Volume XX, Number 14

Wednesday, November 3, 2004

Sports at a Glance

'Jackets advance to quarter finals

Falcons victorious in first round playoff

Victor undefeated

The bell rang for Columbia Falls on a cold, blustery Friday night. The bell ringers were the Stevensville Yellowjackets who stopped the Wildcats cold, with a final score of 41-14. With the win, the Yellowjackets advanced to the quarter finals of Class A football playoffs. They will play Saturday in Havre against the undefeated Havre Blue Ponies.

Although Halloween was two days away, Stevensville went to their bag of tricks early to throw Columbia Falls off their game. The Yellowjackets opened the game with an onside kick. While Columbia Falls was still trying to gather their wits, the Yellowjackets, under the direction of quarterback Luke Connors, marched up the field for a score. With the defense keying on Travis Browne, Connors tucked the ball under his arm and raced 13 yards for the first black and yellow touchdown and the 'Jackets were off and running.

"We saw them on tape backing out and thought we'd take a chance," said said coach Bob Connors of the Yellowjackets' onside kick. "Our defense has held up against most defenses so we thought we'd take a chance and we felt pretty good about it if we didn't get it."

Columbia Falls came right back in the next possession and looed as if they were going to gain enough momentum to score but Marcus Thomas picked off a pass from Wildcat quarterback Craig Olsen and hit Drew Perry to put the wildcats into 'Jacket territory and knocking at the door. Thomas got his pick two plays later and Stevi was back in the drivers seat.

Connors mixed up the offense and then, four plays later, Browne broke loose to race 67 yards for another 'Jacket touchdown. Browne scored again in the second quarter on a run of 45 yards and then a 30-yard pass reception from a screen pass over the middle from Connors. Browne finished the night with 200 plus yards inthe air and on the ground. The mixing of the offenses was by design.

"You have set some things up for the future," said Coach Connors. "Havre is here scouting and you want to put a lot of seeds in their mind. this is one other thing they have to prepare for."

But Brown wasn't the only Yellowjacket to sting the Wildcats. Nick Riley, Nick Flemmer and David Peach all took their turns at the defensive line of Columbia Falls and more times than not, found a hole and gained yardage. Flemmer had 28 yards onfive carries, Riley had 60 yards on 11 carries and Peach added 12 yards. the unexpected holes Connors found also added up to 76 yards for the quarterback as well.

Coach Connors gave a lot of the credit for the rushing success to the offensive line. "The offensive line did a great job. I thought Kellin (Johnson) and Tyler (LeClaire) pulled extremely well. Our four young guys did extremely well with Bridger (Chambers) at tight end and Stephen Frazee and Mike Brown and Kyle Baney at the tackles."

Mike Brown, a junior transfer from Chicago, said the team was more focused for this game. "It's a big deal, to win a playoff game, it's my first time and it's great." Brown said the practices wer much more intense and the team worked hard this week preparing for the game.

In the air, Connors was 7-of-12 for 97 yards. Browne had 42 yards receiving. Bridger Chambers caught one 25-yard pass for a touchdown in the Yellowjackets' highly productive second quarter. Chambers caught two passes for 32 yards. Zach Renstrom also caught two passes for 23 yards. Connors made the final Stevi score when he broke loose on a quarterback keeper and raced up the sideline 48 yards.

The hard-hitting Stevensville defense allowed only two touchdowns inthe night. Columbia Falls' first touchdown came when Olsen hit Jace Ladenberg from 28 yards out. Kyle Rosenbaum kicked the PAT. The Wildcats scored once more, this time in the fourth quarter when Rosenbaum broke loose for 15 yards and the touchdown with less than two minutes remaining.

Saturday's quarter final game will be at Havre. The Blue Ponies have a 9-0 record and are coming off of a first-round bye. The game will start at noon on Saturday.

The Florence Falcons, the number two seed in District 7B, traveled to Eureka on Saturday. the first round playoff game featured the No. 7 ranked Falcons with eight wins and one loss against the winner of District 8B, Eureka, with a record of five wins and three losses. one of which was a pre-season loss to Florence. when the final gun sounded, Florence was moving on and Eureka was done.

Florence scored twice in the first quarter, twice in the third quarter and capped the game with one more touchdown in the fourth quarter. The Falcons were led by Justin Moe who had three touchdowns and 142 yards on 14 carries. Moe scored on runs of 16 and 46 yards and he caught a pass from Doug Ward for a 64-yard touchdown. Joe Redfern caught a seven-yard pass from Ward for the first Falcon touchdown.

Ward had 188 yards passing, completing 10 of 12 and one interception. Eureka's Andrew shay had 50 yards and was six of 16 with one interception. Mark Ward caught five passes for 93 yards. Florence had 244 yards rushing on 35 total carries. In addition to Moe's yards, Sam Brownlee had 44 yards.

Florence will play Fort Benton this Saturday in the quarter finals. Fort Benton defeated Manhatten, 47-7, in their first-round game. Fort Benton is undefeated at 9-0 and is ranked No. 2 in the power poll.

The Lady Pirates of Victor wrapped up an undefeated regular season Saturday night with a 3-1 win over Philipsburg in volleyball, but it was by no means an easy victory for Victor.

"When you're a good team, the other teams play better too," according to Victor coach Vester Wilson. "And tonight, we were tested."

The Prospectors are always a tough team and Saturday was no exception. They jumped out early behind the serving of Lauren McDonald who quickly drove the score to a nine-point deficit for the Lady Pirates. Ellie Kauffman knocked down a kill to give Victor another point but the Prospectors kept the pressure on and maintained their lead.

Although Victor could not completely come back to win, they rallied to a 20-25 loss to Philipsburg. "We were using a new rotation," said senior Ellie Kauffman. "But at the break, we said we got to get up, it's last game, senior night, one more game to go undefeated, and we did it."

Victor turned things around in game two, primarily behind the one-two punch of Katie Jolley at the net and Kauffman serving. Jolley finished the match with 11 kills and two blocks. Kauffman had two blocks and four aces. Victor won that game, 25-17.

It was more of the same in game three although the Lady Pirates did struggle at times. Kelly Berk served five straight points to give the Pirates a push to the 25-17 victory. Berk finished thenight with six of Victor's 18 aces.

Victor began game four strong witha 6-0 lead but Philipsburg kept coming back at them. A few calls on Victor took the momentum away from the Lady Pirates and soon the Prospectors were neck and neck with them. Philipsburg took the lead but a kill by Amanda Burrington tied it back up. A serve by Prospector Natalie Wollard gave them a point and the lead again. But then, a service error by Wollard tied the game back up. BreeAnna Hochhalter served up a quick set to Kauffman who slammed the ball down for the lead. The Lady Pirates held on to win, 25-23.

"Sometimes you get a little too geared up," said Wilson. "And that happens, Senior night, last game. And even though they didn't have a really good night tonight, I thought they did a good job battling back through themselves and not too many errors and working and fighting to get back on top."

Friday night Victor defeated Lincoln in three games, 25-13, 25-20, 26-24. Kauffman had 16 kills, two blocks and four aces.

The Distric 9-C volleyball tournament will be held Friday and Saturday in Drummond. Victor has a first round bye as the regular season winner. They will play the winner of the Lincoln/Alberton game, Friday at 3pm. Victor finished the regular conference witha record of 8-0 and 15-0 overall.