After a close first half, the Flathead Braves faded down the stretch of a 42-14 loss to the No. 4 Helena High Bengals at Legends Stadium Friday.

Flathead (0-4) took advantage of a couple Helena (3-1) mistakes to take a 14-7 lead in the second quarter, but had trouble moving the ball against Helena’s aggressive front seven as the game wore on.

When the Braves stalled, the Bengals roared, scoring four unanswered touchdowns to finish the game.

“They had a lot more depth than us,” Flathead safety/tight end Tucker Toelke said. “We’ve just got to learn how to finish.”

Helena entered the game with the stingiest run defense in the state, and showed why against Flathead, holding the Braves to 115 yards on 39 attempts for 2.9 yards per carry.

“They’re just really straight forward,” said Braves running back Jerum AuClaire, who ran 5 times for 12 yards. “They came at us 100 percent each time.”

The Braves didn’t have much luck stopping the run either. Five Helena ballcarriers combined for 292 rushing yards on 43 attempts. Zach Winfield did most of the work, running for 99 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries.

“The second half and the end of the first half you could tell they were starting to get some penetration and give us some problems,” Flathead coach Russell McCarvel said. “We did a lot of good things, we just ran out of steam a little bit.”

The Braves put together their longest drive in their opening possession, a 95-yard scoring march aided by a roughing the kicker penalty on Helena. The Braves converted two fourth and short situations from their jumbo package, and eventually found the end zone on a 21-yard trick pass from AuClaire to Kevin Grosswiler. AuClaire took a handoff from quarterback Matt Tokarz on an apparent sweep before stopping and throwing to a wide open Grosswiler, who ran into the end zone untouched.

Helena needed just five plays to answer with an 80-yard touchdown drive capped by a 9-yard run by Winfield.

A bit of good fortune allowed the Braves to re-take the lead on their ensuing drive. After getting stopped for a 3-and-out, Helena muffed Dylan Torgerson’s punt, which was recovered by Flathead at the Helena 33. Tokarz picked up 20 and 7 yards on back-to-back running plays, then Root hurdled a tackler on a 5 yard pickup that gave the Braves a first down on the Helena 1-yard line. Tokarz was stopped for no gain on first down, but Root punched it in one play later to give the Braves a 14-7 lead early in the second quarter.

Helena began to turn the tide after Root’s touchdown. The Bengals held Flathead to minus-5 yards the rest of the half and scored two touchdowns on a 45-yard pass from Dawson Reardon to Troy Arntson and a 9-yard run by Winfield to take a 21-14 lead at the break.

Winfield found the end zone again in the third quarter to give the extend the Bengal lead, but Flathead continued to fight back.

Tokarz completed a 38-yard pass to Trampus Barton, who ran down the left sideline to the Helena 3-yard line before he was brought down. Tokarz then picked up a yard on a quarterback sneak, but fumbled into the end zone on his second sneak attempt. Helena’s Trey Kokoruda recovered the fumble for a touchback and Flathead’s momentum was gone.

The Bengals scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter while Flathead only mustered three first downs.

Flathead will get another shot at its first win Friday when travels to Missoula to take on Sentinel (1-3).

Helena High    7    14    7    14    —    42

Flathead     7    7    0    0    —    14

First quarter

FLA — Kevin Grosswiler 27 pass from Jerum AuClaire (Dylan Torgerson kick), 3:34

HEL — Zach Winfield 9 run (Trevin Thompson kick), 1:53

Second quarter

FLA — Austin Root 1 run (Torgerson kick), 11:56

HEL — Troy Arntson 45 pass from Dawson Reardon (Thompson kick), 10:22

HEL — Winfield 9 run (Thompson kick), 4:40

Third quarter

HEL — Winfield 11 run (Thompson kick), 4:02

Fourth quarter

HEL — Sam Hildger 6 pass from Reardon (Thompson kick), 10:40

HEL — Will Gold 2 run (Thompson kick), 1:02

————

    Helena    Flathead

First downs    20    14

Total yards    437    276

Rushes-yards    43-292    39-115

Passing yards    145    161

Comp-Att-Int    8-18-1    12-23-1

Punts    4-38.3    6-39.2

Fumbles-lost    0-0    3-2

Penalties-yards    9-95    4-35

Individual Statistics

RUSHING — Helena: Zach Winfield 18-99, Dawson Reardon 10-85, Will Gold 9-63, Troy Arntson 4-34, Cody Ottman 2-11. Flathead: Matt Tokarz 19-66, Dallas Grimes 2-16, Austin Root 12-15. Jerum AuClaire 5-12, Easton Johnson 1-6.

PASSING — Helena: Dawson Reardon 8-17-145-1, Troy Arntson 0-1-0-0. Flathead: Matt Tokarz 11-22-134-1, Jerum AuClaire 1-1-27-0.

RECEIVING — Helena: Troy Arntson 3-95, Sam Hildger 4-43, Cody Ottman 1-7. Flathead: Trampus Barton 2-43, Tucker Toelke 3-35, Nick Iavicoli 1-31, Kevin Grosswiler 1-27, Jerum AuClaire 4-14, Will Cronk 1-11.