Central Montana Sports Round-Up With Karl Koontz

Country Football on KMON Week #5 (9-24-23)

Week #5 of the 2023 high school football season brought more excitement to the small towns in the KMON listening area and also started to bring division races and potential playoff scenarios into play. For our broadcast crews the weekend meant a cool rainy night along the Front Range and disappointment on Saturday.

Get our free mobile app

Friday Chris Kelly and Robin McKnight spent the evening in Choteau for a Central C 8-man contest between the homestanding Bulldogs and the visiting Cascade Badgers. The Bulldogs are off to a fine start this season and kept their momentum going against the young gridiron squad from Cascade. Choteau controlled the contest from the get-go and coasted to a 36-0 win to advance their record to 4-1, while the Badgers fell to 2-3. Choteau is in good shape for a run to the playoffs but they will face a couple stern tests against Ennis and Manhattan Christian in weeks 7 and 8. This week they will travel to Lone Peak. Cascade will regroup and head to Flint Creek, a team that is not what they were the last several years when they won 32 out of 33 games and state titles in 2017, ’19, and ’20. In the Central 8-man division, all games are conference games.

Saturday afternoon Chris and Karl Koontz journeyed to Centerville to celebrate Homecoming but were met with disappointment when technical difficulties prevented them from broadcasting the game between the host Miners and the Outlaws of Roy-Winifred. It was a really good game that saw the visitors jump out to an early 13-0 lead. Centerville’s defense stepped up and held the Outlaws at bay through the second quarter and when the Miner’s offense found their sea legs, they prevailed by a final margin of 35-25. The victory kept Centerville, ranked 3rd in the state, unbeaten and atop the Central 6-man division. Harlowton-Ryegate-Judith Gap is also undefeated; a showdown between the two is set for the last weekend of the season. Meanwhile, Centerville will host DGSG this coming week and Roy-Winifred will entertain Highwood at their state-of-the-art facility.

Week #5 Results:

8-Man                                                                            6-Man

Simms 26 Manhattan Christian 18                               Highwood 44 GFCC 32

Ennis 35 Flint Creek 0                                                 Harlo-Ryegate 57 DGSG 14

Lone Peak 60 Seeley-Swan 14                                   CJI 44 Valier 0

44 Deer Lodge 32                                                       Big Sandy 36 Box Elder 30

Belt 56 Shelby 0                                                         PDB 50 North Star 19

Fort Benton 54 Chinook 36                                       Centerville 35 Roy-Winifred 25

Choteau 36 Cascade 0

Week #6 Schedule:

8-Man                                                                        6-Man

Harlem-Turner @ Fort Benton                               Hobson-Moore @ Harlo-Ryegate

Rocky Boy @ Shelby                                            Sunburst @ Big Sandy

Chinook @ Hays                                                   Box Elder @ North Star

Ennis @ Deer Lodge                                            Heart Butte @ CJI

Sheridan @ Manhattan Christian

Seeley Swan @ Simms

Standings Through Week #5

Northern C 8-Man                                                     Northern C 6-Man

Belt 3-0 3-1                                                                CJI 3-0 3-1

Shelby 2-1 2-2                                                           Big Sandy 3-0 4-0

Fort Benton 2-1 3-1                                                  Power-Dutton-Brady 2-1 4-1

Chinook 1-2 1-3                                                       North Star 1-2 1-3

Harlem-Turner 1-2 1-3                                             Box Elder 1-2 2-2

Rocky Boy 0-3 0-3                                                   Valier 1-2 1-4

Sunburst 0-2 0-2

Heart Butte 0-2 0-2

Central C 8-Man                                                 Central C 6-Man

Ennis 5-0 5-0                                                     Centerville 3-0 5-0

Choteau 4-1 4-1                                                Harlo-Ryegate 3-0 5-0

Simms 4-1 4-1                                                  DGSG 1-1 3-2

It gets a little confusing with school consolidations and teams moving each year between different classifications and conferences. For the postseason, each division is allocated three teams to enter the statewide playoffs, but the Northern 6-man division will get a 4th team in the Big Dance. These days there are five divisions in each classification and four of them receive three berths with one division getting a fourth spot on a rotating basis.

Chris and Robin will be on hand to share all the exciting moments from the Seeley-Swan at Simms game. The Tigers are the 8th ranked team in the state and boast a 4-1 record. Kickoff is set for 7:00. On Saturday at 2:00, Chris and Karl will head back to Centerville when the Bearcats battle the Miners. That is of course, if the technical issues can be resolved. If not, then it’s Plan B (there isn’t really a Plan B yet). It’s a lot of fun, so join us for all the action on the Central Montana Radio Network. Stream us on  560 KMON and on the KMON app!

Get our free mobile app