Cats have some soul searching
They wanted to go into the playoffs with momentum. They’ll end up with two weeks to right the ship.
Last Friday the Columbia Falls football team lost to Ronan 28-20 in a game where the Chiefs looked sharp and the Wildcats often looked flat.
The Cats scored first on an 8-yard run by runningback Nate Thompson to make it 6-0. But Ronan answered with a 16-yard touchdown run at the 8-minute mark to make it 6-6. On the next possession the Cats had to punt and Ronan drove from the Wildcat 48 yard line to score again at the 3:34 mark to make it 12-6 in the first quarter.
The Cats would answer with another Thompson run from 5 yards out to go up 14-12 at the 7:22 mark in the second quarter. But it was the last lead the Cats would have.
Ronan orchestrated a 70-plus yard drive and with the 1:31 left in the half, Robbie Gauthier scampered in from 7 yards out. The two-point conversion was good and the Chiefs went up 20-14.
The Cats blew a couple of opportunities in the third quarter. Nate Thompson had a sweet 46-yard run down to the Ronan 10 yard line, but the Cats couldn’t get the ball in the end zone. Then Ronan punted the ball just 10 yards from their own 10 and it appeared the Cats would recover on the 20, but Columbia Falls was called for having 12 men on the field.
With 6:47 left in the game the Cats would get the ball back and put together an impressive drive. Quarterback Austin Barth connected with Kaleb Johnson on a 22-yard pass on a fourth and 17 to drive to the Chiefs’ 28. The Cats would have three bad plays in a row and face a fourth and 16 from the Chiefs’ 33. Barth then hit receiver Devyn Rocker who would break a couple of tackles to get another key first down.
Thompson would then run in from the Chiefs’ 8-yard line to tie the game, but Barth’s extra point kick went wide left.
The Chiefs got the ball back with 1:42 left and would put together their own impressive drive. With 14 seconds left, Gauthier hit Cole McArthur on a 36-yard pass in the corner of the end zone to take the lead. The two-point conversion was good. The Cats got the ball back with just a few seconds left. They ran two plays, but neither went anywhere.
Thompson rushed for 130 yards of the Cats’ 160 yards of total offense. The Cats had negative yardage on several plays as Ronan’s defense got a lot of penetration up front. Ronan rushed for 344 yards and had 413 yards total offense. Thompson finished the regular season with 1,606 yards rushing.
Coach Bill Coleman was disappointed with the loss.
“We didn’t block and we didn’t tackle,” he said. “That’s my fault. I didn’t have them ready to play.”
Coleman said the Cats will look to regroup over the next two weeks. They’ll face the winner of the Miles City-Havre game on Nov. 6.
Miles City beat Havre 34-14 earlier this year and is one of the top programs in the state.
Meanwhile the Cats (31-1, 4-4) will have to do some soul searching.
“All we have to do is play to our potential,” Coleman said.
Ronan 28, C. Falls 20
Ronan 12 8 0 8 - 28
C. Falls 6 8 0 6 - 20
CF - Nate Thompson 8 run (kick failed),
R - Robbie Gauthier 16 run (run failed),
R - Jack Humphreys 8 run (pass failed),
CF - Thompson 5 run (Kaleb Johnson pass from Austin Barth)
R - Gauthier 1 run (Cole McArthur pass from Gauthier),
CF - Thompson 4 run (kick failed),
R - McArthur 20 pass from Gauthier (Gauthier run)