On Saturday, Arlee hosted the Wibaux Longhorns. The defending Class C eight-man champions traveled over 600 miles to take on the Warriors, who were looking to take down the confident Eastern Montana team. Arlee had blown most of their opponents out this year, but as a quarterfinal game, only the best teams in the state were left, and the Longhorns weren’t going to go down without a fight.

In a game that would go back and forth, Arlee put up the first points on a 13-yard pass from Pat BigSam to Tyler Tanner. On the next possession, Wibaux’s Noah Schneider broke free through the middle and ran 65 yards for a Longhorn score. Two minutes later, Pat BigSam threw a bullet across the middle of the field that bounced through the hands of Harold Yocum and ended up in Tyler Tanner’s. The sure-handed Tanner then turned and ran it in for Arlee’s second score of the first quarter.

While Arlee was scoring through the air, Wibaux’s game plan was to run it up the middle and try to wear down the Warriors. Behind All-State defensive player Brad Brazill, the Warriors were able to plug up the middle for the most part. In the second, Wibaux’s 6’0 220-pound beefy big man, appropriately named Angus, broke free for a 17-yard touchdown. Arlee would answer with a series made up almost entirely of pass plays, with the last play going from BigSam to Tanner for a 19-yard touchdown. With the run game not being as productive as Wibaux may have liked, they took to the air as well, and scored on a 27-yard pass from Schneider to Lund with just under two minutes left in the half. That put the Longhorns up by two points. Arlee put their two minute drill into effect and drove down into the red zone, but couldn’t quite capitalize, and Wibaux took that two point lead into halftime.

In the second half, Wibaux’s Shawn Schaefferkoetter, who had some big plays in the first half, finally got into the end zone on a 25-yard run to put the Longhorns up by eight points. Just over 40 seconds later, Arlee answered on a 48-yard pass from Tanner to BigSam. After a Tanner two-point conversion run, the score was tied up. The next seven minutes were a defensive struggle. One of the most important plays of the third quarter came from Harold Yocum, who intercepted a Schneider pass inside the Longhorn’s five yard line, stopping a drive that looked like it was going for a touchdown. Not surprisingly, BigSam and Tanner connected again to put the Warriors up by six going into the final quarter.

Wibaux would score on a 11-yard pass less than a minute into the fourth, then ran in the two-point conversion to go up by two. A few minutes later, BigSam scrambled for an 18-yard touchdown, then threw to Brad Brazill for the two-point conversion. Up 42-36 with seven minutes left, Arlee’s defense went into overdrive to keep the Longhorns from scoring again. With four minutes left, Arlee regained the ball and was facing a fourth down around midfield. On a gutsy call, BigSam faked the punt and ran for a first down. Unable to convert on the next series, Wibaux got the ball back with a little over two minutes left. With Wibaux driving and the Arlee crowd getting nervous, Tyler Tanner, who had sticky hands all day, intercepted a Schneider pass. It seemed that Arlee had sealed the deal with about 1:48 left in the game, but after a bad series that included a fumble on fourth down, Wibaux was back in business with under a minute left to go. Angus Lund got the ball from his quarterback and broke through the line and went streaking down the middle of the field with about 40 seconds left. The Arlee defenders came flying in from the sides, and Lund had the ball knocked out of his hands. The Warriors recovered, and the game was theirs.

For the Warriors, multiple players had great games, including Phil Malatare, who was back after sitting out last week. Isaac Desjarlais was also impressive, breaking up a possible touchdown pass in the second half. Perhaps the most impressive was Tyler Tanner, who caught four touchdown passes, threw for another, and had that interception late in the fourth quarter.

Coach Todd Yocum said their game plan was to make them pass. “We practiced against the run all week. Our objective was to make them pass the ball.”

This Saturday, the Warriors host Twin Bridges, who snuck by CJI. The semifinal game will take place at 1 p.m. Coach Yocum said this week, the team has been working on fundamentals more than a very specific game plan for the Falcons.

Arlee- 14 6 14 8 - 42

Wibaux- 8 14 6 8 - 36

A - Tanner 13 pass from BigSam (Bertollt from BigSam), 2:31

W -- Schneider 65 run (run), 2:16

A -- Tanner 44 pass from BigSam (pass failed), 0:02

W -- Lund 17 run (run failed), 9:42

A -- Tanner 19 pass from BigSam (pass failed), 2:43

W -- Lund 27 pass from Schneider (Schaefferkoetter run), 1:48

W -- Schaefferkoetter 25 run (pass failed), 9:03

A -- BigSam 48 pass from Tanner (Tanner run), 8:40

A -- Tanner 11 pass from BigSam (run fail), 1:35

W -- Nelson 11 pass from Schneider (Lund run), 11:17

A -- BigSam 18 run (Brazill from BigSam), 7:00

CHARLO 52 FAIRVIEW 66

While Wibaux was making the long trip to Arlee, Charlo was making the same long trip to Fairview. Charlo, who’s only loss this year was to Arlee, was coming off a huge win over Gardiner the week before. In what would be their last game of the season, the Vikings came out strong, scoring first on a 40-yard run by senior Michael Delaney. It would go back and forth after that, with most of the scoring involving Fairview’s Tanner Reynolds and Charlo’s Delaney. After one quarter, the score was tied at 14 apiece. The second saw a lot more scoring, including three TD throws by Delaney. Those were to Zane Haflinger and Jade Smith. In the third quarter, Charlo forced a couple of turnovers, but weren’t able to capitalize on them. Coach Mike Krahn said he knew going in that Fairview was putting up big numbers. “I told the guys that it was going to be a shoot out. We would have to score every time and stop them a few times to stay with them.”

Fairfiew scored the last two touchdowns of the second quarter to go up by 22. In the fourth, Charlo scored Delaney 25-yard run, but then couldn’t stop Fairfiew from scoring. Coach Krahn said Fairview converted on a few crucial fourth down plays, including on a fake punt. Delaney scored one more time on a 35-yard run, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough for the Vikings, who lost by a score of 66-52.

Fairfiew, who is coached by former Griz standout Greg Hardy, has two brothers on the team, both over 6’0”. Krahn said when the Vikings contained the run game, Fairview would go through the air. “Our coverage was good but they just out-jumped us,” he said.

Another important factor in the game was two-point conversions. Charlo was 2-8 with only four points scored. Fairview was 6-9 for 12 points. Had Charlo been able to convert a few more and stop Fairfiew a few times, the score may have been different.

Coach Krahn said he was proud of his team and the way they competed. “The Fairview coach said they hadn’t been hit that hard all year,” Krahn said on Monday.

Maybe one of the most impressive performances came from senior Viking Michael Delaney. He scored on runs of 40, 35 and 25 yards. He also threw for four touchdowns. In his final game of his high school career, Delaney looked healthy for the first time since the beginning of this season, according to Krahn. “I felt good for Mike. He looked like Mike... He was the fastest kid on the field. I was glad to see him finish as well as he did,” he said.

He finished the game 11-16 for 254 yards through the air and ran 11 times for 177 yards for a grand total of seven touchdowns.

Jade Smith also had a great game, catching three passes for 116 yards and two touchdowns. He also had eight tackles. Zane Hafliger caught four passes for 100 yards and also had two touchdowns. Trent Dennison had 7.5 tackles, and Jared Doty had 6.5, plus ran in a 65-yard touchdown.

Charlo- 14 26 0 12 - 52

Fairview- 14 38 0 14 - 66

C - Michael Delaney 40 run (Stetson Stipe pass from Delaney)

F - Tanner Reynolds 25 run (Hurley run)

C -Smith 28 pass from Delaney (run failed)

F - Reynolds 7 run (run failed)

C - Zane Hafliger 5 pass from Delaney (Hafliger pass from Delaney)

F - Hurley 1 run (Reynolds run)

C - Jared Doty 65 run (pass failed)

F - Hardy 16 pass from Reynolds (Hurley)

C - Smith 50 pass from Delaney (run failed)

F - B Hardy 20 pass from Reynolds (run failed)

C - Hafliger 30 pass from Delaney (pass failed)

F - Taryn Candee 69 pass from Reynolds (B. Hardy pass from Reynolds)

F - Reynolds 5 run (Hurley run)

C - Delaney 25 run (pass failed)

F - Candee 5 run (Hurley pass from Reynolds)

F - B. Hardy 15 pass from Reynolds (run failed)

C - Delaney 35 run (pass failed)