This past weekend, the first round of the playoffs took place across Montana. Lake County had three teams competing, but unfortunately, only two would move on.

POLSON 6

COLUMBIA FALLS 9

In a rematch from just a few weeks ago, the Polson Pirates traveled to Columbia Falls for a very wet and messy first round playoff game. Polson had lost their first match up after leading for over half of the game. The Pirates were hoping for a different outcome this time. Nobody was able to score in the first quarter, and after being on the four yard line and then losing yards on penalties, Columbia Falls settled for a field goal to put up the first points in the second. In a mostly defensive half, one of the most exciting plays was on a punt by Polson that ended with a Columbia Falls player running the ball into their own end zone. After a lot of discussion, it was decided that a Polson player had touched the ball at some point before the Columbia Falls player ran into his own end zone, which meant that the ball was dead at that point.

In the third quarter, a 43-yard run by Colton Cote set the Pirates up for an eight-yard pass from Tanner Wilson to Hudson Smith that put the Pirates up 6-3. Another great play by the Pirates was a saving tackle by Walter Wood that stopped a 91-yard kick return a yard short of the goal line to keep the Pirates up for at least a little longer. Eventually Columbia Falls would score on a one-yard run go back on top. Polson fought throughout the fourth quarter to get within scoring range, but weren’t able to convert, and lost by a score of 6-9. The loss ended their season. Offensively, Colton Cote carried the ball nine times for 62 yards. Defensively, Matthew Rensvold had 17 tackles, four of which went for a loss. Walter Wood, Jonah Burke, and Tanner Wilson each added eight tackles.

Polson finished the year 1-2 in conference and 3-6 overall.

Polson- 0 0 6 0 - 0

Columbia Falls- 0 3 6 0 - 9

CF — Brandon Karberg 29 field goal

P — Hudson Smith 8 pass from Tanner Wilson (kick failed)

CF — Dakota Bridwell 1 run (kick failed)

CHARLO 62

GARDINER 0

In the first round of the Class C Eight-Man championships, Charlo hosted Gardiner. The number two seeded Vikings made it look easy with a 62-point blowout that saw the clock running in the second quarter.

Not even a minute into the game, Trent Dennison ran the first touchdown in from a yard out. Five minutes later, Tody Odom ran another in. Three minutes later, Dennison scored his second TD on a 20-yard run. Many of the touchdowns scored by Charlo were started by Gardiner fumbles. They had four in the first half. The last score in the first quarter came from a dash by Michael Delaney. That made the score 28-0 after one. Delaney pick up where he left off in the first with a touchdown pass to Jade Smith to start the second. A few minutes later, Jared Doty ran from three yards out, then Delaney threw another to Sabin Perry. At halftime, the Vikings led 48-0. In the third quarter, Lander Smith took over at quarterback and threw a 35-yard pass to Jared Doty. The last score came toward the end of the fourth, when Doty scored his third touchdown of the day on a 16-yard run.

The Vikings had 253 yards of offense compared to 88 by Gardiner. Delaney was 3-4 through the air for 41 yards and two touchdowns. Landers Smith was 4-7 for 47 yards and a touchdown. Jared Doty ran the ball four times for 86 yards and two touchdowns. He also caught a touchdown, as did Jade Smith and Sabin Perry. Jade Smith led the defense with 6.5 tackles, and Trent Dennison added 4.5.

The Vikings make the long trip to Fairview this week for the quarterfinals.

Charlo- 28 20 8 6 - 62

Gardiner- 0 0 0 0 - 0

C- Trent Dennison 18 run (Jared Doty run)

C- Toby Odom 1 run (Dennison run)

C- Dennison 20 run (pass failed)

C- Delaney 1 run (run failed)

C- Jade Smith 11 pass from Michael Delaney (Smith run)

C- Doty 3 run (run failed)

C- Sabin Perry 12 pass from Delaney (pass failed)

C- Doty 35 pass from Smith (Dennison run)

C- Doty 16 run (run failed)

ARLEE 54

HARLOWTON 16

The Arlee Warriors went into the playoffs as the number one seed out of the western division and matched up against the number four seed from the south. After a quick score by Harlowton in the beginning of the game, Arlee showed why they came in number one. The Warriors answered the Engineers’ score with four of their own. First, Tyler Tanner caught a 35-yard pass from Pat BigSam, then they switched positions and Tanner threw BigSam a 36-yarder. Next, Harold Yocum caught a 25-yard pass from BigSam, then Rylan Crawford ran one in from two yards out. Harlowton scored another in the second quarter to make the score 34-14 at halftime. In the third, Arlee tightened up their defense while continuing their air assault. BigSam threw two more touchdowns in the third, both to Tanner. Then he ran one in to end the third quarter with 20 points. In the fourth, Alex Bertollt broke through for a 31-yard TD run. Toward the end of the game, Arlee stopped Harlowton on a fourth down in the red zone, which gave Arlee the ball backed up into their own end zone. Harlowton took down the running back in the end zone for their only score of the second half.

Arlee will host Wibaux in the quarterfinals on Saturday.

Arlee- 14 20 20 0 - 54

Harlowton- 8 6 0 2 - 16

H - Dalton Tabor 1 run (Tabor run)

A - Tyler Tanner 35 pass from Pat BigSam (Brad Brazil pass from BigSam)

A - BigSam 36 pass from Tanner (run failed)

A - Harold Yocum 25 pass from BigSam (run failed)

A - Rylan Crawford 2 run (run failed)

H - Gunnar Eoff 2 run (run failed)

A - Tanner 35 pass from BigSam (Tanner pass from BigSam)

A - Tanner 27 pass from BigSam (run failed)

A - BigSam 3 run (pass failed)

A - Alex Bertollt 31 run (Tanner pass from BigSam)