Playoff bound: Cats host Corvallis on Saturday

By JOE SOVA / Hungry Horse News

For the second straight year, Columbia Falls needed a win over rival Whitefish to earn a home game in the first round of the Class A football playoffs. And for the second year, the Wildcats were up to the challenge.

The Wildcats outscored Whitefish 21-0 in the second half and cruised to a 35-7 Northwestern A Conference victory over the homestanding Bulldogs last Friday night. CFHS hosts Corvallis, the No. 3 seed from the Southwestern A, at 1 p.m. Saturday. Whitefish travels to Dillon for a first-round contest. Polson and Frenchtown have first-round byes in the Northwestern and Southwestern A conferences, respectively.

Frenchtown, Dillon and Corvallis all finished with 4-1 league marks. Frenchtown got the top seed on a point differential tie-breaker.

Corvallis is 7-2 overall, the Blue Devils' only losses to Polson and Frenchtown, both league champions.

"They play in a very tough conference year in and year out," CFHS head coach John Thompson said. "They're very athletic. They like to run the football. They have pretty good team speed."

The Blue Devils are led by 205-pound senior running back Matt Smith. Two juniors, Keenan Strong and Drew Zeiler, have been splitting time at quarterback.

"They throw when they need to. They use the run to set up the pass," Thompson said.

With the exception of last Friday's loss to Dillon, when they gave up 40 points, the Blue Devils have shown very well defensively.

"They've shut down some pretty powerful teams. They've done a very good job all year long getting to the football," Thompson said.

CFHS led Whitefish 14-7 at halftime Friday, then scored twice in the third period to build a big lead.

On his first carry of the game, Stephen Baumgartner capped a 66-yard Wildcat drive with a 22-yard touchdown run on their first possession.

Early in the second period, Whitefish drove to the CFHS 22-yard line, but Quenton Hegel — with great coverage — picked off a Mac Roche pass in the end zone.

A 30-yard ramble by Mackey Nolan and 22-yard pass from Mitchell Wassam to Baumgartner set up an eight-yard scoring run by Nolan — capping an 80-yard drive. His kick made it 14-0.

Whitefish converted two third-down plays to sustain a drive on the Bulldogs' next possession, and they cut the lead in half on a 15-yard pass from Roche to Kyle Knox.

CFHS nearly scored in the final seconds of the first half, but the Cats were short on a fourth-down run.

A strong rush on a Whitefish punt forced Aaron Tkachyk to scramble. His pass was complete for a loss, and the Cats took over at the Bulldog 15-yard line. Whitefish held, though, and Nolan's field goal attempt was wide left.

After Kodie Kenfield batted down a third-down pass by Roche, Kaleb Johnson returned a punt to the Whitefish 40. Wassam ran for a key first down at the 10, and Baumgartner bounced into the end zone on the next play for a 20-7 Cats lead.

The Bulldogs' next possession was a disaster as Nolan intercepted a Roche pass and returned it to the 7-yard line. A seal block by Nathan Thompson sprung John Woody into the end zone on the next play. A conversion pass to Thompson moved the lead to 28-7 with :19 left in the third period.

Wassam connected with Wayde Martinson on a slant pattern, resulting in a nine-yard touchdown midway through the final period.

"We played pretty well tonight and I'm happy with the kids' effort," coach Thompson said. "They're a great group of kids. They know the effort that's required."

Whitefish had just six yards of offense in the second half, and Thompson gave credit to defensive coordinator Jamie Heinz and the rest of the coaching staff.

"I thought our coaches came up with a great defensive game plan. Their quarterback is good, but when their receivers are not in the right spot it makes it tough, and that was the focus, to make sure we disrupted their passing game. I thought our defensive backs did a great job of that."

Thompson credited Tanner Perry, Hegel, Johnson and Kyle Howell with outstanding play in the defensive backfield.

As they have all season, center Nathan Trueblood, guards Kodie Kenfield and Kelly Houle, and tackles Nathan Woods and Mike Macijunas were outstanding on the offensive line with their blocking.

"It's easy to look good when they dominate," Nolan said of his offensive line.

Whitefish coach Patrick Dryden was disappointed with his team's play.

"Our big guns didn't show up for us tonight," Dryden said after the game. "We were kind of outplaying ourselves. Give Columbia Falls credit, they played a great defensive game."

Nolan and his teammates were focused on a home game in the playoffs.

"We came in knowing the importance of this game," he said.

The Cats have last year's 24-0 first-round home-field loss to Hamilton last year on their minds.

"That's definitely a motivation to win at home," Nolan said.

Kat spikers earn victory over Ronan

By JOE SOVA

Hungry Horse News

Columbia Falls picked up its third Northwestern A Conference volleyball victory of the season last Thursday, coming away from Ronan with a win in four games.

The Wildkats won the first two sets, 25-16 and 25-18, but the Maidens took game four, 25-21. CFHS closed out the match with a 25-21 win in the fifth set.

Senior Alyssa Ladenburg had an outstanding all-around match for the Kats. She led the team with 12 kills and had 21 digs. The CFHS libero, Cedar Smith, led in digs with 22. Teamwise, the Kats hustled for 83 digs in the four-game match.

Cassidee Skiles dished out 37 set assists. Ashley Anderson and Amanda Milliard each served three aces.

"The girls did really well. They were pretty sharp the first two games," coach Addy Hines said. "There is some progress going on."

The Kats ran into very tough competition last weekend at the Missoula Invitational. They won only one of 14 games in pool play at Sentinel High School. Their pool included five Class AA teams — Sentinel, Big Sky, Glacier, Great Falls and Helena Capital — as well as Whitefish and Bigfork. The win came in the last match of the day, against Capital.

Skiles, the team's setter, missed all but the last two matches Friday. In her absence, Hines said Smith and Milliard "did the best job they could" in setting.

That placed the Kats in the consolation bracket where they faced Libby. The Loggers won the first game and CFHS took the second, and Libby won the deciding set, 17-15.

"It was definitely a battle and that was nice to see," Hines said. "I was very pleased."

In a loser-out match, Bigfork posted a two-game win over the Kats.

Milliard is battling a biceps injury and her play will be limited today (Thursday) against Libby at home, according to Hines. The Kats, 2-5 in league matches, play Friday at Bigfork.