Unlike the rest of Kalispell, when Josh McCracken opened his eyes Friday morning, he liked what he saw.

“When I woke up ... it was pouring rain so I kind of figured we wouldn’t be passing as much,” he said.

On a rainy senior night at Legends Stadium, Flathead ran the ball 54 times and battered its way to a 28-14 win against Missoula Sentinel, locking the Braves into the sixth seed in the Class AA playoffs and setting up a rematch with Helena Capital next week.

Flathead took the opening kickoff and ran it seven straight times, culminating with a 46-yard McCracken scamper to the end zone. After the defense forced a three-and-out, the Braves ran nine more times on a 10-play drive and got McCracken into the end zone again.

“Definitely we wanted to establish the run and we wanted to get back to power football,” Flathead coach Kyle Samson said. “And when you come out and it’s pouring rain and there’s not much footing out there, we knew we were going to have to control the trenches and (our offensive line) did a great job.”

The Braves called runs on 21 of their first 22 offensive plays, pulling out to a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter in a game that got messier as the night went on and field conditions worsened.

McCracken continued a monster season with a 32-carry, 175-yard performance that made a bit of school history.

The senior’s two touchdowns Friday give him 18 on the year, matching Lex Hilliard’s 2002 school record. McCracken now also has 1,282 rushing yards, becoming just the second Brave ever to rush for over 1,200 yards in a season. Hilliard, who has been McCracken’s position coach the last two years, holds the all-time record (1,384).

“It feels great for (Hilliard) to be a part of it,” McCracken said of his record-setting season. “I’m honored to be a name with those people.”

Fellow senior Payton Boyce also found the end zone on the ground Friday, rumbling in from 16 yards one play after a second quarter Sentinel fumble. Boyce, who also starts at linebacker, was part of a Braves defense that limited elusive Spartans (5-5) quarterback Mitch Roberts to eight rushing yards.

“(Roberts) is a great player and great athlete,” Samson said. “(Our defense) did a nice job of staying disciplined in our pass rushing lanes and did what they were coached to do.”

“I’m so excited,” Boyce said of winning on senior night. “All these young guys fought for us and our seniors. There hasn’t been a team like us (at Flathead) in a long time.”

Flathead took a 21-7 lead into halftime and put the game away late in the third quarter. Facing fourth-and-six from the 23-yard line, Bridger Johnson found Seth Adolph streaking up field for a 23-yard touchdown.

Johnson attempted only 11 passes and finished with five completions for 70 yards.

After the game, Flathead’s 25-member senior class lingered for a while on the field at Legends Stadium, soaking in their senior night and the first winning Braves season since 2008.

“We told them before the game we want to take that senior picture on the 50-yard line and hang it in my office,” Samson said.

“Especially this group, it’s just a special group and they’ve done something now that a Flathead team hasn’t done in (seven) years, and they’re the reason we’re doing that. That senior class is special.”

“It’s a great feeling to win on senior night,” McCracken added. “You’ll remember it for the rest of your life.”

Flathead (6-4) is in the playoffs for the first time since 2011 and will travel to play Capital, the alma mater of the Braves’ head coach. Samson led the Bruins to the 2002 state championship and earned Montana Player of the Year honors as senior, knocking Hilliard and the Braves out of the playoffs along the way.

The Braves and Bruins also met two weeks ago at Legends Stadium, a game Capital won 24-21.

Samson smiled when asked about going back home next week.

“It should be a great game,” he said. “It’s nice to go into the playoffs on a high note, we’ve just got to go back to work and have a great week of preparation.”

Sentinel 0 7 0 7 — 14

Flathead 14 7 7 0 — 28

First quarter

FLT — Josh McCracken 46 run (Justin Gardner kick), 9:01

FLT — McCracken 2 run (Gardner kick), 3:56

Second quarter

FLT — Payton Boyce 17 run (Gardner kick), 11:11

SEN — Ethan Jones 10 pass from Mitch Roberts (Gabe Peppenger kick), 9:13

Third quarter

FLT — Seth Adolph 26 pass from Bridger Johnson (Gardner kick), 0:15

Fourth quarter

SEN — Alec Steele 23 pass from Roberts (Peppenger kick), 2:32

SEN FLT

First downs 14 21

Total yards 269 328

Rushes-yards 35-151 54-258

Passing yards 118 70

Comp-Att-Int 13-24-0 5-11-0

Punts-avg 4-26 5-34

Fumbles-lost 2-2 1-0

Penalties-yards 5-61 11-99

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — SEN: Conner Crawford 11-93, Josh Deshner 8-36, Caden Messer 2-12, Roberts 13-8, Steele 1-2. FLT: McCracken 32-175, Boyce 11-63, Adolph 6-30, Johnson 2-minus 8.

PASSING — SEN: Roberts 13-24-0-118. FLT: Johnson 5-11-0-70.

RECEIVING — SEN: Mitch Reynolds 4-39, Steele 4-28, Trevor Cunningham 2-28, Ethan Jones 1-10, Conner Crawford 1-9, Andersen Haslam 1-4. FLT: Adolph 2-33, Wyatt Smith 1-18, James Flannigan 1-13, McCracken 1-6.