As Montana High School Football Playoffs Continue This Weekend, Three Flathead Valley Teams Remain

As the Montana high school football playoffs continue this weekend, three Flathead Valley teams remain in the mix.

The Glacier Wolfpack, coming off a bye week in the AA playoffs, will host the Butte Bulldogs Friday night in a 7 p.m. quarterfinals matchup at Legends Stadium in Kalispell.

Saturday, both the Columbia Falls Wildcats and the Whitefish Bulldogs, who have advanced to the Class A quarterfinals, will face off against a pair of Yellowstone County teams in the Laurel Locomotives and the Billings Central Rams.

Both games are away games, with the Wildcats playing first at 1 p.m. at Laurel High School. The Bulldogs will play the Billings Central Rams at 7 p.m. Saturday at Rocky Mountain College in Billings.

Glacier

It’s the second year in a row that the Kalispell’s Glacier Wolfpack started the Class AA playoffs with a bye week, and head coach Grady Bennett says his team modeled their approach to the long layoff similarly to how they handled it last year.

Seeing it as an opportunity to not only rest and get healthy, Bennett said that his position coaches also used practice time last week to focus on improving fundamental skills and techniques.

“I think it was really good, I think it was kind of a reset,” Bennett said. “I feel like the players handled it really well last year, and same as this year.”

The head coach doesn’t expect the upcoming match with Butte to be one without emotion, citing the lingering memories of a 28-27 loss to Butte in 2023 in which the Wolfpack held a 21-0 lead entering the fourth quarter.

In week three of this year, Glacier hosted Butte for a rematch, which ended in a 49-14 win for the Wolfpack. Bennett said his players were “pretty motivated” going into the September game, but to some degree he believes the shoe is on the other foot, with Butte being unhappy with the loss.

“We know they’re going to come up and bring their best, and it’s going to be a great, hard fought, tough game,” Bennett said.

Butte comes into this week 4-6 on the season, and fresh off a 21-17 win against the 6-4 Great Falls Bison in the first round of the playoffs. The Bulldogs entered the playoffs as the sixth seed in the western portion of the playoff bracket, while the Wolfpack are the no. 2 seed in the west.

The Wolfpack have dropped just one game this year, a 35-14 away loss to Helena Capital in early October. Since then, the Wolfpack have outscored opponents 147-17. The Wolfpack offense is led by junior quarterback Jackson Presley, a Boise State commit who has thrown for 2,096 yards with 19 touchdowns and 5 interceptions in addition to rushing for 130 yards and 8 touchdowns.

Bennett said his team is relatively young, with a lot of juniors and some sophomore getting significant playing time.

“Early on, I think those kids were trying to get their feet wet, and understand what AA football is like,” he said. “We are so much further along.”

Across the board, he thinks his team has improved over the course of the season, and the coach said he is excited about this week’s Friday night game.

“This team, I’ve kind of said it all year, they’re a great combination of high character kids—just a really, really good group of young men, as far as character, and the way they are on and off the field,” Bennett said. “But they’re also really willing to play tough, nasty, physical football.”

While this year’s senior class is small, the coach described their leadership as having been important in helping their younger teammates build confidence. Right tackle Ben Winters, for example, is the sole senior on the offensive line.

“He’s done a fantastic job leading them all year,” Bennett said. Senior linebacker, tight end and special team player Mark Ahner, and running back Kobe Dorcheus have also set good examples for their younger teammates, according to Bennett.

In the last game the Wolfpack played, a 56-10 win over the Missoula Sentinel Spartans, Dorcheus rushed for 121 yards on 23 carries and scored four touchdowns, while Ahner racked up 12 tackles and three tackles for a loss.

As for being the home team this week, the coach said he’s hoping people show up to support his team on Friday, saying that his players draw energy from the home crowd, which has been great throughout the season.

Columbia Falls

While it’s his first year as the head coach at Columbia Falls, Kelly Houle has been a part of the Wildcats coaching staff for 21 years. Over that multi-decade span, Houle said to his knowledge, this is the first time the Wildcats will have played Laurel. Laurel (7-2) is the no. 2 seed in the eastern part of the Class A playoff football bracket, while Columbia Falls (7-2) is the no. 3 seed in the west.

The newness of the opponent has placed more value on the Wildcats film study of Laurel to better understand just how the Locomotives like to play. By Houle’s estimation, Laurel is a big, physical team, that likes to run the football and possess the ball. He thinks that their offensive line will be the best the Wildcats have played so far this year, and said that those same offensive lineman also play on the Locomotives defensive line.

The Wildcats are expecting Laurel to try and establish the run, and utilize tight end-heavy sets and two back looks. On the flip side, Laurel’s defense seems to make stopping the run game a point of emphasis.

As for his own team, Houle sees an offensive unit that is multi-dimensional, with the ability to throw the ball or run the ball based on what defensive looks they see. The Wildcats’ quarterback is sophomore Banyan Johnston and the coach has confidence in his receiving corps, including outside receivers junior Easton Brooks, senior Cooper Ross and a trio of sophomore inside receivers in Jory Hill, Jett Pitts and Daniel Contreras.

Over the course of the season, Houle thinks that his offensive line is the most improved position group on the team. That unit is made up of seniors Rowdy Crump, Carson Reid and Lane Voermans, junior Kaden Kaber, and sophomore Tristan Anderson. The last four games the coach has seen them come together, and last week’s run game success is a testament to how the unit has been playing.

In a round one 42-16 win against Corvallis, the Wildcats rushed for about 260 yards, and it’s something that Houle walked away from the game satisfied to see. Defensively, his team earned three turnovers, including two interceptions and a fumble recovery. In his team’s last three games, Houle said they are plus-12 in turnovers.

“That always gives you a chance of staying in and winning football games,” Houle said, adding that the Wildcats defense has been playing outstanding all year long. With a strong linebacking crew, and a secondary that Houle believes has 10 interceptions across the Wildcats last three games. Up front, Houle said that Voermans, a 6-foot 255-pound senior nose guard, is one of the best interior defensive lineman in the state.

Houle credited his coaching staff with the success the team has seen so far this year and emphasized how much they care about the players, and the quality of their game planning.

Heading into the game against Laurel, the Wildcats are riding a six game winning streak, with their last loss coming in week three against Dillon, the same team they fell to in the Class A championship game last year. Since then, Columbia Falls has notched three shutout wins and outscored opponents 224-38.

“The culture of our team right now, the brotherhood, is really outstanding,” Houle said. “We love each other. One of the things we talk about all the time is it’s really hard to beat trust and love. We trust each other, we love each other, we believe that our brother next to us is going to do his job so that allows us the freedom to do our job without worrying about him.”

Whitefish

The Class A playoffs got going for the Bulldogs last week with an exciting 24-17 home win over the Bigfork Vikings. The game came down to its final seconds, with KSAM 1240 reporting that down 21-17, senior quarterback Carson Gulick and his teammates put together a game-winning drive that resulted in a go-ahead touchdown with 48 seconds remaining.

The score that kept Whitefish’s season alive came on a quarterback keeper from about two yards out, with Gulick rushing right, diving over one defender, and then being hit in his legs in mid-air by a second Vikings defender. The collision upended Gulick and sent him pinwheeling into the end zone with his legs straight up in the air and his head on the ground.

For the Bulldogs head coach Brett Bollweg, the way his team played last week is indicative of the grit and desire to win he says they’ve shown all season.

“They’ve really done a nice job of never feeling like we’ve been out of any game on one end or the other. They’ve stayed focused, even in games where we’ve been fortunate to win big. They’ve stayed focused and rallied behind the guys that have been in the game,” Bollweg said. “And you know, they’re there for 48 minutes. And nothing short of that.”

The coach said he’s emphasizing toughness, and bringing the fight this week against a “really good” Billings Central team. The Rams are undefeated on the year, and have given up just one touchdown since week five. The no. 1 seed out of the east in the Class A bracket, Billings Central had a bye last week. Whitefish, the no. 4 seed out of the west, is 7-3 on the year, and has strung together a five-game winning streak heading into Saturday’s game. Since week six, Whitefish has outscored opponents 221-53, and posted two shutouts.

Whitefish has relied on a relatively even mix of juniors and seniors, with a lot of sophomore players also getting time, particularly on special teams.

“It’s an exciting spot to be in as a coach,” Bollweg said of how much players at different grade levels are contributing. Similarly, Bollweg said he’s enjoyed seeing his players rise to the occasion this season.

The team’s had a dynamic where different players take their moments to lead and be upfront, and they take moments to listen and follow. It’s clear to the coach that his players learned last week, and are continuing to learn, how good they can be.

“They love being together and they know that we could lose that gift at any time,” Bollweg said. “They want to get more time together.”

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