Billings West is on a seven-game streak of home wins (dating back to last season), while Bozeman is on a six-game streak of away wins (also dating back to last season): one of those streaks is about to end. The Billings West Golden Bears will host the Bozeman Hawks at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Billings West's defense has only allowed 16.2 points per game this season, so Bozeman's offense will have their work cut out for them.
Billings West is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They blew past Skyview 47-7 at home on Friday. The team's explosion on offense also rewarded the Golden Bears with their most commanding win of the season.
CJ Johnson was his usual excellent self, throwing for 374 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 10.7 yards per attempt. Payton Cicero helped Johnson out on the ground, rushing for 70 yards and a touchdown on only five carries, while also picking up 46 receiving yards and a touchdown.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Billings West was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 203 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since back in September of 2023.
One reason for the win was Billings West's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for six sacks. Skyview's QB won't forget Collin Warnick anytime soon given he sacked him twice.
Meanwhile, Bozeman faced Gallatin in a battle between two of the state's top teams on Friday. Bozeman fell 35-27 to Gallatin.
Loss or not, Bozeman got some senior leadership from Kash Embry and Brady Casagranda. Embry rushed for 111 yards and two touchdowns, while Casagranda rushed for 140 yards and a touchdown. Those 111 rushing yards set a new season-high mark for Embry.
Bozeman wouldn't let Gallatin keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Bozeman can thank Kaden Paea and Reese Sutherland for forcing both of them.
Billings West's victory bumped their record up to 5-0. As for Bozeman, their defeat dropped their record down to 3-2.
Friday's match will pit two of the most dominant signal callers against one another: Johnson and Embry. Johnson has put up some stellar numbers this year, and currently owns excellent season averages 273.6 passing yards and has 12 passing touchdowns on the season. For his part, Embry has averaged 151.6 passing yards and has 6 passing touchdowns on the season.
Billings West took a serious blow against Bozeman in their previous meeting back in September of 2023, falling 44-9. That contest was all but decided by halftime, at which point Billings West was down 31-7.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
