As anyone who watched them play two weeks ago in Superior suspected may happen, the under-seeded Choteau Bulldogs continued their march through the State 8-Man football playoffs Saturday, bringing down the Twin Bridges Falcons 62-20 for their second straight road win, advancing to this week’s semifinal round with the victory.

Choteau, which stunned previously unbeaten Superior 64-42 on the road in the first round two weeks ago, is the No. 4 seed out of the Northern C while Twin was the No. 2 team out of the south.

In other 8-Man quarterfinal games Belt, No. 1 out of the north, defeated Ennis, the No. 3 seed from the south 50-18, Chinook (No. 3 north) dumped previously No. 1 in the state and No. 1 out of the east Scobey 34-30 in Scobey, and Southern division No. 1 Flint Creek defeated Fort Benton, No. 2 out of the north, 44-26.

This week, Choteau visits Belt and Chinook travels to Flint Creek for the semifinal games of the State 8-Man playoffs.

Over in the Class B 11-Man playoffs, Huntley Project defeated Jefferson County 55-8, Three Forks stopped Fairfield 34-14, Manhattan ran past Red Lodge 55-27 and Florence blanked Malta 39-0. Three Forks plays at Huntley and Manhattan at Florence in the semifinals this week.

In the 6-Man playoffs, Power-Dutton-Brady defeated Highwood 59-14, Jordan beat Denton-Geyser-Stanford-Geraldine 31-8, Grass Range-Winnett dropped Bainville 63-13 and West Yellowstone edged out Big Sandy in a high-scoring 68-66 affair.

West Yellowstone is at Grass Range-Winnett and Jordan at P-D-B this week in the 6-Man semifinals.

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GOOD COACHING IDEAS don’t die, they are often given another life. This past fall was one of those times when a good coaching idea came back home to roost.

Thompson Falls football coach Jared Koskela had an idea of a way to honor the recently deceased ex-head coach of the Thompson Falls junior high football Hawks Mike Allen and thought he had a novel way of doing it this fall, by reintroducing the wishbone offense, Allen’s declared preferred method of attack during his days at the Young Hawks’ helm.

Both Koskela and assistant coach Jay Deal, the Hawks’ defensive coordinator, played for coach Allen back in their junior high days, and both were eager to find an on-field way of honoring their role model. They thought of that old mothballed offense, the wishbone offense that coach Allen always used, and installed a few plays for old times’ sake.

“We put it in, did it as kind of a tribute to Mike, not really thinking much about it,” Koskela said. “But the darn thing turned out different than I expected, it was actually working for us, teams were having trouble defending it.”

Koskela said the beauty of the Wishbone is in its simplicity, straight-ahead blocking schemes delivering an aggressive offensive attack that seemed to put opponents on their heels.

“The kids loved it, especially the linemen, they love running the ball anyway,” he said. “Other teams were not accustomed to seeing it and had to spend time in practice preparing for it. It was kind of an unexpected bonus this season, putting it in actually helped us quite a bit.

“And I guess we have coach Allen to thank for that,” he added.