HELENA – Midway through the fourth quarter Friday night, Helena Capital was clinging to a two-point lead over Bozeman. But the Hawks had the ball and also had momentum.
That is until Talon Marsh took it away and with it, any hope Bozeman had of escaping Helena with a victory.
Marsh, a junior defensive lineman, was credited officially with three sacks. Unofficially, the total might have been as high as five.
How they were counted doesn’t matter. What matters is when Marsh got most of them – in the fourth quarter. And when his teammate, Henry Gross, forced a fumble with less than a minute left that the Bruins recovered, it sealed a 14-12 win.
“Coaches always say you have to go in deep water,” Marsh said. “I have been training all year for that exact moment. It just comes down to how bad you want to do it.”
The pass coverage was on point for Capital, except when it came to stopping Bryson Zanto who caught eight passes for 103 yards, including a 26-yard touchdown to open the scoring with 2:57 left in the first quarter. The score which came on a fourth down, capped an 11-play, 61-yard drive that put the Hawks in front 6-0.
“He’s been waiting in the wings behind a bunch of seniors,” Bozeman head coach Levi Wesche said of Zanto. “We thought he would even contribute a little more last year. But so happy for him and all the work he’s put in. He did a great job.”
While Zanto and his ability to get open for quarterback Jake Casagranda numerous times on third downs was on display throughout, it wasn’t before the Bruins experienced a little fourth-down magic of their own.
Trailing 6-0 at the end of the first quarter, Capital changed quarterbacks, as part of a planned rotation. Hudsen Grovom started the game, but in the second quarter, in the red zone, Joey Michelotti took over.
His first play as a varsity quarterback was a snap over his head that resulted in him facing a third and 30. But two plays later, after a fourth-down dime to Eric Cockhill in the back of the end zone, Capital was up 7-6.
“We got some yards back on a screen then we were right back in it,” Michelotti said of the third down and 30. “Then I was able to hit Eric on that (vertical). It felt really good. My first varsity touchdown pass.”
That finished off a 56-yard drive for the Bruins. On the next possession, Capital scored again as Dylan Graham, following a fourth down conversion, scored from five yards out to put Capital up 14-6 with 5:08 left in the half, a lead it would carry over to halftime.
Capital led by eight at that point, but Bozeman wasn’t going to lose easily.
And thanks to a 13-play, 80-yard drive which featured multiple third- and fourth-down conversions from Casagranda to Zanto, the Hawks hit paydirt on a two-yard run by Jase Applebee early in the final stanza.
“My quarterback is a stud,” Wesche said. “I thought he did a great job. Actually, I thought our entire offense played well. We just have to avoid the negative plays and we took great care of the ball until that last play.”
Casagranda’s fumble was the only turnover between two teams that made the Class AA quarterfinals a year ago and it proved to be the difference.
Casagranda finished 16 of 24 for 159 yards and a touchdown. Applebee ran eight times for 29 yards, while Kendall Stromberg added five receptions for 32 yards for Bozeman.
Next Friday, Bozeman will host Missoula Sentinel.
