By Bruce Sayler
Rain threatened but never followed through and the lights hadn’t yet luminated fully over Naranche Stadium.
Even with the West winning by 20-6, the East players smiled in celebration at the postgame festivities of Montana’s 79th annual football Shrine Game Saturday night. Temperatures were in the 60s as summer threatened to happen as much as the rain looked suspicious.
A nearly full house watched in the pleasant conditions as recently graduated Montana football stars ran into each other again and repeatedly in try and in fun, raising thousands of dollars for the Shrine children’s hospital in Spokane. The previous 78 editions totaled more than $2 million for the cause and both the foundation and the Montana temples will be anxious to see the financial totals for this year’s holding.
They work hard on this. The players were seen doing it Satuday night, but the toils of the adults – the administrators and organizers aren’t ever really noticed until worthy checks are cashed to help the young victims.
Butte’s Jeff Hartwick and crew again outdid themselves this year, and as much as they’ve done the past 15 years when Butte helped inaugurate a three-city rotation system for holding the game, outdoing is doing a lot.
There are still moments for the players, too, to be themselves.
“If it’s your last game, going out by getting a win at Naranche is the best,” West cornerback Michael Verlanic said.
Verlanic was a two-year starter for Butte High and Naranche was his home turf. So, it was a special ending to his football career and likely to that of Bulldog teammate Hudson Luedtke, who also played in Saturday night’s game and will now focus on basketball at Casper College in Wyoming.
Verlanic said he’s hanging up his spikes and getting ready to tackle the books for an electrical engineering degree at Montana Tech. As good a student-athlete as he’s been a Butte High, Verlanic is known in the school as much, if not more, for being the student even over the athlete.
His poise displayed in Saturday’s game was telltale.
The highly contested contest saw the West take a 3-0 first-half lead and stay barely ahead of the East counterparts the rest of the way before breathing easily about this side’s sixth straight in and cutting East’s lead in the series to 41-38.
East quarterback Howie Martin of Billings Central was trying to go deep on the West secondary to make up fast points against a rapidly draining scoreboard block in the last quarter. Verlanic was in the corps defending against the air attack.
“I had faith in our front line and I had faith in our linebackers,” Verlanic said, never feeling he was on the proverbial island. “I’ve got faith.
“You can’t have nerves in those situations. Those situations are what you live for.”
His mindset seemed to bark “Go ahead and throw it.”
In the end, the West secondary prevailed as Missoula Sentinel safety Rudy Hess picked off two East passes in the second half, including a 44-yard pick-six that sealed
West’s win in the last quarter. The performance earned him game MVP honors.
“I need to five a shoutout to my boy, Rudy Hess,” Verlanic praised about a Western AA Conference rival of the last couple years, now turned teammate for a week.
Other honorees included West most valuables Asher Knopik, a workhorse running back from Kalispell Glacier, on offense, and Blake Williams of Missoula Big Sky on defense. East honorees were Martin of offense and Billings Central teammate Layne Alexander, a linebacker, on defense.
Knopik ran for 98 yards on 22 carries as West controlled the ball, clicking off 65 plays to East’s 40 and overcoming a penalties difference that saw the East whistled twice, on back-to-back second-half snaps, while West players were assessed 10 mark-offs.
Martin did the bulk of the work at QB for the East while Butte-rooted Montana Tech-bound standouts Vince Paffhausen of Missoula Hellgate and Ryan Peoples of Butte Central called the signals for the West. Both come from longstanding Butte football families with deep histories in the Shrine Game. Awakened echoes likely cheered their contributions this year.
A defensive stalemate finally gave ground about two minutes before halftime when Big Sky Eagle Cal Marceau booted a 26-yard field goal. Marceau later knocked through a crucial 47-yard field goal in the second half that pushed West’s lead to 13-6 in the fourth quarter.
Big Sky clouded up Saturday night and rained on the East. Marceau’s first field goal was followed after halftime by a smear-and-steal double-team inflicted by Eagles Cormac Batt and Blake Williams against Lewistown’s McKay Shobe playing for the East. The second QB got two yards and certainly multiple bruises when drilled by Batt hard enough to cough up the football for Williams to grab and set up the first touchdown of the game. West got the ball on the East 23-yard line and five plays later, Paffhausen rifled a strike to Darby’s McCoy Townsend standing in the end zone between two East defenders.
East got some retribution, though, when Alexander blasted Peoples with a tremendous hit that separated the Maroon QB from the ball and maybe, momentarily, his senses. Alexander also recovered the fumble at the West 22, and Martin connected on three straight passes, the last to Elias Bonner of Billings West for an 11-yard TD throw. The two-point conversion try after a couple penalties moved scrimmage back and forth. West’s lead had dwindles to 10-6, but the West defense never let the East another reasonable scoring scenario.
Marceau’s long field goal and Hess’ pick-six stymied any rally while Knopik ate devoured yardage and time behind the right-side of the West offensive line, featuring William Astle of Glacier, Holland Jantzen of Bigfork and Kyler Kossman of Kalispell Flathead.
Marceau’s 47-yarder is the second-longest field goal in Montana Shrine Game history. Jason Baker of Billings West booted one 51 yards 2013.
West’s six-game win streak ties the longest in the series. East won six in a row 1973-78.
Next year’s game is to be played in Billings. Butte will next be the host in 2029.
Unofficial statistics from Saturday’s 2016 Shrine Game follow:
East 0 0 0 6 — `3
West 0 3 7 13 – 20
First Quarter
No scoring.
Second Quarter
WEST – FG Cal Marceau 26, 2:08.
Third Quarter
WEST – McCoy Townsend 16 pass from Vince Paffhausen (Marceau kick), 9:40.
Fourth Quarter
EAST – Elias Bonner 11 pass from Howie Martin (pass failed), 11:31.
WEST – FG Marceau 47, 4:45.
WEST – Rudy Hess 44 pass interception return (Marceau kick), 3:19.
East West
First downs 12 15
Rushes-yards 20-32 47-193
Passes 15-32-2 7-13-0
Passing yards 91 44
Total offense 123 237
Return yards 15 55
Punts-avg. 5-41.6 5-40.8
Fumbles-lost 1-1 4-2
Penalties-yards 2-10 10-95
Individual Statistics
RUSHING – East, Howie Martin 6-49, Elias Bonner 4-7, Layne Alexander 1-3, Curtis Fox 1-2, McKay Shobe 2-2, Wesley Ehret 3-2, Team 3-(-33). West, Asher Knopik 22-98, Peyton Lorenz 9-44, Vince Paffhausen 8-37, Cole Moses 4-9, Ryan Peoples 3-7, Hagen Paddock 1-(-2).
PASSING – East, Martin 15-32-2-91. West, Paffhausen 2-4-0-42, Peoples 5-9-0-2.
RECEIVING – East, William Snell 3-27, Kael Aldrich 4-25, Bonner 4-21, Ehret 1-8, Drew Etcheberry 1-5, Merek Fisher 2-5. West, Brody Galle 1-26, McCoy Townsend 1-16, Brody Duchien 2-4, Kade Robinson 1-2, Paddock 2-(-4).
TURNOVERS – Fumble recoveries: East 2 (Layne Alexander 1, Rylan Jennings 12), West 1 (Blake Williams); Pass interceptions: East 0, West 2 (Rudy Hess 2).
