The Kalispell Black and Blue rugby squad scored early and often on the way to a 73-7 win against the Frenchtown Iron Horse on Saturday at Evergreen Junior High, finishing off an undefeated regular season.

The Black and Blue used its speed and physicality to bully the Iron Horse early as Justin Richmond took off in the third minute, breaking through a pile of defenders to push to within five meters of the try line before offloading into a knock-on that ended the scoring opportunity.

It was just a few minutes later that the scoring opportunities would pay off, when Daniel Long powered through three tacklers to romp for the first try of the game under the left goal post. Another long run from Richmond set up a quick pass from Payton Boyce to Tucker Nadeau for a try just five minutes later and a Matt Gash-Gilder try four minutes after that pushed the score to 17-0.

Frenchtown scored its only points of the contest on a long run around the left side of the defense up the sideline for a try. After a burying a conversion, the Iron Horse trailed just 17-7.

Kalispell answered strong to close the half, with Richmond punching through a pair of arm tackles to touch down a try with four minutes left in the half. Speedy wing Tilor Mercier ran untouched from 70 meters out to score a try on the last possession of the half, Nadeau kicking conversions on each of the final two tries to give the Black and Blue a 31-7 halftime lead.

The advantage grew quickly after halftime as the Black and Blue began to rip off a series of long runs.

Colten Boyle scored from midfield just five minutes into the second half and three minutes later Sam Mann sprinted 60 meters through the Iron Horse defense only to get caught at the try line and dish off to Long for his second try of the game. Mercier ran off another long try from midfield to give Kalispell a 46-7 lead just 15 minutes into the half.

Gash-Gilder showed off his power shortly after, carrying a tackler for five meters to score his second try of the game. Just a minute later, Mercier again burst through the defense from 40 meters out only to offload to Ziah Brown for a try with 10 minutes to play.

Boyce scored twice in the final five minutes and Boyle capped the scoring on the final possession of the game to give the Black and Blue a 73-7 win.

“The team is playing fabulous,” said Boyle, who was named the man of the match. “Couldn’t ask for a better squad. We have a solid 15 kids that come out and play every weekend. We never have subs, but they come out here and play their hardest. They come to tackle and play the game of rugby.

“It gets tiring for sure. But when you win the game it makes you feel better because you did it with the minimum amount of people.”

The Black and Blue (6-0) finish the season undefeated and will hold the top seed at the MYRA state championship next weekend in Missoula. Helena won the championship last season.

“We still have some things to work on before state, but I’m proud of the kids,” Black and Blue head coach Lance Heavirland said. “They’ve had a great season. They’ve stuck by each other.

“It’s a true team. It’s really been fun for us as coaches, no doubt. We have a bunch of good kids.”