Whitefish beats Laurel to make A semis

LAUREL — The Bulldogs were fine once they got to the City of Lights.

Quarterback Luke Dalen ran for 155 yards and three touchdowns, Vlad Shestak added another score and road-weary Whitefish knocked off Laurel 27-20 in the State A football quarterfinals Friday night. 

It was a banner night for Dalen, who ran for 74 yards after halftime, and the Bulldogs, who made the semifinals for the first time since their 2015 state championship season. 

They’ll play at Frenchtown, a 25-20 winner over Lewistown, on Friday night. 

Whitefish (8-2) never trailed, though the game wasn’t decided until late: Laurel gave up the ball on downs with 3:54 left in the game; Shestak ran 21 yards on a reverse to convert a third down and Dalen gained 8 on fourth-and-1 as the Bulldogs ran out the clock. 

Shestak also had a 38-yard burst on an end around to put Whitefish up 20-6 early in the third quarter. That touchdown was set up when Laurel fumbled the second-half kickoff and Bear Barker recovered for the Bulldogs. 

Dalen scored from a yard out in the first quarter and scrambled 12 yards for another touchdown — set up by Barker’s interception — at 4:44 of the second as Whitefish took a 13-0 lead. 

Whitefish did solid work against Laurel running back Curtis Fox, but the Locomotives’ Isaiah Burt picked up a lot of slack. The receiver scored on a 16-yard end around to cut the deficit to 13-6; his 44-yard catch and run with a sideline screen answered Shestak’s TD at 8:10 of the third quarter, cutting the deficit to 20-13. 

Burt then picked off a Dalen pass at 3:18 of the third quarter. Laurel cashed that in for a 50-yard drive, capped by Fox’s 4-yard TD run. 

That knotted the game at 20-all, but Whitefish answered with a 66-yard drive. Key was a 23-yard pass to Cole Moses on a screen. Dalen ran four times for 33 yards on the march, covering the last 12 for his third TD with 7:43 left in the game. 

Laurel moved from its own 10-yard to the Whitefish 23 before running out of bullets. A fourth-down scramble by Locomotive QB Krew Hunter came up inches short.  

Fox, who came in with 1,240 rushing yards, managed 74 on 19 carries. 

“I was incredibly pleased with that,” Whitefish coach Brett Bollweg said. “Those guys are really good at running the ball and our guys are really good at running the ball. Defensively we were able to do exactly what we wanted to do against them.  

“Offensively, our line kept plugging away in the best way possible.” 

Moses ran for 83 yards on 14 carries for Whitefish; Shestak picked up 61 on three totes. The Bulldogs rolled up over 300 yards on the ground. 

“We have a lot of guys that can make plays in the backfield,” Bollweg said. “Number 10 (Dalen) is a very special player. We have a bunch back there and it all happens because our guys up front are a unit, a team. They don’t care who gets the ball behind them, they just want to make holes.” 

This week will bring a much shorter road trip for the Bulldogs. 

“We had some bus issues yesterday and it was kind of a nightmare,” Bollweg said. “We had some adversity and our kids never flinched. And that’s pretty sweet, to see them rise up to the occasion.” 

Whitefish    7    6    7    7    -    27 

Laurel    0    6    7    7    -    20 

WF — Luke Dalen 1 run (Tait Orme kick), 4:45-1Q 

WF — Dalen 12 run (kick failed), 4:44-2Q 

L — Isaiah Burt 16 run (kick failed), 2:25-2Q 

WF — Vlad Shestak 38 run (Orme kick), 10:50-3Q 

L — Burt 44 pass from (Luke Maack kick), 8:10-3Q 

L — Curtis Fox 4 run (Maack kick), 11:56-4Q 

WF — Dalen 12 run (Orme kick), 7:43-4Q