The Columbia Falls Wildcats will take on the Polson Pirates at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Columbia Falls has three straight victories, Polson has four straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Columbia Falls is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Montana's top teams: Whitefish, who was ranked 18th at the time (Columbia Falls was ranked 12th). The Wildcats slipped by the Bulldogs 19-18 on Friday. The win almost wasn't to be: the Wildcats were down 18-0 in the third quarter.
Banyan Johnston
| 10/03/25 @ Ronan | 177.1 |
| 10/10/25 @ Whitefish | 118.6 |
| 09/26/25 vs Bigfork | 115.8 |
| 08/29/25 @ Fergus | 79.5 |
| 09/05/25 @ Frenchtown | 65.7 |
| + 1 more games |
Banyan Johnston had another great game (as he tends to do), throwing for 263 yards and three TDs. His passing game has become a key predictor of Columbia Falls' success: the team is undefeated when his passer rating is 100 or higher, but only 0-3 otherwise. The Wildcats' leading receiver Jory Hill was Johnston's top target yet again, picking up 108 receiving yards and one score.
Wins are hard to come by when you can't run the rock, something Columbia Falls proved: they limited Whitefish to a paltry 2.2 yards per carry. The team can thank Trip Ross for the heroic effort on defense: he. Sadly, that's becoming something of a trend for Columbia Falls; they were averaging 4.9yards per carry per game earlier this season, but in their last three matchups they've fallen to only 4.5 per game.
Meanwhile, Polson didn't have quite enough to beat Bigfork on Friday and fell 22-19. While the Pirates had to settle for second, they closed the game well in the third quarter, where they outscored the Vikings & Valkyries 7-0.
Although Polson took the loss, they still got scores from Eli Evenson, Holden Emerson, and Case Cox.
The victory got Columbia Falls back to even at 3-3. As for Polson, their defeat dropped their record down to 2-4.
Everything came up roses for Columbia Falls against Polson in their previous meeting back in September of 2024, as the team secured a 42-0 win. Do the Wildcats have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Pirates turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
