As the season begins to wind down, top ranked teams look to solidify their spots in the state playoffs. Here’s a quick look at this week’s matchups.
Class AA: The Bozeman schools remain entrenched in the top two spots and earned top-two seeds after two more triumphs, the most notable being Gallatin’s 27-6 handcuffing of Billings West — the Raptors’ first triumph against the Golden Bears in their short history. Lurking behind the Hawks (8-0, 6-0) and Raptors (7-1, 5-1) in the rankings is Kalispell Glacier (7-1, 5-1), which has won five games by an average of 39.4 points since its 28-27 shocker defeat at Butte (6-2, 5-1) on Sept. 8.
Upcoming Class AA game of the week: Glacier gets to stay at home in Legends Stadium, but it’ll be against the top team from Missoula — the Sentinel Spartans (4-3, 4-2).
Class A: This top-heavy class seems to be angling toward a state-final showdown between No. 1 Dillon (7-0, 5-0) and No. 2 Billings Central (8-0, 4-0), both of which have improved as the season progresses. The Beavers have faced more challenging competition, having KO’d No. 3 Corvallis and No. 5 Hamilton, but the Rams have been increasingly dominant, especially on defense where they’ve held six of eight foes to single-digit points.
Upcoming Class A game of the week: Quietly hovering just out of the top five, and working on a four-game winning streak, is Laurel (6-2, 2-1), which hosts Lockwood (5-3, 2-1) for second place in the Southeast A.
The rankings for Oct. 16 are:
Class AA
- Bozeman (8-0)
- Gallatin (7-1)
- Glacier (7-1)
- Helena (5-3)
- Butte (6-2)
Class A
- Dillon (7-0)
- Billings Central (8-0)
- Corvallis (6-1)
- Lewistown (7-1)
- Hamilton (5-2)