Sports Now -- Griz prepare for the Bison after comeback win, Bobcats host Weber St + Prep recruiting

The Griz pull off a miracle comeback win vs SEMO to keep their season alive and move onto face the North Dakota State Bison in the Fargodome. While the Bobcats prepare for their rematch with Weber State in a battle of Big Sky conference foes. As for our local sports scene we get some updates on the recruiting journeys of the following local athletes; Polson football - Jarrett Wilson, Flathead Bravettes - Maddy Moy, Whitefish Bulldogs - Baseball Ty Schwaiger, and Golf - Billy Smith and Glacier Golfer Tyler Avery. Plus, a look at the six Bigfork Vikings football players name to the All-State Class B team and a recap of class AA volleyball stars from Flathead and Glacier who earned some accolades for their performance this season.

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

Hosted by Josh Dugan
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Transcript

Welcome back to another edition of Inter Lake Sports. Now, if I seem a little pumped up, it's because, wow, still got the adrenaline pumping from that Grizzly playoff comeback win over SEMO. You better bet we are gonna get to that game today.

Gonna be breaking that one down a little bit later, recapping the game, and giving some of my takeaways. We're also gonna be talking about the Bobcats, who now know they're going to be playing Weber State in their upcoming home playoff matchup. Weber State is a tough matchup, so we're gonna dive into that a little bit.

Plus, as always, we're gonna get to our Prep Players of the Week and dive into some local headlines. But before we get to that, 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. Visit nomadgcs.com for more info.

Alright, quick reminder, subscribe to the Daily Inter Lake E-edition to get all your local news right at your fingertips. Check out thedailyInter Lake.com for more information.
Alright, let's get into the headlines real quick. We'll talk about some prep action, our Prep Players of the Week, and then we'll get into some Cat-Griz action. So, a lot of stuff going on as far as the headlines. Real quick, we will mention one Griz headline for anybody who missed it. The Griz had a comeback for the ages on Saturday against SEMO (Southeast Missouri), and we're gonna dive into that game later like I said.

We want to get into those headlines. The one Griz note we will mention real quick to start, so some news from the Griz. Besides the historic comeback, we had two other historic feats accomplished, individual feats, but it always comes back to the team, the foundation set the tone. But hey, some individual accomplishments we gotta represent here. Two Griz players had historic days when it comes to the record books.
Return specialist Malik Flowers had a second-half touchdown return that sparked the comeback, and he also tied current New Orleans Saint Rasheed Shaheed for a piece of the FCS record for most career kick return touchdowns with seven. So, historic day for Flowers.

And Robbie Houck, needed 15 tackles coming into that game to break the Big Sky all-time tackle mark of 473 tackles set by Ronnie Hamlin of Eastern Washington. And Houck did just that. He landed 15 tackles, broke the record, and sealed his name in the Big Sky record books. A special day for the Grizzlies on top of the historic comeback. And like I said, congratulations to both athletes. And also, hey, their teammates deserve a lot of credit too. It just shows the foundation and the type of program the Grizzlies have that put players in a position to thrive and get individual accolades like that. So, great to see them.

Alright, valley football, all-frontier. So, let's start with another college football headline related to the local sports scene. We had a headline here related to some former Valley athletes who are still playing at the college level in the frontier conference. So, valley gritters were named to the all-frontier conference team. The frontier conference releases its football all-conference teams, and Blake Counts, Ben Windauer, and the Montana Tech team carried the day in voting by league coaches.
The Ore Diggers had a frontier-best eight first-team selections, three on offense and defense, along with two from special teams.

The second-team honorees included three from Tech's offense and one from both its defense and special teams. The 13 total honorees also led the league. Counts, a 5-foot-11 junior running back, finished the season with 803 rushing yards and averaged 5.5 yards per carry. He reached the century mark four times, including his last three games, and scored six of his nine touchdowns on the ground. The Flathead High product counts as a Flathead High product. He played for Montana Tech coach Kyle Sampson in high school and is making his first appearance on the first team after being selected second-team all-conference the past two seasons.

Windauer, a junior linebacker from Columbia Falls, received the defensive second-team nod for Tech. He was fourth on the Orediggers with 55 tackles and also had 1.5 sacks, 4.5 tackles for loss, a fumble recovery, and an interception this fall. So, credit to both those athletes for keeping it going at the next level and representing the valley well. Ultimately, leaving it all on the gridiron and having a good time, most likely. Good for those kids, proud of them, and yeah, keep it going. That's what it's all about right there, just success on the field.

Alright, let's jump from some former Flathead Valley athletes and their success at the college level to some current Valley high school athletes who are making commitments to keep their journey going at the next level. Starting with Flathead Braves' senior Maddie Moy. A three-year starter for the Flathead girls' basketball team, she signed a letter of intent to play for Montana Western. Impressive for the Flathead High athlete. The 5-foot-9 guard was Flathead's leading scorer throughout the 2021-22 season, averaging 9.3 points per game. She also averaged 2.2 steals and a team-high 2.3 assists per game for the Braves, who went 19-6 and claimed third at the State Class AA tournament.

Next up, from the Inter Lake, Polson quarterback Jared Wilson is going to be an Oredigger after announcing on Twitter that he has committed to play football at Montana Tech. Wilson was a lot of fun to watch this year, and he helped the Polson Pirates reach the State Class A semifinals in the last two seasons. In Wilson, Tech is getting one of the most prolific quarterbacks in Class A history. He's the only Polson Pirate to pass for 500 yards in a game, doing it twice, and surpassing 400 yards in a game seven times. His 13 career 300-yard passing games are tied for first according to Class A historian Brian A. Reed. Just a special season altogether for Wilson.

Awesome to see him keep that football journey alive. Can't do anything but root for the kid, and hopefully, we'll see him on the field sooner than later. I know Montana Tech has a solid quarterback coming off a good year, but that's the beauty of college sports. It only takes a couple of seasons. Wilson can get his shot, stay ready, keep preparing, and next thing you know, the time comes, doors open, seize the moment.
Congrats to him on the commitment. Next up, let's talk Whitefish baseball commits. Jumping from the gridiron to the diamond, Whitefish baseball and football star Ty Swagger committed to Washington State University to play baseball for the Cougars. Swagger is planning on pitching for the Cougars, and he also plans on playing baseball for Whitefish this year as well in the inaugural season of Montana State High School baseball, with goals of bringing a state title home to Whitefish in the first-ever season.

So awesome stuff from Swagger! Thank you to our friends at the Whitefish Pilot for covering that and putting out the article. It's awesome to see the two-sport athletes. Swagger is a great football player, and I had the opportunity to watch him a couple of times with Whitefish. Hey, great picture! He's gonna have the opportunity to go up against top-tier talent out in the Pac-12. So, good luck, Swagger! We're excited to see his baseball journey continue, and hey, maybe he gets his dream and brings Whitefish that state title. There's gonna be a lot of teams hungry for that first-ever one, but he's gonna have a chance.

Now, let's move on to another piece of recruiting news related to a Whitefish athlete. This story is also from the Whitefish Pilot. Whitefish senior golfer Billy Smith signed his letter of intent to continue his golf journey at UNLV, aka the University of Las Vegas Nevada. Smith credited the UNLV coaches for his decision and the facility that they offer for the golf team. Smith had a decorated prep golf career in Montana after moving to the state from Texas after his freshman year, and he helped lead the team to a state tournament Class A title in 2020. Best of luck to Smith, and hey, make sure to stay hydrated out in that Vegas heat. It turns it up a little bit out there.

Thanks again to our friends at the Whitefish Pilot for their coverage of the local sports scene. Now, let's move on to the golf scene. Glacier High golf star Tyler Avery signed his letter of intent to continue swinging the clubs for the Montana Tech Orediggers. Avery was a four-time all-state golfer and runner-up at the Class AA state tournament this fall. Congrats to Avery and congrats to all the rest of our local athletes on their accomplishments and commitments to keep their athletic journeys going at the next level. That's awesome stuff! It's exciting to see where it takes them. And overall, you know, I said this before about the fall sports athletes, but credit to them for balancing the books and the challenges that come with that. Because it's not easy putting in the time and effort it takes to be a top-level college athlete while meeting the academic requirements involved. So, kudos to them!

Now, let's give major props to Florence QB commits. One other recruiting note to mention quickly, a little bit outside the valley, but close enough. Quarterback Patrick Duccian of Florence Carlton committed to Montana State after leading Florence to back-to-back Class B state titles. He was also named Football Player of the Year for the state of Montana by maxpreps.com, one of the leading prep sports websites out there. So, safe to say he's going to be an exciting player at the next level, and I'm excited to see his journey with the Bobcats.

Before we move along to our Prep Players of the Week, that's kind of the end of our headlines prep roundup, all mixed into one. There's been a lot of action with local players continuing their journeys, and we had to give them their credit and keep you guys updated on where they're going. So, before we move on to our Prep Players of the Week and the Cat-Griz talk, here's a message from Nomad GCS.

The team at Nomad GCS is dedicated to success in every mission. They are based in Kalispell, Montana, and have a skilled team of engineers, integrators, software developers, welders, electricians, carpenters, mechanics, and professional staff. They work collaboratively with their valued clients to ensure success in every mission.

Join our team! Check our careers page at nomadgcs.com/careers. That's nomadgcs.com/careers to view current job openings and submit an application. Remember, Nomadgcs.com/careers. Go check that out! And remember, as always, all these good prep updates we've been giving you can check on the dailyinterlake.com or pick up a couple of last week's editions of the Inter Lake.

Alright, let's move to those Prep Players of the Week, Team of Montana, presented by Hagadone Media Group Montana. Here's a quick word from the team: "The Team of 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 Google, YouTube, apps, or your local newspaper. Contact Anton at 406-758-4410 for more information." That's 406-758-4410 for more information.

Let's dive into those Prep Players of the Week, presented by Hagadone Media Group Montana. Starting, six Bigfork Vikings made the All-State Class B football team across the state, voted by the Montana Coaches Association. Very impressive! 36 players were honored in total. Bigfork had the most selections in the state. Running back Joseph Farrier ran for 874 yards, and 16 touchdowns, and was among the Vikings' picks. So were linebacker/guard Mandy Baldi, receivers Isaac Eberly and Nick Walker, H-back Bryce Gilliard, and quarterback Tristan Hurd Epperly. 

Epperly caught 31 passes for 427 yards and seven total touchdowns, all team highs. Walker and Gilliard each averaged over 20 yards per reception and combined for five receiving touchdowns. Gilliard is an All-State for a second straight year. Hurd threw for 1,528 yards and 21 touchdowns with six interceptions. He's the lone junior among the Vikings' honorees. The rest are seniors. So again, kudos to those Bigfork athletes. Their football team was a lot of fun to watch this year. I had the opportunity to cover their playoff action in the snow. Good times! They played such gritty, fun-to-watch, old-school football. It's great to see those kids get the credit they deserve on the All-State team. So big credit to them for representing the local area well and congratulations on their success.

Next up on our Prep Players of the Week, we've got some volleyball action. Here are some postseason awards racked up by our local athletes. Highlighted by Glacier senior libero Maddie Frazier, who made the second-team All-State for Class AA. Very impressive! Flathead had Cion Mooney and Siana Sterk named First Team All-Western AA. Meanwhile, Frazier, Afl Affair Ella Farrell, and Sarah Downs were first-team Western AA for Glacier. Frazier averaged 3.92 digs per set for the Wolfpack. Just to clarify, Pharaoh was among the Western AA leaders in blocks and kills. Downs was fourth in the conference in kills with 2.52 per set and averaged three digs per set as well. While Mooney averaged three digs per set and was among four Bravettes in the top six in the conference for aces. Circling back to the conference in aces, she was second in kills with 2.92 per set. Big credit to all those volleyball athletes from the Crosstown schools. Kind of lumping them together there.

I know usually they're going at it Toe to Toe, but we'll take this little bit of time to highlight the athletes from both schools in our Kalispell area here and give them the credit they deserve. So hey, those were your Prep Players of the Week, Team in Montana, presented by Hagadone Media Group Montana. The Team in Montana is here to help you grow. Our skilled team will assess your marketing goals to craft ROI-focused campaigns that meet your business needs. Our integrated marketing solutions will help you and your people find you wherever they are looking, whether it's Google, YouTube, apps, or the local newspaper. Contact Anton at 406-758-4410 for more information.

Alright, we've been jamming through this show, pure action-packed. Shout out Nomad, shout out Hagadone Media Group Montana for fueling the action. Shout out to our Prep Players of the Week and everybody we mentioned making those commitments earlier, as well as our Frontier Conference nominees or nods from the local area. But let's get to that Cat-Griz time. It's playoff action in the football scene. The Griz are coming off what you could easily call a historic comeback, so there's a lot to get to. Might be a little excited to talk some Cat and Griz today. I might have been pumped up, you could say. So let's start this out. I'm going to go through some game notes from the Griz playoff matchup with SEMO, and then we'll move into one thing to watch for the Griz and Cats moving forward into their next playoff game and some thoughts on the Bobcats matchup with Weber State on the horizon.

So let's start with our stat of the week that pretty much explains this game in a nutshell. This is a great game, here's our stat of the day, and stat of the week, just to paint the picture. The Griz trailed SEMO 24-3 early in the third quarter and would go on to win the game 34-24 after pitching a second-half shutout and scoring 31 unanswered points in the second half to seal the playoff victory and pull off a comeback for the ages. So this was just one of those epic games. You could kind of feel the tension early. It wasn't going the Griz way. The home crowd was feeling a little bit out of it, not gonna lie. Might have sent out a tweet even that said, "The Griz need to score on special teams or defense. Griz comeback win." And then what do you know, they did just that. They got two second-half touchdowns in the return games to make things interesting. Malik Flowers brought Washington-Grizly Stadium back to life with an electric kick return that just brought the house down and tied that FCS record that we mentioned earlier for most kick returns in the game. All of a sudden, it's 24-10. Lucas Johnson then hits Keelan White for a touchdown strike. It's a one-score game just like that. The Griz defense gets another stop, and what happens? Suddenly, Junior Bergen takes the ensuing punt 58 yards to the house. 

The Griz's crowd is ignited, the team's going nuts, and all of a sudden, it's a tied-ball game, and momentum is 100% on the side of Montana. From there, the Griz put it away with an interception by Garrett Graves. Nico Ramos had a field goal, and then Johnson hit Cole Grossman as well for a touchdown that pretty much sealed the playoff win for the ages for the Griz to keep this season alive.

It's been a pure roller-coaster season, so it's kind of only fitting you go down 24-3, and then all of a sudden, what happens? Or, excuse me, 24-3, and then all of a sudden, what happens? You win the game. So here's my analysis: the Griz, they played arguably the worst six quarters of football their entire season. They played Montana State, and it was ugly. SEMO in the first half dominated the Griz. It was ugly. That's six straight quarters of just bad football from Montana. The season was over. You thought it was done. And next thing you know, they found life and they went on a run. They scored unanswered points. They did their thing. I mean, they were getting dominated. They were outscored 72 to 24 over those six quarters. And as I said, all of a sudden, they come back to life. They score the 31 unanswered points, even that scoring margin a little bit over those two contests, and keep their season alive, most importantly. So here's, to continuing my analysis a little bit, Montana's run game was also almost non-existent. Isaiah Childs towards the end, got it going a bit. 

We'll see if they kind of keep working him into the offense a little more early into the game. I did like his performance late. It seemed like he did a good job of finding the hole and kind of moving the chains for the Griz, keeping the ball moving, and keeping the clock moving when they were trying to wind things down at the end. So I was impressed with his play. But overall, it felt like they had no confidence early on in the rushing attack. That does worry me with the matchup versus the North Dakota State Bison on the horizon. Can you play a one-dimensional style? We'll get into that in a few.

So the thing about the Griz offense, when it's clicking, it's clicking. They hit those home runs. Lucas Johnson finds a guy deep. He makes a couple of great plays with his legs, gets out of the pocket, and makes a great throw. All of a sudden, they look like geniuses. The coordinator looks great. They're hitting home runs. The problem is when they're not hitting those home runs and they're having trouble getting the singles, and they can't get things going, and they're facing third and nine after third and nine. That's going to be something to watch. Overall, though, they did get it going and they found that stride. And in football, one of the most important things if you really pay attention in the playoffs, and that kind of momentum is huge, and the Griz just went from momentum being non-existent for them to be all on their side. 

Their offense was clicking. It looked like a team we saw earlier this year, blow out Cal Poly, blows out Eastern Washington, and dominates teams early in the season. So with momentum on their side, can they keep that going versus a North Dakota State Bison team who's an FCS powerhouse? They're the defending national champs. It's gonna be tough. They love to run the football. The one thing the Griz cannot do, and I said this the same thing with the Montana State game, they can't get behind early because that changes the dynamic of the game. And a team like the Bison will just keep running the ball, and they'll have no problem doing so. They'll run the clock out, and they'll win the game 17-3, and they won't care. So I think the Griz, you know, you gotta try to keep this momentum going.

Here's my one big question for the Griz to dive into: Can the Griz offense find a way to keep the Bison defense off balance? Will the Griz be able to hit those home runs to put pressure on the Bison? The Bison love to run the football, so if the Griz can somehow jump out to like a 10-nothing lead, their offense will be rolling. Believe Flowers may do it again, start the game out with a return touchdown, or whatever it may be. Not to get too hypothetical, but the Griz needs to get a great start.

My big question is, can they find consistent ways to move the chains? Can they run their offense efficiently without relying solely on the big play? That's been the problem. In my opinion, SEMO was a tough opponent, but the Bison are on a different level. They won't rely on the home run, and the Griz can't afford to get down 24-3 and make a comeback. They need to find consistent ways to take care of the football, run their offense efficiently, and either get out to a lead or keep it close. They can't let the Bison run away with the game.

Now, onto the Bobcats. I'm excited about that game. We might get into a little more Griz/Bobcats playoff preview later in the week. We'll see how things go. But that's going to be a fun one.

For the Bobcats, the biggest question is their run game. In their last performance against Weber State, they were dominant on the ground. Tommy Malott had a huge game rushing for 273 yards and three touchdowns against them earlier this year. So my question is, can the Bobcats, similar to the Griz with their issues running the football, do the opposite? Can they go out there and say, "We're going to run our offense just like we have been and continue to run the football down teams' throats"? Can they keep teams off balance with their strong offensive line and blocking schemes? Can they replicate their success against Weber State?

The Bobcats won that previous game against Weber State by only five points. They were fortunate to have Weber State let up eight points on safeties and snap four balls over their punter's head, which won't happen again. Weber State now has a great idea of what the Bobcats do. Can Brett Vegan and the Bobcats coaching staff do enough to keep them off balance? Can they throw in a couple of wrinkles, throw the ball a bit more, and get Tommy Malott going in the passing game? That's my big question.

That being said, I expect the Bobcats to win this one. They can keep teams on their toes and get creative. They have Sean Chambers, who has been one of the best players in the FCS all year as their backup QB. That's a good sign. I think they'll use those wrinkles we saw against the Griz, like rolling Tommy Malott out at receiver and bringing him on the end around. When they start throwing those kinds of things out there, it doesn't matter how many films you watch because there's always another potential option. There are just too many question marks, but ultimately, I think the Bobcats will be fine.

However, playing a team for the second time in the season with a lot of films out there is something to consider. A playoff matchup against a conference foe means they know each other's games. That's something to keep in mind. We'll see how the Bobcats can keep Weber State on their toes.

And hey, I mean, the Wildcats also have a very effective rushing attack, and they were kind of hurt when they played the Bobcats earlier because they couldn't run the ball as much. They had four safeties go against them, meaning the Bobcats had the ball for the majority of the game. So it's tough to run the ball when you have 20 minutes of possession. I looked at the stats, and it was like 22 minutes. So the Bobcats had the good fortune of dominating time of possession in the previous matchup. Can they recreate that without those safeties? How do they do that? 

We'll see what Malott does, see if he can work his magic again just like he did against the Griz. So, you know, I'm confident they could pull off a win. I just know it's going to be a tough matchup and there are some question marks. We'll see what happens. It's going to be a fun one.

That'll do it for today's show. Before we wrap this thing up, I want to give a special thanks to Hagedome Media Group Montana for their support. And of course, remind everyone listening that this episode was brought to you by Nomad, the Flathead's best manufacturer. Nomad has been 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. They have 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 nomadgcs.com. That's nomadgcs.com.

Alright, that'll do it. Thanks again to Flathead's best manufacturer, Nomad, and thanks again to Hagedome Media Group Montana. I'm wiped out, everyone. That Griz game still has me going. My adrenaline's still pumping. That was one of the craziest games you'll see. That was a fun one, absolute mayhem. I'm excited for this Bobcats matchup on the horizon. Thanks again to all those fall sport athletes we mentioned earlier for all their hard work in and out of the classroom, on the field, whether it was the people making commitments or the athletes making their commitments, or our Prep Players of the Week. So big credit to all of them.

Next week, of course, we're going to dive back into the Griz playoff action, and the Bobcats playoff action, and see how both teams fared. Is there still going to be a chance after next week of a Montana versus Montana State FCS Championship Game? Hey, we're holding out for just that little bit of hope. And of course, we're going to start talking a little bit about winter prep sports because it is that time. So thank you to everybody for tuning in. It is always much appreciated. Jam-packed show. Feel like we flew through it, but hey, had to get to that Griz-Cat stuff. It's that time of year, tis the season as they say, playoff time. So, everyone, you have a good one. Thanks, as always, for listening. I'm Josh Dugan, and I'm out. Thank you, have a good one.