The Flathead Braves will host one of Class AA’s most potent offenses when they square off with Helena Capital today at 7 p.m. at Legends Stadium.

Capital (2-0) crushed Missoula Hellgate 65-0 in its season-opener and piled up 595 yards of offense in last week’s win over defending state champion Butte. Those performances earned the Bruins the No. 2 ranking in this season’s initial Associated Press poll, which was released Wednesday.

“They’re so fast and they run their offense so well,” Flathead coach Russell McCarvel said. “They run the Wing-T, but they get in so many different formations. That’s a big challenge for us this week, to make sure we’re sound against all their different formations.

“They’ve had quite an evolution in their offense from being a traditional Wing-T team. Every year you look and they’ve got a little more to it in terms of formations and what they do out of it. They’re really impressive in that respect.”

Flathead (1-1) is coming off a 44-13 loss to Billings Skyview, another Wing-T offense, which ran for 496 yards on 54 carries. While both teams utilize a similar scheme, McCarvel said Capital poses a very different challenge.

“They’re just a different kind of Wing-T,” he said. “They’re a faster Wing-T, their front guys are fast and they use more formations. Skyview was a mauling Wing-T, they just maul you with their size.”

Capital lost Gunnar Brekke, last year’s star tailback and Gatorade player of the year, to graduation, but its running game hasn’t skipped a beat. Running back Bliss Collins ran 206 yards on 15 carries last week and fullback Tristan Shea averages 108 yards on the ground. The Bruins average 336.5 yards on the ground as a team.

“(Collins) is a strong, fast, powerful runner,” McCarvel said. “He’s not very tall, but he is powerful.”

The Braves know they’ll have to have more success stopping the run than they did last week, and that starts with the defensive line.

“We’ve just got to get tougher on the line,” senior nose guard Axel Bladholm said. “It comes down to me and Riley (Leigh) stopping the inside run a lot better than we did last week.

“They’re really, really fast. Their o-line is kind of small, but they’re really good at being small. They get up underneath the pads and they can drive bigger guys back, so we’re just practicing staying low and driving our feet.”

McCarvel said Capital also has plenty of speed on the defensive side of the ball.

“Their outside guys in the secondary are fast,” he said. “When you watch Capital, you’re just seeing a well-coached team every year. Guys change and yet the theme is very similar.”

After trailing 31-0 last week, Flathead’s offense found a rhythm with two second-half touchdowns and McCarvel believes his offense has the potential to put up more points if it becomes more consistent. Junior quarterback Easton Johnson said that starts with better first halves.

“I think we have a lot of mental mistakes early in the game and then in the second half we come out pretty strong,” Johnson said. 

“In the first half I think we get all the jitters out, so once we get all those out, I think our offense can do the job. We just have to come out of the gates early.”