HELENA — Flathead fumbled on its first two drives to fall behind quickly and struggled to move the ball in the second half, losing to third-seeded Helena Capital 15-0 in the first round of the Class AA football playoffs on a cold Friday night at Vigilante Stadium.

The Braves were playing behind from the start, when a bad bounce on the opening kickoff caromed off Flathead kick returner Trae Vasquez 10 yards forward into a pile of Capital oncomers. The Bruins recovered to start their opening drive at the Flathead 28-yard line, and despite a strong effort from the Flathead defense, ended up with a 33-yard field goal and a 3-0 lead less than four minutes into the game.

Flathead looked to have bounced back quickly on the ensuing drive. Senior running back Josh McCracken opened the Braves first possession with a 22-yard run and a steady stream of outside rushes saw Flathead move 57 yards on six plays to the Capital 15-yard line.

Then disaster struck again for the Braves. On third-and-3 from the 15, Flathead lined up in the Wildcat formation with McCracken in at quarterback in the shotgun. It was the same play the Braves converted for a five-yard run and a first down four plays earlier. This time, however, the snap was three feet over McCracken’s head, forcing him to scramble backwards to find the ball, only for a swarm of Capital defenders to get there first, ending what was the Braves most promising drive of the game.

Capital dominated time of possession in the contest, and took a commanding 9-0 lead on a 3-yard Daniel O’Malley dive in the second quarter, capping a 15-play, 78-yard drive that took up 6:30 of game clock.

Flathead managed to get into Capital territory just one more time in the game, advancing to the Bruins 39-yard line on a 6-yard throw to James Flannigan with a little more than 8:00 to play in the first half. The Braves punted two plays later.

That was the last completion the Braves would make in the contest, missing their final 13 attempts, including all 10 in the second half.

The Braves gained just 32 yards after their opening drive in the first half and only 30 in the second half. Capital closed out on the outside run plays that worked so well early in the first quarter and shut down the air attack completely.

“We knew we needed to start fast,” McCracken said.

“They’re a good team. We knew we needed to get up on them and keep our foot on the pedal. But, we made too many mistakes tonight.”

The game was deadlocked at 9-0 for most of the remainder of the contest, until on a fourth down with 15 seconds to play, Bruins quarterback Carter Pappas connected with Will Hunthausen for a 14-yard score to send the Bruins out with a bang.

Flathead finished with 115 total yards, with 93 coming on the ground. McCracken finished with 12 rushes for 52 yards and Bridger Johnson had nine runs for 33 yards. Johnson was 3 for 15 through the air for 22 yards.

Capital was led by Pappas, the junior quarterback going 13 for 24 for 116 yards in the air and a game-high 88 yards rushing on 20 carries. O’Malley had 15 rushes for 86 yards and Hunthausen led all receivers with six catches for 41 yards.

“They played very hard,” Flathead coach Kyle Samson said.

“I’m very proud of our seniors, I’m very proud of our team. Capital is a good football team. I thought we fought and clawed. We just didn’t quite finish a couple of times. It’s a tough way to end the season.”

Capital advances to play at Billings Senior in next week’s semifinals. The second-seeded Broncs ran away with a 38-9 first-round win against crosstown foes Billings West on Friday.

CLASS AA PLAYOFF BRACKET

Flathead 0 0 0 0 — 0

Capital 3 6 0 6 — 15

First quarter

C — Braxton Kent 33 field goal, 8:43

Second quarter

C — Daniel O’Malley 3 run (Kent kick failed), 1:30

Fourth quarter

C — Will Hunthausen 14 pass from Carter Pappas (Kent kick failed), :13

FLA CAP

First downs 7 19

Rushing 25-93 47-223

Comp-Att-Int 3-15-0 13-24-1

Passing yards 22 116

Total offense 115 339

Fumbles-lost 2-2 1-1

Punts-avg 8-33.75 4-34.5

Penalties 7-52 5-56

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Flathead: Josh McCracken 12-52, Bridger Johnson 9-33, Payton Boyce 2-6, Seth Adolph 1-minus 2, Ryan Skramovsky 1-4. Capital: Daniel O’Malley 15-86, Carter Pappas 20-88, Payton Pappas 11-30, Will Hunthausen 1-19.

PASSING — Flathead: Johnson 3-15-0-22. Capital: Carter Pappas 13-24-1-116.

RECEIVING — Flathead: James Flannigan 2-13, Adolph 1-9. Capital: Brad Haller 4-26, Hunthausen 6-41, Danny Burton 2-43, O’Malley 1-6.

Other Friday Games

Bozeman 21, Great Falls CMR 0

CMR 0 0 0 0 — 0

Bozeman 7 0 0 14 — 21

First Quarter

Boz — Balue Chapman 51 run (Connor Coles kick), 10:21

Fourth Quarter

Boz — Peyton Guenther 1 run (Coles kick), 9:45

Boz — DJ Perdaems 42 run (Coles kick), 5:36

Senior 38, West 9

West 0 3 0 6 — 9

Senior 6 7 19 6 — 38

First Quarter

S — Gabe Sulser 33 pass from Nate Dick (run failed), 6:34.

Second Quarter

W — Noah Howey 28 FG, 10:24.

S — Sulser 26 pass from Dick (Jason Miller kick), 5:07.

Third Quarter

S — Sulser 39 run (kick failed), 11:02.

S — Tyger Frye 15 pass from Dick (kick failed), 2:55.

S — Keaton Anderson 53 interception return (Miller kick), 2:07.

Fourth Quarter

W — Braydon Deming 8 pass from Bryson Deming (pass failed), 8:23.

S — Sam Sparks 62 run (kick failed), 2:59.