2016 Class AA Playoffs (Semifinals)

[VimSince03]

Playoff Bracket: http://assets.ngin.com/attachments/docu ... ket-AA.pdf

Top-side of Bracket

Helena Capital at Billings Senior (10-0) - 7:00 PM, Friday, 11/11

Helena Capital Key Players: OLB Marcus Welnel, OL Carson Shuman, OL/DL Conor Quick, QB Carter Pappas, RB/OLB Seth Schneider, WR/FS Kellan Elder, TE/DE Matt Culpon, DT Alaric Greil, DE Justin Jenks, RB Payton Pappas, OL Trevor Welnel, DE/OLB Caelan Cummings, WR Mackenzie Duncan

Billings Senior Key Players: WR/DB Gabe Sulser, WR/FS Keaton Anderson, QB Nate Dick, WR/DB Jake Orvis, OLB/SS Kevon Jackson, TE/SS Max Clarke, OT/DE Luke Poetzl, OL/DE Emmit Bartsch, FB/OLB Blake Allred, RB/MLB Nolan Askelson, WR Ben LaBeau, OT/DE Cullen Roll, DT Hayden Hegg

#6 seed Helena Capital will travel to Billings this weekend for a semifinal matchup with #1 seed Billings Senior. Capital QB Carter Pappas led the Bruins to an upset win over Billings West, 23-13, last Saturday as the senior signal-caller threw three first half touchdowns (two to TE/FB Marcus Welnel and one to WR Bradley Haller). Billings West opened up the second half with a Si Ryan pick-six and they also got a touchdown pass from Bryson Deming to Chaz Maddock in the 4th but the Bruin defense ruled the day. Along with the Pappas touchdown throws, Capital also got a safety in the 1st quarter because of an intentional grounding call against Deming. RB Payton Pappas led the Capital rushing attack with 126 rushing yards while Caleb Nelson rushed for 91 yards on 21 carries for West. Billings Senior had no problems upending Missoula Big Sky with a 51-15 win last Friday. QB Nate Dick accounted for four first half touchdowns and 265 yards of total offense (192 passing/73 rushing) on the night. In the 1st quarter, he threw two touchdowns to WR Ben LaBeau and a third to WR Gabe Sulser. In the 2nd, he ran in a score to make it 29-0 at halftime. Senior RB Nolan Askelson took over in the second half with three 3rd quarter touchdown runs on a 15 carry, 110 yard performance for the Broncs. Big Sky QB Luke Janacaro scored twice in the second half on runs of 32 and 3 yards. The star junior QB finished with 105 rushing yards on 21 carries while passing for 110 yards on 21 attempts with two interceptions. Eagle WR Nick Wakai led the way with seven catches for 60 yards against the toughest secondary in the state. Senior racked up 420 total yards of offense. The Capital/Senior matchup will be intriguing mostly due to the fact Capital gave Senior one of its toughest games of the season in a 35-7 win by the Broncs. However, don't let the final score fool you as Capital was very much so in the game as the Bruin defense held Senior in check for most of the night...until it didn't. This was the same game that Nate Dick had an 89-yard touchdown scramble where he weaved through almost eleven missed tackles. Senior led 21-7 at halftime. The biggest key to the Broncs victory was holding Capital's offense in check. The Bruin offense had quite the year as they were a very inconsistent group at the beginning of the season. They struggled to score points for a defense that is one of the best in AA and it lead to some tough losses. QB Carter Pappas has been the x-factor in the offense improving as he has steadily improved his passing game throughout the year. They have been a much tougher team as Carter has improved down the stretch. The key to beating Senior is sustaining drives offensively while chewing up clock and getting a few stops on defense. Despite the progress from Pappas, Capital is not a team built to come from behind so the key for Billings Senior will be to build an early lead and force Capital to throw the ball and make that big offensive line pass block. Senior is loaded on both sides of the ball but they don't match up physically with Capital's offensive or defensive line. If Capital can find a ground game and contain Nate Dick, this one is going to be exciting. But if Senior gets rolling offensively and forces Capital to play their game, Senior will roll. Capital will put up a fight but Senior is on a mission. They may not match up physically with Capital but Senior overcomes with discipline and great effort on both sides of the ball while also being explosive on offense. Prediction: Senior wins 38-20.

Bottom-side of Bracket

Helena High at Kalispell Glacier - 7:00 PM, Friday, 11/11

Helena High Key Players: FB/MLB Kendall Johnson, QB Kaleb Winterburn, WR/DB Derrick Olsen, RB Ryan Arntson, WR/DB Keair Adgerson, TE/DE Taylor England, TE Max Morris, FS Emmett Buckley, OT/DL Daniel Stockton, OLB Conner Nash, OL/DT Chauncey Flemings

Kalispell Glacier Key Players: QB Tadan Gilman, OT/DE Jaxen Hashley, RB Drew Turner, WR/FS Jackson Pepe, SS Seth Anderson, RB/OLB Cole Crosby, FS Sam Barber, WR Scout Willcut, TE/MLB Patrick O'Connell, MLB Hunter Rauthe, OL Kellen Bemis, OL/DE Bryce Grame

The best game of the AA quarterfinals took place at Van Winkle Stadium in Bozeman as #5 seed Helena High took down #4 seed Bozeman, 28-21. The game started with Bozeman scoring on its opening drive with a Callahan O'Reilly 3-yard touchdown plunge. The next three Helena offensive possessions ended in punts or turnover on downs. However, the Bengals defense stiffened and forced a fumble on the Hawk 29-yard line. Two plays later, QB Kaleb Winterburn juked his way to a 29-yard touchdown scramble to tie the game at 7 going into the 2nd quarter. Winterburn stayed hot by hitting WR Derrick Olsen for a 13-yard score to take a 13-7 lead. Bozeman and O'Reilly responded with another O'Reilly touchdown run and a 61-yard touchdown pass to WR Logan Kleinhans, who got behind DB Derrick Olsen. That 61-yard score was set up by a Winterburn interception on the previous possession. The Hawks went into halftime with a 21-13 lead. The key storyline in the first half was Bozeman shutting down Bengal RB Ryan Arntson for 63 yards, which is considered "shutting him down" knowing how well he has played this year. But as I said in the preview to this game, Helena needed to stick with Arntson even if they were down a score to Bozeman. It worked as Arntson exploded for 183 yards after halftime and it started in the 3rd quarter after a Bozeman punt. Arntson had gains of 52 and 18 to get the Bengals down to the Hawk's 6 yard line and set up a 6-yard touchdown from Winterburn to Olsen. After Olsen tied the game up on a fly-sweep for the two-point conversion, Helena had new life and their defense started to feel the momentum. On the next Bozeman possession, the Hawks tried an O'Reilly to Bailey Paddock pass-back play where Paddock heaved one down the the sideline, only to be picked off by the Bengal's defense. Arntson toted the rock for a 33-yard score on the next possession to put Helena up 28-21 with 2:19 to go in the 3rd quarter. Both defenses tightened things up from there but Bozeman got one more chance after getting pinned down at their own 3-yard line with under two minutes to go. O'Reilly converted on third and fourth downs to move the ball to their own 42-yard line but O'Reilly's final fourth down heave went incomplete to give the Bengals the big win at Bozeman. RB Ryan Arntson carried the ball 37 times for 246 yards and one touchdown with the 246 yards breaking a 20-year old Bengal single-game rushing record. Ryan is now 83 rushing yards away from breaking the single-season rushing record set in 1998 by Grady Simpson. However, if you ask Ryan, he would rather just win next week as he is a very humble kid. Bozeman QB Callahan O'Reilly finished the night with 357 yards passing and also saw action on defense as a DE/OLB for the first time all year. It just wasn't enough against an opportunistic Helena team. I thought these teams were very evenly matched coming into this game and it played out that way. O'Reilly finished his lone senior season at QB with unofficially 3,201 passing yards, 500 rushing yards, and 39 total touchdowns. WR/DB Lance McCutcheon also had an outstanding senior season for Bozeman with about 800 yards receiving and 12 touchdowns on offense and a league leading 10 interceptions on defense. In Kalispell, Drew Turner rushed for a school-record 256 yards and two touchdowns as Glacier shut down Sentinel 35-14 last Friday. The Wolfpack have been blessed with outstanding running backs over the past three seasons with names like Noah James, Logan Jones, and Thomas Trefney but Turner may be the best of them all and he is only a junior. Turner's first touchdown was sandwiched between two Tadan Gilman touchdown scampers which boosted Glacier to a 21-0 lead. Sentinel closed the gap to 21-7 before halftime with backup QB Brandon Morley hitting WR Nick Germer for a 40-yard touchdwon. But Turner scored from 14 yards out after halftime and Gilman tossed a score to WR Andrew Durado to make it 35-7 going into the final quarter. Morley found Germer again for a 41-yard score but it was too little too late for Sentinel as Glacier didn't have to worry about Mitch Roberts in this one (the senior got injured in the final week of the regular season). Germer finished with five catches for 102 yards and two touchdowns. Glacier won the T.O.P. battle 33:25 to 14:35. The win sets up a Week 1 rematch between Helena High and Kalispell Glacier where the Wolfpack won 35-7 in an embarrassing loss for the Bengals. In that game, Gilman produced over 400 yards of offense in his first career high school game at QB. Helena RB Ryan Arntson was largely held in check. However, Helena's defense gave their offense plenty of opportunities early in that game to score but Kaleb Winterburn was also making his first career start and he had a rough day. If Helena can establish the ground game and be opportunistic on defense, they have a chance in this one. But if Gilman and Turner get that ground game going, Glacier should win by about the same margin as the first game. I expect a good game here. Prediction: Glacier wins 28-14.

[VimSince03]

Well I nailed these scores! Nate Dick is likely your frontrunner for Gatorade Player of the Year. Willed Senior to a win last night.