COLUMBIA FALLS — Two of the most high-powered offenses in Montana petered around for the better part of a half Friday, when Polson visited fellow unbeaten Columbia Falls.

The Pirates and Wildcats were just setting us up.

Before the dust settled, Polson scored two touchdowns 33 seconds apart in the fourth quarter to push past the Wildcats 32-31 in a big Western A game.

“We knew we hadn’t really been in a fight yet, and we wanted to be in one,” said Polson coach Kaden Glinsmann, after his club overcame deficits of 24-7 and 31-20. “It wasn’t like we came out flat; things just didn’t necessarily go our way.

“We’d seen adversity in spurts, but not full-fledged, punch you in the mouth adversity.”

The Wildcats (4-1) provided plenty, getting 303 yards and four touchdowns passing from junior quarterback Cody Schweikert.

He capped the Wildcats’ first drive with an 11-yard touchdown run; he also put his team up 17-7 at halftime with a dime of a TD pass to Mark Robison in the final minute.

When Polson (6-0) answered Columbia Falls’ opening drive with a touchdown of its own — Jarrett Wilson hitting Brock Henriksen with a 34-yard bomb — it figured the shootout was on.

It didn’t happen until the fourth.

In between Trent Wilson hauled in an interception of a Schweikert deep ball; in the second quarter alone Jarrett Wilson had to punt three times; in their opening drive of the third quarter — prepare your fainting couch — the pass-happy Pirates ran the ball nine straight plays.

Polson ended that march by giving the ball up on downs after getting first-and-goal, and Schweikert soon hit Alihn Anderson for a 46-yard touchdown. The Wildcats led, 24-7, with 4:23 left in the third.

The hosts were undone by a couple rough spots. One was a fumble just after Wilson hit junior Tommy Sherry with a deep ball for a 34-yard touchdown, on the final play of the third quarter.

Polson recovered and when Wilson drove the Pirates 38 yards in six plays, capped by his 13-yard TD scamper, the gap was just 24-20.

Columbia Falls answered quickly with a 22-yard scoring strike to Jace Hill, but then it happened again: Jarrett Wilson found his brother Trent with a 9-yard scoring pass with 5:34 left in the game; then the Pirates recovered an onside kick hit perfectly by Tia Mercer.

Two snaps later Henriksen was hauling in yet another long Wilson pass, this one covering 37 yards TD. There was 5:01 remaining. Polson went for two, didn’t get it, but forced the Wildcats to give up the ball on downs with 3:45 left. The Pirates then ran out the clock.

“It was a really good high school football game, and we played really hard,” Columbia Falls coach Jaxon Schweikert said. “We made a lot of really nice plays. We just made enough mistakes to let it slip through our hands.”

There were chances for the Wildcats to close it out — both teams had four-and-outs ahead of the late scoring spurt — and the Pirates to wilt. Sherry’s TD, the first of his career, loomed big.

“We needed that,” said Jarrett Wilson, who was 20 for 38 passing for 266 yards and four scores. “That was a big spark. That changed the game, I think. If we don’t get that, I don’t know if we come back.”

Trent Wilson ran 23 times for 100 yards in relief of the injured Keyen Nash, and his being in the backfield left a vacancy at receiver. Sherry, who also recovered the onside kick, filled it.

“He (Sherry) played sparingly on JV as a sophomore. With the projection of people starting in front of him, he didn’t even think he was going to come out for football,” Glinsmann said. “I tell these guys, football games come down to 1-to-8 plays, and we don’t know which ones are going to decide them. We’ve got to play them all.”

“One of those games where they’re really good and we’re really good, and we made one more mistake than they did – or they made one more play than we did,” Jaxon Schweikert said.

“The kids played really hard and there’s a lot to build off.. We made a lot of great plays, and can fix mistakes.”

Polson 7 0 7 19 - 32

C-Falls 7 10 7 7 - 31

CF — Cody Schweikert 11 run (Kai Golan kick), 8:34-1Q

P — Brock Henriksen 34 pass from Jarrett Wilson (Tia Mercer kick), 9:56-1Q

CF — Golan 22 FG, 5:41-2Q

CF — Mark Robison 22 pass from Schweikert (Golan kick), :40-2Q

CF — Alihn Anderson 46 pass from Schweikert (Golan kick), 4:23-3Q

P — Tommy Sherry 34 pass from J. Wilson (Mercer kick), 11:34-4Q

P — J. Wilson 13 run (kick failed), 10:34-4Q

CF — Jace Hill 25 pass from Schweikert (Golan kick), 9:34-4Q

P — Trent Wilson 9 pass from J. Wilson (pass failed), 5:34-4Q

P — Henriksen 37 pass from J. Wilson (pass failed), 5:01-4Q

Individual Statistics

RUSHING: Polson (49-186) — T. Wilson 23-100, J. Wilson 22-80, Dwelle 3-9, Team 1-minus 3. Columbia Falls (22-13) — Schweikert 13-23, Reggie Sapa 5-12, Jace Duval 1-4, Windauer 2-minus 8, Team 2-minus 14.

PASSING: Polson — T. Wilson 20-38-0 for 266 yards. Columbia Falls — Schweikert 21-32-1 for 303 yards.

RECEIVING: Polson — Dawson DuMont 6-55, Henriksen 6-100, Tyler Wenderoth 3-32, T. Wilson 3-19, Sherry 2-52, Dwelle 1-37. Columbia Falls — Duval 5-76, Hill 5-68, Robison 3-52, Anderson 1-6, Lane Hoerner 1-32, Sapa 1-14, Blaise Wunderlich 2-10, Justin Windauer 3-5.