Sports Now -- State Title Soccer + Prep Football Playoffs + Griz and Cats Football

Local sports talk from Northwest Montana covering prep sports, Bobcats, Grizzlies and more!

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Hosted by Josh Dugan

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Transcript

Welcome back to another episode of Inter Lake Sports. Now, I'm Josh Dugan, and once again, we have an action-packed week of sports in the valley on our hands and the surrounding local areas. Also, the first-ever video episode, if anybody wants to check that out, should be available on YouTube. We'll give that a go.

Alright, before we jump into today's action, a lot is on the agenda. We're going to talk about all the prep playoff football stuff, the State title soccer games of Whitefish and Columbia Falls, and of course, we're going to talk a little bit about the Grizz and the Bobcats as always.

But first, today's episode is brought to you by Nomad, voted the Flathead's best manufacturer. Nomad is a long-time supporter of the local community and sports scene, celebrating 20 years of building great careers and mission-focused custom vehicles. Nomad is a Montana-based company making a global impact. Visit www.nomadgcs.com for more information. That's www.nomadgcs.com for more information.

Quick reminder, you can subscribe to the Daily Inter Lake E-edition to get all your local news right at your fingertips. Alright, let's get right into this action. A lot of big headlines in the valley right now, but the two that stand out the most that we're going to cover in this week's Now Headlining: Two local soccer teams played in the state championships with Columbia Falls boys and the Whitefish girls. Let's dive right into that action.

Let's get to Columbia Falls first. This recap is by the Daily Inter Lake's Katie Brown, who was in attendance for both of these games that I mentioned, and it's a good one. So let's just dive right into it.

"Columbia Falls boys build a four-goal lead to earn their first soccer title since 2005" by Katie Brown. "They saved their best game for last, and at the end, they were crowned state champions. The Columbia Falls Wildcats rode a four-goal lead at halftime and charged to a 5-2 victory over the Livingston Rangers in the boys' Class A soccer championship at Flip Darling Memorial Field on Saturday. The best game on the biggest stage under the biggest set of lights," Wildcats coach O'Brien Bird said. "It was amazing. I'm just so relieved."

"It was the Wildcats' first state title in 17 years and the first time since 2004 that Columbia Falls played for a title on its own turf. Many of the players that hosted the first-place trophy weren't even born then. Here's another quote from Bird: 'I feel just this massive amount of relief and joy. It's hard to describe. 17 years, these guys weren't even alive when we won state last, and it's just such a huge piece of history. This team is amazing. It's full of amazing young men who are brilliant soccer players but also fantastic characters. I've been very fortunate to be able to coach them, and I'm just so relieved and so happy that they can lift this trophy on their last day. We feel really special today, that's for sure.'"

"The past two years ended with losses to Whitefish in the state final. As a coach, this is Bird's fifth state title. He won four as a coach of Whitefish before his departure in 2015. Columbia Falls also ended with a 15-0 record, the best in school history. Undefeated goalkeeper Bryce Dunham tied the school record with nine shutouts

I think, as always, the third time's a charm," senior Finley Sunberg said. "Our third time being in the state championship, and we finally won, so it's just crazy to think about. Their urgency was obvious from the start. The Wildcats looked as if they thought they'd been shot by a gun. Dale Blicken found Elaine in the 20th minute, and his shot flew just out of the Livingston Keeper's reach. 'We wanted to get that first goal early, and I think when we got it, the momentum just kept going, and we just kept going,' you know," Sunberg said.

An extra strike was Junior Kygo Lawn, the Ford who broke his back in last year's State title game and has worked his way back to top form. Golan scored in the 26th minute with a shot from his left foot that soared just under the crossbar. He wasn't done yet. Before the half, Golan scored twice more, completing the hat-trick with a header goal after a rebound bounced his way, and the Wildcats settled into a comfortable 4-0 lead. "He never fails to come up in those big moments," Bird said of Golan.

Livingston's Calvin Kappless, excuse me, is one of the top scorers in Class A, and he got the Rangers on the board in the 49th minute. One minute later, Sunberg hit the back of the net to make it 5-1 Wildcats. "I just feel ecstatic, best in the state," Sunberg said. "This was our game to win, and I think we went out there and we showed that it was our game."

By this point, starting keeper Dunham had been replaced by Rafi Rousey in the net, and starters were on the bench. Backup keeper Brandon Fairchild took a few shots at Ford and had a scoring chance. "Everybody got in the game," Bert said. "I think that's really important. How lucky am I to be in the position to put everybody in that game? I'm so lucky, I'm so happy. The guys really got it done, that they put us in a position that everybody could get in and play, and I'm really thankful for that too."

Alright, so congratulations to the Columbia Falls Wildcats boys' soccer team. Always special to pull in a state championship, something of that sort, and to do it on your own turf after coming up short the last couple of years, that makes it that much more special. So kudos to them, they've got to be feeling good about themselves, and that's awesome to see. Hard not to root for.

Now, let's move on to the Whitefish girls' soccer team who, unfortunately, did fall in this game to Billing Central. That being said, kudos to the Whitefish girls for making it to the title game. Always an accomplishment to be the number two team in your class in the state, that says a lot.

"Some lessons in life are harder than others but will serve you better in the end," Saturday was one of those times for the Whitefish Bulldogs. In the state A girls' final at Smith's Field, Billing Central claimed the crown with a 2-1 victory. The powerhouse Rams, their 10th overall title. Things were understandable there were understandably many tearful faces on the Whitefish sideline after the game ended. "We get wrapped up in wins and losses, and it's about being successful, becoming a better person from it, and learning through experiences," Whitefish coach Roland Benedict said. "They're going to learn more from this moment than they will the rest of their lives. The experiences you have now make you a better person when you move on,"

Well said, coach. Well said," he went on to say. "I don't think we deserve to lose this game. I think we did enough to maybe push it to overtime. I think we needed a little more time to create some chances, but we had to impend in the second half. I don't think they're a better team than us by any means, but it's a good team. There can be one little half-chance, half-moment, and you know they can capitalize on it. Just to dive into that real quick, that's very well said for all sports because when it comes down to the best of the best, state championship playoffs, and stuff like that, usually comes down to a couple of moments, who could steal that one moment, and in this one, it just came up Billing Central did the job. So overall, congratulations to the Whitefish Bulldogs girls' soccer team. Like I said, I mean, you come second in your class, that's awesome. They deserve a lot of credit. And more importantly, you know, their coach has a lot of belief in them. I gotta say that. And, you know, you could look at things one of two ways. You could say, 'I think we're the better soccer team' after losing. People could take that the wrong way, but hey, that is pure confidence in your team. That takes a lot to have that kind of confidence in your team. So I respect that, and that is probably a good reason why they got as far as they did. Okay, so congratulations to Whitefish, and big congratulations to Columbia Falls on taking home the State title honors.

Moving along, quick reminder, make sure you're following the Daily Inter Lake on Twitter. That's @dailyInter Lake on Twitter to keep up with the latest breaking news in the valley and beyond. Also, you can follow yours truly, J.Dugan406, for local coverage and more. Okay, let's dive into the prep Roundup. We might as well call this two-hour call this week's just Prep Football Roundup because that's what we're diving into today. Had a lot of good action around the valley and beyond. But first, a word from our friends at Nomad.

At Nomad, the key to our success has always been the amazing talent and experience of our team. Based in one of the most beautiful places on Earth, our Kalispell, Montana headquarters is home to some of the most skilled engineers, integrators, software developers, welders, electricians, carpenters, mechanics, and professional staff in the market. Our team is dedicated to working collaboratively with our valued clients to ensure success in every mission. Join our team, check out our careers page at nomadgcs.com/careers to view current job openings and to submit an application. Yeah, go check that out. Shout out to Nomad for their support. We always appreciate it. We appreciate them helping give the coverage these local athletes and sports teams deserve. Shout out to Nomad, go check them out. Good people. Let's keep it moving.

Alright, let's get into the prep Roundup. First off, we're going to talk a little about Glacier football. This one's by Fritz Neighbor who was in attendance at this one. The Daily Inter Lake's own. Let's dive right into it. Glacier playoff action. Here we go. The Billings Senior Bronx brought a stingy defense into Legend Stadium Friday, and behind four sacks, kept the Glacier Wolf Pack in range after one half of play.

Then the third quarter began, and Glacier took a lot of starch out of the Broncos with a 14-play ADR Drive. Jackson Hensley's 16-yard run made it 17-0, and the final of the double A playing game was 31-0 in Glacier's favor. The Wolf Pack, 7-3, advanced to the corner quarter-final game at Bozeman, most likely Friday at Van Winkle Stadium.

Hensley rushed for 156 yards and scored three touchdowns, including a 49-yard run on the Wolf Pack's first possession. That TD would have held up for the Wolf Pack, but they figured to score a little more. Glacier struggled a little early in the first half, and their offense was a little stagnant. Gage Slider had this to say, "That Bronx defense, they played Tampa two almost the whole game. They were tough, physical, and one of the more physical teams we've played. They're fun to play because we know they're going to bring it every time."

According to coach Grady Bennett, coming into that game, the Wolf Pack had scored on 18 straight possessions, and he figured that streak would come to an end against the Bronx. Head coach Chris Murdoch said, "My worry was, what's going to happen when they stop us and we get a little adversity?" Bennett said, "Sure enough, we start to flounder a bit, and we couldn't get out of our way. Coach Murdoch did a great job, which I knew he would, dialing up some blitzes in the first half. He kind of had us off balance. The good news was Glacier's defense was even better."

Senior, who dropped a handful of passes on a crisp evening, managed just six first downs, three of those coming on a late drive. So, to shut them out, the defense was huge. I was in attendance for this one also, and Glacier's defense was flying around. They played a very smart football game. They took care of the ball. They did what they had to do. And here's the cherry on top: this was the first playoff shutout in school history. Grady Bennett noted, "The defense just kept staying so positive, kept going out and not worrying about the offense struggles, and just kept having our back."

As I said, the offense did find its stride at halftime. Hensley, in that second half, was big. He had a quote here, "That was a long drive. Who had that on that big drive in the second half? That was a long drive. Who had 20 carries on the day? Seven minutes of offense, maybe eight? We just kept pounding it. We had a couple of penalties set us back, and we kept pushing it. As I said, Hensley was huge on the day, and ended up with 150+ rushing yards."

Overall, I was at that one. Glacier, it's one of those games where early on, you felt like eventually the Wolf Pack were gonna run away with it, but kudos to that Bronx defense for really playing tough. I'm glad that the article mentioned that as well because it was apparent.

That team came to play. They were putting Slider under pressure, getting at that Glacier offense early. Ultimately, the Wolf Pack found their groove but put them on their toes a little bit and they put the pressure on. In a playoff game, that's all you want. But hey, Glacier moves along. In my opinion, that team could play with anybody. They have a quarterback, a great offense, and, in my opinion, an underrated defense. I know it's prep football and we're not going too into it, but typically we talk about their offense. Their defense is really good. They make a lot of plays and they deserve a lot of credit too.

Let's keep it moving with some more prep football playoff action. Here, Columbia Falls makes short work of the Cowboys. This one's also by Fritz Neighbor, who was in attendance at this game. So here we go.

One year after a 21-20 loss to the same Miles City Cowboys on the same field, the Columbia Falls Wildcats came out ruthless Saturday, ruthlessly efficient. Junior quarterback Cody Schweiker ran for three touchdowns and had just three incompletions in the Wildcats' 48-0 win in the state A first-round playoff game. Columbia Falls outgained Miles City 451 yards to 126. Last year, the Wildcats lost five second-half fumbles. This year, they had seven possessions and scored on all seven. They'll take a 7-2 record into a quarterfinal game at unbeaten Lewistown next weekend.

Here's a quote from Schweiker: "We just came out hot. We knew last year we let a lot of seniors down. We just came out hot, and our seniors stepped up to make sure what happened last year didn't happen again."

I won't dive too much into every detail of this game. I think 48-0 kind of speaks for itself. Columbia Falls really did their thing. Personally, I'm impressed with the way Columbia Falls plays and how they take care of business. So impressive. They had an interception that really stood out. Allen Anderson made a play in the corner of the end zone. Their defense is relentless. They keep making play after play after play. And my favorite thing about this offense is how good they are at getting rid of the football quickly, keeping the chains moving, and just keeping the show rolling. The more your offense is on the field, the better your chances are of winning with a quarterback like Schweiker. I really like the way they play football.

There was a quote from Coach Jackson Schweiker of the Wildcats. He said, "We had to be super-efficient. We didn't want to be in second and long, third and long. We felt like everything was at our disposal if we could win first down, and we did all day long." That's a great way to put it. They won first down, took care of business when they needed to, and set themselves up for easy conversions. They scored on all seven of their possessions. They did their job.

Let's keep it going to Bigfork. They rallied to beat the tough Tigers. As far as first-round playoff matchups go, this was a tough one, and the Bigfork Vikings needed a big play and a defensive stand to beat Manhattan 21-16 on Saturday. The Vikings got a 70-yard touchdown pass from Tristan Hurd to Isaac Epperly with 7:34 left, and then they held the Tigers on downs at the Bigfork 7-yard line.

Here's a quote from Bigfork coach Jim Bede after his team improved to 9-0: "It was a tough draw, and that's how the bracket works sometimes. I mean, first-round matchups can come down to a five-point game late. When you're the top seed, you don't expect that, but hey, that's playoff football. People are gonna bring it every week. Bigfork did what they needed to do, they took care of business, and they're going to keep moving along."

We had another quote from Bede here that I like: "We caught them in good coverage, and Isaac Eberly has been that guy this year. That's his third game-winner." And after the teams traded punts, excuse me, that's his third game-winner. That was the end of the quote. But hey, when you're clutch, you're clutch, and Eberly has been that guy for Bigfork. It seems like every week I'm reading the recaps, and it seems like they connect with that kid for a touchdown or he makes a big play. So they keep it rolling. They got another playoff matchup on the horizon. We'll see what happens for Bigfork, but hey, they got the win. Their season stays alive, and they took care of business. Sometimes a tough win early in the playoffs makes you reevaluate some things, and helps you get back on track. It's something to consider.

Alright, let's do one more prep roundup game. I'm going to talk a little Whitefish, and then we'll keep it moving. So here we go. Whitefish got the playoff win for the first time since they won the state championship in 2015. Led by quarterback Finn Ridgeway, who threw for one touchdown and ran for another, it's the Whitefish Bulldogs downing Haver 17-7 on the road in the state A football playoffs Saturday. Ridgeway threw for 143 yards, though he was intercepted three times, and he ran for 111 on 21 carries. Whitefish advanced to a quarterfinal game at Hamilton next Saturday.

So I will say, that's a bit of a tough consolation prize. I saw Hamilton in person earlier this season, and they are a tough team. They play good football, they run the heck out of the ball. Whitefish, have a good QB, and sometimes when you have a kid like Ridgeway who can just make plays and keep you in it, maybe he finds a spark and gets Hamilton on their toes early and keeps them in it. But that should be a good one, it's gonna be a tough game.

So we'll keep it moving from the prep roundup. This is my favorite part of the show. Let's get into our Prep Players of the Week, presented by Hagadone Media Group Montana. The team in Montana is here to help you grow. Our skilled team will assess your marketing goals and craft ROI-focused campaigns honed to meet your business needs. Our integrated marketing solutions will help your people find you wherever they are looking, whether it's on Google, YouTube, apps, or in your local newspaper. Contact Anton at 406-758-4410 for more information.

Alright, let's jump into the Prep Players of the Week. As always, major kudos to these kids, and major kudos to Hagadone Media Group Montana for helping support these local athletes and giving them the recognition they deserve. Let's jump into it. This one is very impressive. Columbia Falls soccer and football athlete Kai Golan pulled the Deion Sanders on Saturday and played two sports in one day.

Go on, handle kicking duties for the Wildcats football team in the morning as they defeated Mile City 48 to nothing and was the driving force behind the Wildcats' state soccer title by pulling off the hat trick, scoring three of the Wildcats' five goals on the day to play a pivotal role in their first state championship in 17 years. I mean, that's an iconic day in the sports world. If you play one playoff game, you're gonna remember that for most of your life. If you play two playoff games, you win them both, you win a state championship, and you beat the team who beat you last year in the playoffs in the football game. That's an epic day. Shout out to Kygo Lawn Columbia Falls soccer and football athlete. One of the most epic sports days we've discussed yet on Inter Lake Sports.

Now, moving on. Hey, real quick, with a name like Golan, it's only fitting he's a goal-scoring machine. Now, it's corny, I know, but I had to throw it in there. I mean, this guy is just a machine. They're playing two sports. Very impressed, alright? Two sports in one day and thriving in both. Keeping it moving.

Glacier's Jackson Hensley kept the wheels turning for the Glacier Wolf Pack offense since they beat Billings Senior 31 to nothing in Western Double-A playoff action. Hensley finished the day with 156 yards rushing and three total touchdowns. He had rushing scores of 49 and 16 while hauling in a 40-yard touchdown pass from Gage Slider on a perfectly executed wheel route. There's a great feature on the dailyInterlake.com by Fritz Neighbor that takes a look at Hensley's journey from potential prep basketball star to the football field. It also details he recently received a scholarship offer from Montana Tech and his plan of attack moving forward. So, congrats to Hensley on the scholarship offer, the big playoff performance, and all that, and the prep player of the week nod. Go check out that feature by Fritz Neighbor. It's a good one. Always great to learn a little bit more about our local athletes. Keeping it moving.

Columbia Falls, we discussed him just a second ago. Cody Schweiker is getting a nod this week. He ran for three touchdowns and threw for two more. Five total. And he only had three incomplete passes in a playoff game. Huge performance from Schweiker. And like I said, I'm really impressed with how decisive he is with the football. I was just looking around on maxpreps.com, Montana stat leaders, and I did see he was completing 70% of his passes, which is extremely impressive for a prep quarterback. And I think it's a good sign of kind of how they play the game. Let's get rid of the ball. Let's be efficient. Let's keep it moving. And let's utilize our weapons in space. Because it's easy when you have a good arm to be like, "Hey, let's huck it deep. Let's throw the deep ball. Let's look for the Hail Mary. Run the go route. Run the streak. You know, let's go for the home run." Schweiker hits the home run when it's necessary, but he's more than happy to take the single. And for a young quarterback to have that mental awareness, in my opinion, is very impressive and could go a long way.

All right, again, those were your Prep Players of the Week presented by Hagadone Media Montana. The team in Montana is here to help you grow. Our skilled team will assess your marketing goals and craft ROI-focused campaigns to meet your business needs. Our integrated marketing solutions will help your people find you wherever they are looking, whether it's on Google, YouTube, apps, or in your local newspaper. Contact Anton at 406-758-4410 for more information.

All right, guys, it's been a good, jam-packed show. We've been rocking and rolling through this one. Kinda an interesting time in the local sports scene where a couple of sports have wrapped up. We've had golf state championships kinda wrapped up, track's kinda wrapped up, soccer's kinda wrapping up. So, it was a jam-packed show, but a lot of emphasis on a couple of sports here. That being said, we talked a lot of prep. Let's get into the Grizzlies, let's get into the Bobcats. We'll start out with the Grizz.

They're coming off a rough three-game stretch. I was gonna read the game recap, I was gonna recap the game here and go into all the details, but you know what? I think I'm gonna dive right into the analysis. I think Grizz Nation is well aware of how things have gone. They've lost three straight games. They lost to the Idaho Vandals, Sacramento State Hornets, and the Weber State Wildcats, three tough FCS-ranked teams. Two of those being road games, and in two of those seven to eight quarters of the last two games, they didn't have their starting quarterback, who's arguable, in my opinion, one of the best quarterbacks at the FCS level.

So, when you sit back and you think, I watched that game and you know, I'm rooting for the Grizz. Like I said last year, I kinda root for the Grays over the Cats. Of course, I want success. The best thing that could happen is those two meet up in the playoffs. That would be epic. You know, I don't have a horse in the race. I'm a fan of both. You know, it is what it is. The point is, it's tough to see Montana lose three straight when they had all this preseason hype, right?

So, I'm sitting there watching the game, and I'm a little, you know, getting caught in the moment. I'm sort of, you know, falling into it. I'm like, 'Wow, they're losing. Something's not right with this team.' But you have to take a step back. In seven of the last eight quarters, they haven't had their guy in the quarterback position. The Idaho loss, there's no excuse. You should win that game versus the Vandals. But hey, they were a really good football team that was underrated coming in. Now, in the Hornets game and the Weber State game, you have two road matchups with top-tier FCS teams with your backup quarterback taking the field, and you barely lose. I think you can't overreact.

I think there are definitely things this team needs to work on. They need to figure out what the plan is moving forward at quarterback. Do you want to stick with a traditional passer like Chris Brown after Johnson retires or graduates? Or do you want to go mobile? Do you want to have that guy who can make plays with his legs? Because Chris Brown, he's got some flak on the internet. He's, you know, he's playing with the cards he's dealt. He's a backup quarterback.

He comes in midway through the season on a team who thrives with the dynamic playmaking QB. It reminds me a little bit of martial arts, mixed martial arts. If a guy's right-handed and an injury forces him to go southpaw, guess what? He's not playing to his strengths anymore, and that's kind of how it felt with Brown. He came in and had to basically reinvent their offense on the fly with Johnson out. Okay, I won't go on and on about that. The point is, I think this team has a chance to right the ship.

They've got two very winnable matchups on the horizon. We've got Cal Poly coming up and Eastern Washington. You win those games in a statement fashion, go take care of business, and set yourself up with some momentum for that Brawl of the Wild in Bozeman with the Bobcats on November 19th. All of a sudden, these three losses are kind of in the rearview when you win those two games big and make that game a dogfight. And all of a sudden, all this kind of overreaction to a few losses can kind of get left in the dust.

So, I think the biggest concern from a viewing standpoint, is that offense obviously was stagnant without Lucas Johnson. They didn't look right, but that's because he's one of the best quarterbacks in the country, and they're having to redesign on the fly. So, it is kind of expected. They came close. The defense just couldn't make enough stops late. It was just one of those things. They got really close. They let up a few big runs late. You gotta think they were coming off an overtime game that ran till 12:40 Mountain Time.

I think that defense deserves a lot of credit for keeping the Grizz in the past few games because it could have easily been blowouts for high-powered offenses like Idaho, Sac State, and Weber State. So, the point I'm getting at, despite the losses, the defense is one of the best in the country. And if Lucas Johnson can get back to 100%, there's no doubt in my mind this team still can be a postseason team and have a real chance.

Another thing to consider is to look at the conference they're playing in and the three losses they took. All ranked teams are going to be in the playoffs. Let's look at a conference like the Big Ten, for example. It's not unfathomable that Penn State could lose three straight games to Ohio, excuse me, Iowa could drop three straight games to Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State. Right? The Hawkeyes, Big Ten football. They could still be a top 25 team because those are three of the 10 best teams in the country. Situation matters.

You lose on the road without your quarterback, you put up a good fight. You kind of think of it from that perspective. I think the Grizz have a lot of question marks. You don't love that performance. You want to right the ship. I think it's hard when you have so many preseason expectations to all of a sudden go on a losing streak like that. So, that was just kind of my analysis. I was going to go over the recap, and I was going to dive into it a little more, but I think it's one of those weeks you just kind of got to put some stuff in perspective and leave it all out there.

So, moving forward, my big thing: how do they respond? Is Lucas Johnson healthy? And if he's not healthy, where does it go from there? And it's that simple.

I mean, I think those losses stink. As a fan watching and as somebody who wants to see the Grizzlies succeed, but as somebody analyzing the sport and trying to stay neutral, you kind of have to look at it through the lens of those being the toughest games on the schedule. Besides the Brawl of the Wild, you got through the toughest portion of the schedule. Take care of business now and move forward, setting yourself up for that playoff run. Make a statement in these next two weeks and make it a dogfight in the Brawl of the Wild. Make it a close game versus a really hot Montana State Bobcats team that will probably be undefeated in Big Sky play rolling into that game.

So we'll keep it moving, and we're gonna jump into the Bobcats. But this is a crucial time in the Grizzly's season. Their playoff hopes are on the line, and there's a lot of panic in the Grizz community. I'm trying to bring some level-headedness and rationalize with myself because even I, you know, I'm watching the game, and I'm thinking this is not what this team had in mind. They did not envision this. They had a fluid dynamic offense with Lucas Johnson, but they had to make a change at quarterback, putting so much pressure on the defense. But that's the name of the game. It's all about adjustments. Everybody deals with injuries in football. So we'll move it along from the Grizz. We'll see how they respond. They've got two very winnable games coming up at home, so we'll see how it goes. That's kind of where you've got to leave it.

I, like I said, having two home games and then staying in the state and heading to Bozeman, they've done a lot of traveling lately. They had that late-night game in Sacramento. So this might be just what the Grizzlies need to get back on track. Let's talk a little about the Bobcats. We're actually going to keep it pretty short this week because they're coming off a bye. But prior to the bye week, I will say they won their FCS-leading 17 straight home games, and Bobcats QB and Butte Legend Tommy Milan was named Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week after his record-setting performance against Weber State a week ago.

So it's a bit of a tale of two cities right now in the Montana football scene. Right now, you kind of like what you see with the Bobcats, but with the Grizz, it's a matter of wait and see what's gonna happen. What's this team gonna look like down the stretch? Let's get our guys back to 100% health, let's find our groove. The Bobcats, there's an old saying, you know, sometimes the bye week, you almost don't even want it when you have that much momentum. I'm sure they're happy to get healthy for the playoff run and all that, but they really were rolling. The Bobcats looked poised to be a great team down the stretch. I'm sure they're going to look to keep that momentum going with two very winnable matchups on the horizon against Northern Arizona and Cal Poly as they lead up to the Brawl of the Wild that I keep mentioning.

Momentum is everything with playoff football. Right now, the Bobcats have it, the Grizz are looking for it. I guess the last thing I'll say is it's going to be really fun to see how this season wraps up.

Can the Grizz maybe go in needing one win to make the playoffs, steal one from the Bobcats, and all of a sudden shake up the Bobcats' momentum? They were kind of cruising and had two easy matchups coming off a bye. All of a sudden, you lose heading into the playoffs, you've got to reconsider things. Or the Bobcats are going to have an opportunity to knock off their rival, potentially knocking them out of the playoffs and really getting a head of steam going into the playoffs. I'm sure there's nothing more the Montana State Bobcats would like than to end the Grizzly season, get into the playoffs, and keep this winning streak going. So that's another thing to consider. That winning streak is going to be on the line in that one, and they've had that FCS home winning streak, which is very impressive.

So, not going to go on and on, we're going to wrap it up here for today's episode. If the Inter Lake Sports now or Josh Dugan, I'm going to kind of sum it up here. But right now, the next three weeks are crucial for the Bobcats and the Grizz. We're going to learn so much about these two teams down the stretch. As I said, the Bobcats have all the momentum on their side. They look like a championship-caliber team. They look like the team who was in the FCS Championship last year. The Grizzlies, when they were rolling, they looked like that kind of squad that was ready to go toe-to-toe with the Bobcats. Can they find that mojo down the stretch? Can they get their rhythm back with three games left and set themselves up for a spot in the FCS playoffs? As I said, I'm hoping both these teams make the postseason. That's what I'm rooting for. The more Montana football, the better.

Before we wrap this thing up, I want to give a special thanks to Hagadoneano Media Group Montana for their support and remind everyone that this episode was brought to you by Nomad, voted the Flathead's best manufacturer. Nomad is a longtime supporter of the local community and sports scene, celebrating 20 years of building great careers and mission-focused custom vehicles. Nomad is a Montana-based company making a global impact. Nomad has worked with NASA and various branches of the United States military, so you know Nomad is a name you can trust with your manufacturing needs. For more information, visit www.nomadgcs.com.

All right, everyone. The next episode is going to be action-packed as well, with a ton of prep football playoffs. We've got all our local teams going. Root for them all. Hoping we can see some deep runs. Polson's going to be back in action. We talked some Whitefish, we talked Bigfork, we talked Glacier. Didn't talk to Polson. They're going to be back in action. They had the first-round bye. We'll update you on those guys. We'll update you on the teams we mentioned today. Columbia Falls also. Of course, congrats again to the Wildcat soccer team on that state championship title. And congrats again to the Whitefish Bulldogs for making it to the state title game, the girls' soccer team. Very impressive.

So, like I said, next week we're going to have a lot of local sports action to go over in the prep football world. And of course, we're going to get back to the Grizzlies, see if they can get off this three-game losing streak, kind of right the ship.

And hey, can the Bobcats keep things rolling as the playoffs near? Last up, I will say Big Sky basketball is coming soon, so we're definitely going to be keeping an eye on the Grizz and Bobcats basketball teams moving forward. Probably do a little preview next week. Looking forward to that; it's gonna be a fun one.

Alright, thanks again, everyone. That'll do it for today's show. Thanks again to the Flatheads' best manufacturer, Nomad, and thanks again to Hagadone Media Group Montana. Thanks as always, y'all. I'm Josh Dugan, and I'm out. [Music]