Whitefish is healthy, rested and ready for postseason football play.

That’s good news for the Bulldogs, who host Miles City today in a Class A quarterfinal contest at Memorial Field.

Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.

Whitefish, by virtue of winning the Northwestern A title, had a first-round bye for the playoffs.

Miles City, which finished second behind Billings Central in the Eastern A, opened the postseason at home last Saturday. The Cowboys needed some late-game heroics to pull out a thrilling 48-47 overtime victory over Havre in the opening round.

Whitefish is 7-2 overall. Miles City enters 8-2.

Whitefish defeated Havre 27-14 in the season opener.

“The bye was good and bad,” Whitefish coach Chad Ross said.

The good ...

“We got to work on special teams,” he said.

“You don’t have time (to do that during the regular season). We spent a lot of time on our short passing game and fine tuned some things that will help us down the road.”

And ... “You get a chance to rest,” he said.

The bad ...

“You get tired of pounding on yourself (in practice),” he said.

“It’s kind of like the beginning of the season ... were just ready to play somebody.”

The Cowboys needed some big plays last week to play on.

Miles City scored a touchdown with just over a second remaining and converted a two-point conversion to force overtime. That drive started on its 23-yard line with 31 seconds remaining.

Then in the extra session, Havre scored first, but missed the PAT kick. Miles City scored its touchdown on a fourth-and-one run by Alec Haughian. Matt Blunt’s kick was good for the victory.

Haughian also had touchdown runs of 42 and 19 yards, caught a touchdown pass of 35 yards from Blunt and threw two touchdown passes to Brett Keith, 37 and 15 yards.

“Miles City is real big up front, predominately a run team,” Ross said.

“For the most part, they aired it out against Havre. If we can make them throw the ball, we have a good chance of winning the game. They are a really good football team so it should be fun.”

Ross said the Bulldogs have been balanced on offense for much of the season.

Whitefish was second in the league in rushing, averaging 174.44 yards per game.

The Bulldogs passed for 226.11 yards, which was also second best.

Quarterback Luke May, a junior, rushed for 616 yards on 120 carries while Chris Park, a junior running back, was right behind him with 510 yards on 67 totes.

May averages 5.13 yards per carry to 7.61 for Park.

May is 117 of 180 passing (65 percent) for 1,970 yards and 23 touchdowns. He was picked off five times.

Jed Nagler, a junior, leads the Bulldogs’ receiving corps with 44 catches for 912 yards and 10 touchdowns.

Jack Steibich, a senior, is next with 35 receptions for 636 yards and 10 touchdowns.

And don’t forget Brian FauntLeRoy. The junior has 19 receptions for 253 yards and four scores.

“The key ... we need to have balance,” Ross said.

“If we get one dimensional, we’re in trouble.”

Whitefish, in the playoffs for the second-straight season, lost last year in the quarterfinal round to Belgrade.

Whitefish would host semifinal and state championship games if it wins out.

The Bulldogs beat Sidney in the semifinals in 2001, but lost to Lewistown in the championship game.