chance we get.”
Closing out the game up 35-27 fell on the defensive front and they responded with four second-half sacks and a number of pressures on the final drive, despite just rushing three defenders.
“We came out flat at the start,” Marsh said. “We got into the locker room at the half and coach Mihelish really got us going. He said we couldn’t lie down. We had to keep fighting and were able to play together, not as one.”
The defensive transformation was something as the Bruins allowed just 74 yards in the second half, sacked Sliter four times, and picked him off once. He finished 19-of-30 for 249 yards but had just 41 passing in the entire second half.
In the tale of two halves, a huge part of Capital’s story was the run game and after notching just 15 yards on 11 carries in the first two quarters, the Bruins ran 19 times for 144 yards in the second half. Graham finished with 104 yards on 18 carries. Carter had three runs for 52 yards and two scores, as well as five receptions for 81. Joey Michelotti also finished 12-of-23 for 142 yards and had zero interceptions.
“As a coach, I would have been extremely disappointed if we came out in the second half and played down,” Mihelish said. “But our coaches challenged them. They challenged themselves and they responded.”