CHAMPS AGAIN: Chinook 44, Arlee 20

CHINOOK - State championships are never easy to get. And opportunities to win them don't come around very often. But in the case of the Chinook Sugarbeeters, they got a second chance at a state championship and they made the most out of it.

All season Chinook was on a mission to avenge its loss to Wibaux in the 2014 state championship game, and, after a rocky start, the Beeters made sure they were going to complete that mission as they beat Arlee 44-20 in the Class C 8-Man championship game Saturday at Hoon Field in Chinook.

The victory gave Chinook its second state title in five years and capped a perfect season in which the Beeters went 12-0 and won the Northern C for the second straight year.

"This feeling is hard to describe," said second-year head coach Scott Friede. "Not many teams get the opportunity to do this. So it's pretty surreal right now. When you take into account all the hard work and everything that has to go right just to get to this game, for us to get here two years in a row, that's an incredible testament to these kids. And I'm just so happy for these kids, our coaching staff and for this community.

"It's an incredible feeling," added senior Kenny Pruttis, who caught three touchdowns. "There's really no words to describe how I feel right now. It's just amazing."

Pruttis was a big part of the heroics needed for Chinook to win Saturday, as the final score looked lopsided, but the game itself was anything but.

The Beeters got off to a rocky start, and Arlee, the unbeaten Western C champions, were the ones who got a leg up. The Warriors needed just four plays to take a 6-0 lead off the opening possession of the game, and things got more difficult for Chinook, when, on its opening possession, the Beeters fumbled inside the Arlee five-yard-line. Chinook's defense did make a stellar goal-line stand at the end the first quarter, but the high-powered Beeter offense found itself trailing 6-0 after 12 minutes.

And things got a little worse from there, as the Beeters fumbled again to start the second quarter, and though Ian McIntosh would score from nine yards out to give the Beeters an 8-6 lead with 9:52 until halftime, Arlee marched right back down the field and took the lead on a second connection from quarterback Patrick Big Sam to Isaac DeJarlias.

Arlee led 12-8 with 8:35 left in the second quarter, and on both of the Warriors' scoring drives, Big Sam converted third-and-longs with his feet.

"It was a rocky start," Friede said. "I think our kids were a little nervous. And, this was the first game all season where we found ourselves struggling to keep the game under control. And Arlee was a big factor in that. They are a very good football team, and they came out and had us off balance.

"But' I'm really proud of the way our kids kept their composure," he continued. "We had some turnovers. but we settled down and didn't let those rattle us, and on defense we started to get some big stops in the second quarter."

Indeed. The Beeters stayed composed, and got back to doing what they do best - running the football and playing stout defense. And that led to 14 unanswered points to close the first half.

Chinook answered Arlee's score with a great drive, capped by a 13-yard Derek Bell touchdown run. Then, Travis Hamilton blocked an Arlee punt and, with great field position, the Beeters cashed in. Arlee's defense did stand tall and forced the Beeters into a fourth-and-goal, but McIntosh scrambled and found Pruttis for his first of three TDs on the day.

The score put Chinook up 22-12, and after a couple of strange turnovers to end the first half, the Beeters felt good about where they were at intermission.

"We knew we just had to play smash-mouth football," Bell said. "Our run game has been efficient all year, and once we got that going, it opened up our passing game more, and we played a lot better on offense in the second half. I'm just really proud of all my teammates."

And that's exactly what the Beeters did to salt away the state title.

Chinook forced an Arlee turnover on its opening drive of the second half, a fumble recovered by Jess Dannels. Then, the Beeters went on a classic Chinook drive, with big runs by Bell and Tate Niederegger. The drive milked nearly four minutes off the clock, and it ended with McIntosh finding Pruttis from 23 yards out on another fourth-down play to make the score 30-12.

And though Arlee showed fight, with Big Sam catching an eight-yard TD pass from Tyler Tanner to open the fourth stanza, the wheels of the Chinook machine were already set in motion.

The Beeters immediately responded to the Arlee score with a kickoff return by Bell that nearly went the distance, and McIntosh and Pruttis hooking up for the third time on the day, putting the Beeters ahead 38-20 with nine minutes left in the game.

Chinook only completed four passes on the day, but three of them resulted in Pruttis touchdowns.

"When we run the ball as well as we do, with our running backs, eventually, you know you're going to burn 'em, you know you're going to be wide open," Pruttis said. "We had some great play calls today, and Ian made some great throws on the run. So it's pretty cool to be able to score in the state championship game, but the credit goes to our running backs because they open up our passing game."

Chinook's defense took over from there, as Hamilton sacked Tanner twice and Jake Norby intercepted a pass on the ensuing possession. The Beeters cashed in on that turnover with McIntosh scoring from two yards out, and the game was over, and history was made at Hoon Field for the second time in five years.

"Our defense came up big today," Friede said. "They did a great job of continuing to give the ball back to our offense with great field position."

Chinook's defense was, as usual, a catalyst. Arlee came into the game averaging over 50 points per game in the regular season, and while the Warriors had some big plays early, the Beeters were physical and relentless. Chinook had seven sacks and nine tackles for loss on the day, with Dannels, Kevin Young and Kade Friede leading the way in stops.

And on the other side of the ball, Chinook's run game was too much for Arlee's big defense to handle in the end. The Beeters rushed for 309 yards, with Bell and Niederegger both going more than 100 yet again. McIntosh ran for 59 more and threw for 55 yards, with Pruttis catching all four of his passes.

"The tandem of Tate and Derek, along with our offensive line, that's a pretty nice weapon to have in a game like this," Friede said. "The line opened up some big holes for those guys, and we just stuck to what we do and that's run the ball and take care of the football and in the second half, we did a great job of that. And those two running backs did a super job."

And what Chinook did Saturday was finish the job. The win came exactly 365 days after the Beeters were on the wrong end of a lopsided state championship game in Wibaux. But Saturday, they put that bad taste in their mouths to rest for good. On Saturday, in front of their huge home crowd, clad in black and orange, they finished what they set out to do, they became state champions.

"It's incredible, I don't think it's set in yet," McIntosh said. "I'm so proud of this team. Last year was tough, but we worked hard and we stuck it out, and we came back and made this happen. And what a great senior year ... undefeated, state champions. That's pretty amazing."

"It feels amazing," Hamilton, another Beeter senior, said. "This is what we worked so hard for, everything we did in the summer, and all of that work, this is why we did it."

"They were focused from day one," Friede said. "And they never wavered from that focus. Give these kids a lot of credit, because in order to accomplish this, not only did they have to put in a lot of hard work and sacrifice, but they had to meet, and overcome some big challenges along the way. We had some big games this year, against some very good teams, including Arlee today. But, this team never, ever wavered. They just kept meeting those challenges, they kept going out and getting the job done. And now, they have accomplished exactly what they set out to do when the season started. I just couldn't be more proud of them, and am so happy for every single one of these kids.

"Special ... what this team did is just very, very special."

Chinook 44, Arlee 20

Arlee 6 6 0 8 - 20

Chinook 0 22 8 14 - 44

Arlee: Isaac DeJarlias 36 run (pass failed) 10:23

Chinook: Ian McIntosh 10 run (Jake Norby pass from McIntosh) 10:17

Arlee: DeJarlias 15 pass from Patrick Big Sam (pass failed) 8:35

Chinook: Derek Bell 13 run (McIntosh run) 6:14

Chinook: Kenny Pruttis 9 pass from McIntosh (pass failed) 2:35

Chinook: Pruttis 23 pass from McIntosh (Bell run)

Arlee: Big Sam 8 pass from Tyler Tanner (Tanner run) 11:01

Chinook: Purttis 11 pass from McIntosh (Norby pass from McIntosh) 9:00

Chinook: McIntosh 2 run (run failed) 7:14