It was a play the Braves were expecting, so Tucker Cronk wasn’t worried.

Butte lined up in a swinging gate formation, lobbed the ball behind the wall of blockers, threw it back to the quarterback across the field, and he was loading up to heave it deep.

That’s when Cronk noticed something was wrong.

“I was super scared,” Cronk said. “Our scout team actually ran a play in practice where they did the same thing except they threw it to the receiver (on the other side of the field) so I was following that guy.”

“I was thinking, ‘oh shoot’ and then just hustled my (rear) off over there, I guess.”

Cronk, a converted wide receiver, bolted across the field as the ball hung in the air and leapt over a Butte wideout to make a spectacular, soaring, highlight-reel interception early in the second quarter to help the Braves to a 38-10 win Friday night on homecoming at Legends Stadium.

“Just a great play,” Flathead coach Kyle Samson said of the Cronk interception, his first of two in the game. “He’s got those great hands and it’s awesome to have a lot of (defensive backs) who can catch the football like they did.”

The Braves intercepted Butte quarterbacks five times in the game, and two of those “defensive backs” who made picks are guys expected to catch the football — wide receivers Keaton Krantz and James Flannigan.

“We’re a little banged up,” Samson said of his secondary. “Because of Butte’s passing game we wanted to get our nickel package in there and it was nice to see those guys succeed.”

Krantz’s interception got the scoring started, as he snared a pass from Ty Peterson and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown late in the first quarter.

Less than two minutes later, on the first play of the second quarter, a bad snap on a Bulldogs punt led to a safety, and the Braves struck again on the ensuing possession to build a 16-0 lead in less than five minutes of game time.

Cronk’s leaping interception came on the next drive, and it was a mere three players later that Josh McCracken burst around the right edge and rumbled 53 yards for a touchdown.

The Braves’ (5-2) offense took a while to get rolling, but when it did it once again did so on the back of their senior running back. McCracken scored four rushing touchdowns and even added a two-point conversion.

“We moved the ball really well in that first quarter but we bogged down on a couple drives,” Samson said.

“In the second quarter, Josh (McCracken) made some great runs and Bridger (Johnson) made a couple of great throws down the field.”

McCracken ran for 111 yards in the first half and finished with 152 yards on 17 carries. McCracken now has 943 yards on the season and is within 500 yards of Lex Hilliard’s single-season school record (1,384).

Johnson, meanwhile, had another efficient passing day, going 11 for 19 for 165 yards. His coach, however, was more impressed with the throws he didn’t make.

“Bridger did a really nice job with some audibles,” Samson said. “They brought a lot of blitzes and on both touchdowns Josh (McCracken) had on long runs they were audibles made a the line of scrimmage.”

The Braves scored 24 points in the second quarter and led 31-7 at halftime. McCracken’s second long touchdown, this time from 34 yards, was the only scoring in the third quarter.

Flathead played mostly reserves on both sides of the ball in the final quarter, but not before senior defensive lineman Cody Howe was forced to leave the game with a right knee injury.

“Hopefully we’ll get some good news,” Samson said of Howe’s status going forward.

Howe was a major force in Friday’s game, disrupting the Bulldogs offense and helping protect a secondary that was without injured senior C.J. Dugan. Dugan is expected to return this week.

“Cody (Howe’s) relentless,” Samson said. “In my opinion he’s one of the best defensive linemen in the state and he played like it tonight. He was in the backfield that whole first half.”

The Bulldogs (1-6) managed just 42 yards of first half offense and scored their only touchdown on a Mason Ruppel run midway through the final quarter.

Flathead out-gained Butte 369-281 in the game, which was filled with second half penalties. Each team had 14 accepted penalties that added up for 237 yards. Butte’s Kiley Caprara was issued an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and ejected in the fourth quarter.

The Braves won’t leave Legends Stadium for the rest of the regular season, although the competition gets tougher the next three weeks. Flathead welcomes Helena Capital (5-2) on Friday at 7 p.m.

Butte 0 3 0 7 — 10

Flathead 7 24 7 0 — 38

First quarter

FLT — Keaton Krantz 25 interception return (Justin Gardner kick), 1:38

Second quarter

FLT — Safety (Nathaniel Ferguson -6 run), 11:53

FLT — Josh McCracken 3 run (Gardner kick), 9:10

FLT — McCracken 53 run (Gardner kick), 6:28

BUT — Ferguson 37 field goal, 5:42

FLT — McCracken 6 run (McCracken run), 4:10

Third quarter

FLT — McCracken 34 run (Gardner kick), 3:17

Fourth quarter

BUT — Mason Ruppel 6 run (Ferguson kick), 7:05

BUT FLT

First downs 12 12

Rushes-yards 25-73 37-204

Passing yards 208 165

Comp-Att-Int 15-39-5 11-19-1

Punts-avg 2-27 6-34

Fumbles-lost 1-0 1-0

Penalties-yards 14-105 14-132

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — BUT: Quinn Dennehy 5-43, Mason Ruppel 14-37, Will O’Connor 1-17, Nathaniel Ferguson 2-minus 8, Ty Peterson, 3-minus 16. FLT: Josh McCracken 17-152, Seth Adolph 3-27, Payton Boyce 6-20, Logan Thurston 3-9, Ryan Skramovsky 3-5, TEAM 2-0, Bridger Johnson 3-minus 9.

PASSING — BUT: Ty Peterson, 11-30-4-144, Nathaniel Ferguson 4-9-1-64. FLT: Bridger Johnson 11-19-1-165.

RECEIVING — BUT: Quinn Dennehy 4-101, Jake Salmonsen 4-38, Kiley Caprara 5-37, Matt Merzlak 1-16, Will O’Connor 1-16. FLT: James Flannigan 4-69, Keaton Krantz 2-59, Josh McCracken 4-29, Ryan Skramovsky 1-8.