Titans claim Western Division with win at Victor

VICTOR – Late in the game a canon shot rang through the brisk winter air, hailing a score by the home Pirates. But it proved to be the only shot that host Victor would hear all day as the visiting Titans rolled to a 56-6 win in the regular season finale for both teams.

Flint Creek finishes the year at 8-0 and as the top team in the Western Division. They hold the tie breaker over Thompson Falls. The Blue Hawks are also undefeated at 9-0 but allowed more points to common opponents.

When the Montana High School Association’s 8-man Football Championships begin next weekend, the Titans will face the No. 4 ranked team out of the North. That team should be Belt.

Regardless, that game will take place at Drummond High School Oct. 31.

“It’s playoff time. Thank God we’re there,” said FC Head Coach Mike Cutler after the win. “The things I take out of this is that these kids will have a lifetime memory of this game forever. I’m really excited about that.

“The other thing I’m excited about is that we never had one kid get injured. We’re ready to go and get the playoffs going. Let’s play some football!”

There were no injuries on the field this year, but starting quarterback Kade Cutler did miss last week’s game against Darby due to food poisoning. But by the way he led the Flint Creek offense in Saturday’s victory, you’d never know he had been down for a minute.

The Titans got the opening kickoff and put the ball across the goal line just over a minute into the game when Preston Metesh burst through the line with a 22-yard scoring run. He also added the two-point conversion run and Flint Creek led 8-0.

The Titans then recovered their onside kick and 23 seconds later Cutler hit Metesh with a three-yard scoring pass and a 14-0 advantage.

Cutler put all questions of recovery to bed when he hit Ethan Parke with a nine-yard touchdown pass with 6:32 to play in the opening stanza. The catch put Parke’s athletic ability on display, as he caught the ball side-by-side with a Pirate defender, only to rip it away from him and spin safely into the end zone.

Metesh got his third score of the game two minutes later, capitalizing on an interception by Cutler on defense.

The barrage left Flint Creek on the upside of a 30-0 lead after just 12 minutes of play.

From there reserve QB Andrew Tallon took over and led the Titans to another four scores over the final three periods. The junior play caller ran for scores of five yards and 37 yards and hit Cooper Bradshaw with a four-yard scoring strike. Tyler Burden rounded out the offense with a 20-yard scoring run of his own.

Victor did manage a late score when Carson Varner hit Rivyr Lyman with a 16-yard scoring pass in the fourth.