Hi-Line Football Roundup: Chinook clinches Northern C title at C/J-I

This past weekend was an important one for local area football teams as they tried to finalize their spots in the postseason.

Among the Hi-Line teams that had playoff implications on the line, no one stood more to gain than the Chinook Sugarbeeters.

The Beeters came into last Saturday’s road game against Chester/J-I needing to beat the Hawks by eight points or more to clinch the top seed in the Northern C division of 8-man football. And they did that and more, defeating the Hawks in impressive fashion 60-22.

Chinook was determined to leave Chester with the win and the Beeters took care of business from the opening kick, breaking the will of the Hawks with big play after big play. It started on the game’s opening possession when Ian McIntosh connected with Lane Seymour on a 39-yard touchdown pass to give Chinook the early 8-0 lead.

Then, after C/J-I drove the ball to the Beeters’ 31-yard line, the Hawks fumbled and Gavin Gunderson returned it 49 yards for a touchdown, silencing the stunned crowd and giving his team a 14-0 lead.

On the ensuing drive, the Hawks drove to Chinook’s 11-yard line before the drive stalled and once they had the ball, it took Gunderson and the Beeters just one play to put the game out of reach. With Gunderson split wide, McIntosh went for the home run and floated a perfect pass to Gunderson, who caught and covered 69 yards for the back-breaking touchdown that gave Chinook a 22-0 lead with 5:10 to go in the first quarter.

The Hawks tried to rally but simply could not recover from Chinook’s first-quarter onslaught. By the 7:57 mark in the second quarter, Gunderson found the end zone again, this time on a six-yard rush and it was 30-0 Beeters.

The Hawks would answer with a touchdown pass from Brandon Richter to Justin May to make the score 30-6 but with 3:29 to go in the half. But, just over two minutes later, McIntosh hit Kenneth Pruttis for this third touchdown pass of the first half to give Chinook a 38-6 lead at the intermission.

Right away in the second half, the avalanche of Chinook points continued. Gunderson scored on a 24-yard rushing touchdown and the lead was 46-6 early in the third quarter.

“I think the difference was we came out of the gates hot,” Chinook head coach Scott Friede said. “We were rolling and clicking on all cylinders and after that it was pretty hard to stop us.”

Gunderson had another masterful performance for the Beeters, finishing the game with a total of five touchdowns, three rushing, one receiving and one on a fumble return.

“Gavin is not going to be denied,” Friede said. “He is just an incredible player. He runs hard, he plays defense hard and there is just no quit in him. He just keeps coming at you. (He’s) outstanding.”

McIntosh also had a stellar outing, throwing three touchdown passes in the win, while Seymour and Pruttis each had a touchdown reception in the win.

Chinook (7-2, 6-2) will take on Victor this Saturday in Chinook in the opening round of the 8-man playoffs. The loss meant that the Hawks finished the season 4-4 in conference play and 4-4 overall. They finished sixth in the final Northern C standings.

CHI 22 16 16 6 – 60

C/J-I 0 6 8 6 – 22

CHI – Lane Seymour 39 pass from Ian McIntosh (Gavin Gunderson run)

CHI – Gunderson 49 fumble return (conversion failed)

CHI – Gunderson 69 pass from McIntosh (Conversion Good)

CHI – Gunderson 6 run (Gunderson run)

C/J-I – May Pass from Richeter (Pass failed)

CHI – Kenneth Pruttis 31 pass from McIntosh (conversion good)

CHI – Gunderson 24 rush (McIntosh pass)

C/J-I – May rush (conversion good)

CHI – Kade Friede 5 rush (run failed)

C/J-I – Richter 4 rush (run failed)

North Star 38, Big Sandy 16

The North Star Knights already had locked up a berth in the playoffs by way of their third-place finish in the North Division of Class C Six-Man football. But they still wanted to finish the season strong and did so with a 38-16 win over conference rival Big Sandy Saturday in Rudyard.

The Knights got the scoring started early when Matthew Helmbrecht connected with Payton Peterson on a 40-yard touchdown pass to give North Star a 6-0 lead.

The Pioneers, who were already eliminated from postseason contention, answered with a three-yard touchdown run by Kyle Strutz, which put Big Sandy ahead 8-6. Yet, they would not hold the lead long as Gavin Spinler caught a three-yard touchdown pass from Helmbrecht to reclaim a 12-8 advantage at the end of the first quarter.

The second quarter also belonged to the Knights and in particular, Jimmy Snow, who rushed for a touchdown and also caught an 18-yard touchdown pass from Helmbrecht to give the Knights a 26-8 lead going into halftime.

In the third quarter, North Star put the game away. Peterson scored on a two-yard rushing touchdown to put the Knights up 32-8 and then Jaxon Simonson put the final nail in the coffin with a five-yard touchdown reception from Helmbrecht to ice the 22-point win.

Helmbrecht led the way for the Knights tossing four touchdowns in the win, while Peterson and Snow each added two touchdowns of their own.

Strutz led the way for Big Sandy with a pair of rushing touchdown in the losing effort. The Pioneers finished 3-6 overall and 3-5 in conference play with the loss.

With the win, the Knights finished the season 6-2 overall and 6-2 in conference play. They will travel to Lone Peak this Saturday for an opening round playoff game.

Big Sandy 8 0 0 8 – 16

North Star 12 14 12 0 – 38

NS – Payton Peterson 40 Pass from Matthew Helmbrecht (PAT failed)

BS – Kyle Strutz 3 run (conversion good)

NS – Gavin Spinler 3 pass from Helmbrecht (PAT failed)

NS – Jimmy Snow 18 pass from Helmbrecht (Peterson to Jaxon Simonson)

NS – Peterson 2 run (PAT failed)

NS – Simonson 5 pass from Helmbrech (PAT failed)

BS – Kyle Strutz (conversion good)

Geraldine-Highwood 64, Box Elder 41

The Box Elder Bears came into the weekend with two ways of qualifying for the postseason. The first was by beating defending Six-Man state champion Geraldine-Highwood. The other possibility was a Sunburst loss at the hands of Valier. Unfortunately for the Bears, neither scenario unfolded as they hoped.

Sunburst beat Valier on Friday night, meaning Box Elder needed to win to get in. But, they were simply overmatched by the Rivals, who defeated the Bears 64-41 in Box Elder Saturday to eliminate them from playoff contention.

With the loss, Box Elder finished the season 4-4 overall and 4-4 in conference play.

Malta 46, Harlem 22

The Harlem Wildcats were looking to get their first win of the season last Thursday on senior night in Harlem, but, despite a valiant effort, the Wildcats fell to District 2B rival Malta 46-22. The loss dropped the Wildcats to 0-8 on the season and 0-4 in conference play.