2017 Class B Playoffs (Quarterfinals)

[VimSince03]

Playoff Bracket: http://assets.ngin.com/attachments/docu ... cket-B.pdf

Top-side of Bracket

Manhattan (#2 South) at Eureka (#1 West)

Manhattan Key Players – WR/DB Cal Holgate (Sr.), QB/DE Jake Dyk (Sr.), OL/LB Nic Stubbs (Sr.), TE/LB Michael Nehring (Jr.), OL/DL Tyler Smith (Sr.)

Eureka Key Players – QB/S Garrett Graves (Sr.), RB/LB Jake Kindel (So.), WR/DB Hank Dunn (So.), RB/DB Chet McCully (So.), WR/S Brenton Pluid (Sr.)

Eureka rolled to an easy 1st round win over Cut Bank. Garrett Graves did his thing, throwing for four touchdowns and running for another. Manhattan found themselves in a back-and-forth battle with Roundup in the first round. Manhattan held a 20-14 lead at halftime and a 33-14 lead at one point in the 3rd quarter. But Roundup kept scrapping and made it close before the Tigers claimed a 33-28 victory. QB Jake Dyk scored three touchdowns (1 rushing/2 passing) while WR Cal Holgate ran for a score and caught both of Jake Dyk's touchdown passes for 80 and 56 yards, respectively. This will be an interesting matchup. Eureka has yet to lose this season and their closest game remains a 51-28 victory over Loyola. Manhattan had two losses during the regular season against Jefferson and Whitehall. But the Tigers had an impressive 24-13 win over Huntley Project to open their season so they are capable of beating good teams. It will all come down to Tiger QB Jake Dyk and their defense. Dyk will have to keep pace with Garrett Graves because the Lion QB will get his yards in this game. Manhattan's defense needs to put together long drives, control the clock, and keep Graves off the field or out of the endzone on offense. Manhattan is the bigger team but Eureka is used to playing against bigger opponents. Missoula Loyola outsized Eureka at about every position and won by 23 points. Prediction: Eureka wins 34-14

Huntley Project (#2 East) at Fairfield (#1 North)

Huntley Project Key Players – RB/LB Lane Sumner (Sr.), OL/DL Trey Copeland (Sr.), WR/DB Keenan Reynolds (Sr.), RB/LB Wyatt Selman (Sr.), QB/DE Tylan Croy (Sr.)

Fairfield Key Players - QB/S Ryder Meyer (Jr.), WR/DB Dawson Allen (Jr.), RB/LB Griffen Lee (Sr.), OL/DL Walker Heckman (Jr.), WR/DE Ethan Schenk (Sr.)

Huntley Project played the Friday Night game last week to kick-off the first round of the Class B playoffs and they ran into one of the hottest teams in Class B, Big Timber. The Herders came out on fire, scoring the game's first touchdown on their opening drive and they took a 7-0 lead into the 2nd quarter. Then the Red Devils woke up, rattling off 26 unanswered points on three Lane Sumner touchdown runs and a Tylan Croy touchdown pass to Keenan Reynolds making it 26-7 late in the 3rd quarter. Big Timber responded before the end of the 3rd with a touchdown run from QB Blake Finn making it 26-14 after three. But Huntley QB Tylan Croy put the nail in the coffin by tossing a 39-yard touchdown pass early in the 4th to put Huntley up 32-14 and sealing an eventual 32-20 win. Fairfield played the #4 seed out of the West, Florence, and got standout performances from their junior duo of QB/S Ryder Meyer and WR/DB Dawson Allen. Meyer threw two touchdown passes and ran in two more while Allen scored three touchdowns on a 43-yard run, 80-yard kickoff return, and 58-yard pass. Florence did make it a 14-6 game in the 1st after a Kyler Alm touchdown run but then Allen returned the ensuing kickoff for a score and Fairfield never looked back en route to a 56-14 win. This game will be a fantastic matchup in the trenches against two teams who are good at running the football. The x-factor will be which team can pass the ball better because both defenses will gear up to take away the run. Ryder Meyer is close to having Nate-Dick level scrambling ability but it can lead him into mistakes as much as it leads him into big plays. Huntley has good linebackers and a big front on defense so it will be interesting to see how well they can contain Meyer. I also think Fairfield has a good matchup defensively against Huntley and I think the Red Devils are going to have trouble scoring. Lane Sumner will have to get at least 30 touchdes in this game if Huntley wants to have a chance. He is the only player on Huntley's roster with the ability to breakthrough a stout defense because of his ability to break tackles and turn the corner with his speed. Huntley has a good group of seniors but Fairfield is a tough place to win a football game in November. Also, Huntley has consistently shown they have "bad" quarters during football games this season and it takes four "good" quarters to beat a team like Fairfield. Prediction: Fairfield wins 38-16


Bottom-side of Bracket

Shelby (#2 North) at Whitehall (#1 South)

Shelby Key Players – QB/S Aaron White (Sr.), OL/DL TJ Reynolds (Sr.), RB/DB Zach Torgerson (Sr.), OL/DL Curtis Conant (Sr.), WR/LB Barrett Hansen (Sr.)

Whitehall Key Players – WR/DB Wyatt Alexander (Sr.), OL/DL Dawson Hoerauf (Sr.), RB/LB Braden Smith (Sr.), QB/S Max Feight (Jr.), WR/DB Lane Buus (Sr.)

Shelby played a very sloppy game against Bigfork and still came away with a 23-20 victory with the final points off a Wyatt Brusven field goal to put the Coyotes up for good. Bigfork had every opportunity to take control of the game in the first half. After a scoreless first quarter, Bigfork started the scoring out with a 40-yard touchdown run from RB Randy Stultz. The biggest opportunities came on Bigfork's next two drives. On each drive, they got inside Shelby's 10-yard line but ended each drives with a 13 and 16-yard field goal to make the score 12-0. Bigfork was definitely in control of the game but they failed to make it a three possession game on the road against a good team. Right before half, Shelby QB Aaron White got hot and hit WR Barrett Hansen for an 18-yard score to completely change the momentum of the game goin ginto halftime. White and Co. started where he left off after halftime and threw touchdown passes to RB Zach Torgerson and Hansen to make it 20-12 Shelby after three. Bigfork tied the score on a 29-yard touchdown pass from QB Augie Emslie to WR Logan Taylor and Stultz punched in the 2-point conversion to tie the score. Brusven put his kick through the uprights and Shelby's defense held off Bigfork to finish the victory. White had four picks in the game but he did what a good QB does and responded with three touchdown passes when his team needed him to get it together. Whitehall shot out to a 19-0 lead at halftime over Shepherd and the game appeared to be looking like a route. But Shepherd continued to pound the rock and stiffened up defensively to make it a 19-18 Whitehall lead in the 4th quarter. Shepherd could've had the lead but they missed every extra point on each of their three touchdowns in the second half. Whitehall QB Max Feight threw his 4th touchdown pass of the game in the 4th quarter to make it a 26-18 Trojan lead and the score sealed the win. Whitehall WR Wyatt Alexander caught two of Feight's touchdown passes including the final one. Shepherd's scores came on the legs and arm of QB Jake Trotter who tossed one score to RB Kohl Michels and ran in a 15-yard score which could've been the game tying score had the extra points been made. Michels also scored the first Shepherd touchdown on a 3-yard run. This was an interesting matchup for Whitehall as they are a pass-first team with a good, fast defense. They got up early on Shepherd which is exactly how you beat a Wing-T team but Shepherd got back into the game by following their formula and also by Whitehall failing to establish a run game in the 2nd half. On to the quarterfinal matchup, this should be the closest game of all the matchups. Both teams are similarly built with pass-first offenses and underrated defenses that have big defensive fronts and fast, physical secondaries. This could either be a shoot-out or a defensive battle. Prediction: Shelby wins 41-35

Missoula Loyola (#2 West) at Colstrip (#1 East)

Missoula Loyola Key Players – OL/DL Joe McElroy (Sr.), WR/DB David Koppang (Sr.), QB/LB Scott Twite (Sr.), WR/DB Cooper Waters (Jr.), OL/DL Braeden Beck (Sr.)

Colstrip Key Players – RB/WR/LB Chadd Naillon (Sr.), QB Joel McRae (Sr.), WR/S Nakoda Siegel (Jr.), OL/DL Merlin Whitedirt (Sr.), OL/DL Beau Petersen (Jr.)

I viewed Colstrip as the weakest of the four #1 seeds in the tournament and they proved me right by getting into a dogfight with Townsend, the #4 seed out of the South. Townsend took the first lead on a fumble recovery in the endzone en route to a 6-0 first quarter lead. But Colstrip does have a talented roster and their best player, RB/WR Chadd Naillon, willed his team throughout the game scoring two 2nd quarter touchdowns on a 13-yard pass from QB Joel McRae and 3-yard run. Townsend ended up scoring one more time before halftime which tied the score 13-13 at half. Colstrip's defense shutout the Bulldogs in the second half and got two fourth quarter touchdown runs of 65 and 45 from Naillon to seal the victory. On the other side of the state, Missoula Loyola routed a good Malta team, 48-6. Malta had an excellent start to the game forcing Loyola to punt after four plays on offense then running the football right at the Rams ending with a 2-yard touchdown run from RB Trey Simanton. Loyola essentially abandoned their run game early and started throwing the football at will with back-to-back touchdown drives ending with a long touchdown passes to WR David Koppang and WR Jeffrey Twite from junior QB Scott Twite. The play of the game came on Malta's next possession where sophomore DE/LB Basil Coutinho stepped in front of a screen pass and took it 40 yards for a Loyola touchdown. It made the score 21-6 at the end of the first quarter and Malta's offense would never score again. Scott Twite would go on to throw two more touchdown passes to Koppand and J. Twite to make it 35-6 at halftime. In my opinion, Colstrip will follow the same fate as Malta if they can't stop or contain Loyola's passing game because Scott Twite is playing his best football of his junior season. Colstrip needs to do what Malta couldn't: sustain long drives on offense and keep Loyola out of rhythm offensively.
If Colstrip doesn't tackle well on defense, Loyola should have no problem moving on to the next round because Colstrip's offense is not built to play from behind. Prediction: Loyola wins 36-12

[NwMontana]

Manhattan @ Eureka (4pm)
364 miles
radio broadcast - http://kzxt93.com/

Huntley Project @ Fairfield (1pm)
275 miles
radio broadcast - http://fm99mtn.com
VIdeo Broadcast - http://www.nfhsnetwork.com/events/fairf ... 8a10427556

Shelby @ Whitehall (1pm)
236 miles
radio broadcast - streamingaudiosolutions.com

Loyola @ Colstrip (1pm)
466 miles
radio broadcast - http://kgrzmissoula.com
Video Broadcast - http://www.nfhsnetwork.com/events/colst ... 998cc558f0

[Jgraves]

Go Lions!


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[Joe Bobcat]

Well Vim you called it (kind of anyway). You said the Shelby vs Whitehall game would either be a shoot out or a defensive battle. It was a defensive battle that had them tied late in the 4th with Whitehall on the drive till Shelby intercepted a pass. Shelby moved it some and kicked a 31 yrd field goal to go up 16 - 13.
Shelby pooch kicked and recovered...game over.

Thanks for all your write-ups on all the high school teams.