Brockie's big plays lead Great Falls High to tight crosstown win over CMR

Brevin Brockie not only lit up the scoreboard Friday night, he put the game on ice.

The defensive back returned a kickoff for a touchdown and nabbed the game-sealing interception in the final minute as the Great Falls High football team held off C.M. Russell High 7-0 in an Eastern AA contest at Memorial Stadium.

The Bison (4-3 conference, 5-4 overall) clinched the East’s No. 4 seed and will host the West’s fifth-seeded squad Missoula Sentinel next Friday night.

Brockie broke the scoreless stalemate on the opening kickoff of the second half, breaking through the wedge and weaving his way 81 yards to the house to provide what would be the difference.

The senior also leaped and snagged an interception off of CMR’s Ben Hoiland in the final minute as the Rustlers had one last chance to tie things up.

“It’s crosstown for a reason, emotions are flying all over the place, including the coaching staff,” Bison head coach Coda Tchida said. “That’s why all three phases of the game are so important. That’s why we work on special teams every day. Special teams came through for us tonight and Brevin Brockie played his butt off on special teams and on defense.”

With the victory in the 59^th annual crosstown game, Great Falls High has now won six straight against CMR.

The Rustlers (3-6, 1-6) were already eliminated from playoff contention no matter the outcome Friday, but looked determined not to go out with a whimper. CMR’s defense stuffed the Bison twice on the goal line in the first half inside the 3-yard line and allowed only 190 yards of offense.

“If you’re going to play a game, you play it with heart and you play it right,” CMR head coach Dennis Morris said. “And I think the kids did that. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get out of our way offensively. We moved the ball well and got into a rhythm and I think we could’ve put a score on the board and a big holding call brought it back. That’s the way football goes. It wasn’t a lack of effort, the kids did what we asked them to do. They played the game right, we were just on the bottom end of it.”

The Rustlers were without starting quarterback Caleb Taylor because of an arm injury, and leading rusher Keegan Fuller was out with a concussion.

“Offensively, we had to fill some holes we didn’t think we’d have to fill,” Morris said. “Defensively, I knew (CMR was) going to bring it. They played a fantastic game and there’s some young guys that are going to be back next year and the leadership in the older guys has been nothing short of phenomenal.”

Following Brockie’s return touchdown, the Rustler answered with a long drive down to the Great Falls High 2, powered by chunk gains from tailback Kaiden Clement and aided by two Bison offsides penalties on third downs.

After a first-and-goal play, CMR was hit with a 15-yard late hit penalty, was backed up to the 16 and ended up turning it over on downs.

On their next possession, the Rustlers again put together a strong drive behind Clement down to the Bison 15 but had a big run called back for holding. An incompletion and a Colter DeVoss sack on fourth down turned it back over to Great Falls High.

With under six minutes to play, the Bison burned over four minutes off the clock on a methodical drive, with Braedon Rankin providing a pair of tough runs to move the sticks. Quarterback Riley Collette hit receiver Kaleb Schur for the third first-down conversion of the possession as Great Falls High forced the Rustlers to call all three of their timeouts.

A Caleb Litzinger 37-yard field goal attempt missed with 1:18 to play, setting up the final possession that ultimately ended in Brockie’s interception.

“Rankin played a ton of plays on defense and I wanted to keep him fresh for defense as much as possible,” Tchida said. “(Tailback) Izayah (Brown) was only playing offense for us tonight, so I thought he could give us a boost there. We put them both in the backfield and they both did some good things on that last drive to chew up the clock and make it so (CMR) had to go 80 yards on that last drive. We would’ve liked to make the field goal at the end, but I knew if we missed they’d still have to go 80 into the wind and that’d be pretty tough.”

Defense dominated the first half, with the Rustlers twice holding strong in goal-to-go situations.

The Bison marched all the way down to the CMR 6 in the early moments of the second quarter, at first settling for a field goal attempt before the Rustlers were called for encroachment. Great Falls High elected to go for it from the 3-yard line, but CMR stopped Brown short at the 1.

Bison safety Grant O’Neill handed the offense another opportunity with two-and-half minutes left before half, picking off Hoiland and returning it to the CMR 7.

However, Brown was stopped twice on attempts from the 2 and 1, with Dorian White making the stop in the backfield on fourth down after Clement blew the play up on the left side of the line.

The Rustlers picked up six first downs in the opening half, but the Great Falls High defense held them in their own territory throughout the first 24 minutes.

The Bison defense pitched its third shutout of the season overall and its second in a row after a 40-0 win over Billings Skyview last week, holding CMR to 74 yards rushing on top of the two takeaways.

“Again our D-line played outstanding and the linebackers came up and were willing to hit, and our secondary played lights out,” Tchida said. “(CMR receiver) River Wasson is a tough cover for anybody. They were obviously trying to target him a lot and we knew that going into the game. I thought Ryder (English) did a great job covering him. I’m really proud of the defense the last two weeks. They’ve really shown that they’re a top-tier defense.”

Wasson paced the Rustlers with a game-high seven catches for 71 yards, while Clement ended with 68 yards on 17 carries.

Brown led Great Falls High with 40 yards rushing, while Collette was 9 of 13 passing for 78 yards.

CMR 0 0 0 0 - 0

GFH 0 0 7 0

Third quarter

GFH - Brevin Brockie kickoff return (Caleb Litzinger kick) (11:44)

This article originally appeared on Great Falls Tribune: Brockie's big plays lead Great Falls High to tight crosstown win over CMR