Saturday’s Regional Briefs: Prep track, softball

Bobcats conclude

their spring drills

BOZEMAN – Quarterback Dakota Prukop threw for 107 yards and two touchdowns as Montana State closed its 2015 spring practice session with the Sonny Holland Classic in Bobcat Stadium on Saturday.

Prukop completed 13 of his 19 passes and Jake Bleskin was 8-for-15 passing for 89 yards and a touchdown, but both dealt with relentless pressure from MSU’s defense. The Bobcats logged eight sacks and 17 tackles-for-loss, creating a conundrum that Bobcat coach Rob Ash says every coach deals with in scrimmage situations.

“As is the case with most spring scrimmages,” he said, “there were good things on both sides. I really liked the execution on both sides of the ball in game-like situations. We got plays off, we didn’t line up in wrong formations or have too many men on the field or things like that. There was some excellent play on both sides of the ball.”

Defensive end Tyrone Fa’anono registered three of those sacks, and end Devin Jeffries had two more. Ash lauded his defensive front.

“Defensively it was probably the best day for our pass rush,” Ash said. “The quarterback was touch-sacked several times. Dakota might have gotten away a few times, but the pressure was there either way.”

Ash also indicated the defensive unit played fundamentally sound.

“The linebackers and safeties tackled well,” he said. “On the flip side defensively, we had several pass interference penalties. We need to clean up our technique in the secondary and not play with our hands so much and get penalties. But, the effort and hustle and intensity were good.”

In addition to standout individual play, this spring’s defensive scheme changes proved challenging for the MSU offense.

“What we’re seeing is the multiplicity of our defense is causing the offense some assignment problems. Those are issues we could correct if we were creating a game plan against our defense,” he said.

The offense engineered several solid scoring drives. The No. 1 offense moved 55 yards for a score on its second possession and on the first possession after halftime marched 60 yards for a 33-yard Luke Daly field goal. Justin Paige beat press coverage for a 39-yard touchdown from Prukop on the final scrimmage play.

“Offensively there were some three-and-outs that were a little frustrating but, especially with the ones we had some really good, long drives,” Ash said. “We ended the day with a long touchdown pass to Justin Paige. The execution was pretty good, although we just missed on a few assignments that cost us the chance for some big plays. We missed on a few blitzes on pass protection and the defense had a few tackles-for-loss on running plays where we obviously had some missed assignments.”

Daly, MSU’s sophomore kicker, was stellar. He was 2-for-2 on field goal attempts during the scrimmage, and 3-for-3 on staged kicks after.

“Luke Daly had a great day,” Ash said. “He was perfect on his kicks during the scrimmage, then after the scrimmage we moved him back and he kicked a 47-yarder, a 52-yarder and a 57-yarder at the end of the scrimmage. He did a good job.”

Ash lauded the play of some familiar names on defense.

“Mac Bignell showed up again on defense,” he said. “Grant Collins, I thought, played really well, and Nate (Bignell).”

RUSHING: Chad Newell 4-11, Dakota Prukop 9-4, Gunnar Brekke 3-9, Nick LaSane 3-24, Tavon Dodd 1-13, Noah James 4-5.

PASSING: Dakota Prukop 13-19-0, 107, 2 TD; Jake Bleskin 8-15-0, 89, 0 TD.

RECEIVING: Mitch Griebel 4-24-0, Chad Newell 1-10-0, Austin Bart 3-25-1, Nick LaSane 2-18-0, Mark D’Agostino 1- -1-0, Gunnar Brekke 1-25-1, JP Flynn 1- -5-0, Noah James 2-18-0, Tanner Roderick 1-31-0, Brandon Brown 1-9-0, Jackson Mahlum 1- -2-0, Connor Sullivan 1-2-0, Justin Paige 1-39-1.

SACKS: Tyrone Fa’anono-3, Devin Jeffries-2, Matt Brownlow, Nate Bignell, Mac Bignell.

TACKLES-FOR-LOSS: Monte Folsom 0.5, Mac Bignell 2.5, Tyron Fa’anono 4, DeMonte King 1, Nate Bignell 3, Joey Michael 1, Matt Brownlow 1, Devin Jeffries 2, Fletcher Collins 1, Rob Walsh 0.6, Zach Wright 0.5, Bryson Keeton 0.5

Softball games rained out at Multi-Sports

The persistent rain Saturday morning and early afternoon forced postponent of the Eastern AA girls’ softball games involving Great Falls High and C.M. Russell High.

Coach Mike Coleman’s Bison and coach Lindsey Gustafson’s Rustlers were to have played teams from Billings West and Skyview in tripleheaders, the first two of which designated as conference games.

The games will be made up, but Great Falls Athletic Director Gary DeGooyer said the dates won’t be established until early this week.

Helena High boys win Dahlberg team title

BUTTE – Aidan Reed won the 3,200 and Kendell Johnson prevailed in the triple jump to lead the Helena High boys to the team title Saturday at the Dahlberg Invitational prep track meet.

The Bengals of coach Tony Arntson scored 73.5 points to edge Kalispell Flathead (64) and Billings West (63).

The C.M. Russell High Rustlers finished 11th with 17 points, while the Great Falls High Bison were 15th with 8 points.

The Rustlers were led by Knox Semenza (third in pole vault), Caelan Brady (fourth in 800) and Trevor Pepin (fourth in javelin).

Leading the Bison was Keaton Brady (second in pole vault).

Redbirds open with twinbill split

BILLINGS – Tre Bradley and Tyler Lee combined for six hits and five RBI Saturday afternoon as the Lewistown Redbirds gained a split of their American Legion opening day doubleheader with a 10-4 victory over the Billings Angels.

The Angels rattled off five runs in the first four innings to take game one, 5-3, despite committing five errors.

Lee finished the twin bill going 6-for-7 with a triple and driving in five runs.

The Redbirds will entertain the Billings Halos in a nonleague doubleheader Sunday at 1 at Symmes Park.

UGF softball team splits in Billings

BILLINGS – The University of Great Falls softball team split two games with MSU Billings Saturday in the first of two doubleheaders scheduled for this weekend.

The Yellowjackets took the opener 3-2 before UGF won the nightcap 15-2 in a game shortened to five innings due to the mercy rule.

UGF (22-12) led the opener 2-1, but an error in the bottom of the seventh led to two unearned runs as MSUB took the contest.

Keeley Van Blaricom was the tough-luck losing pitcher as she scattered six hits and allowed just one earned run while striking out one. She did not walk a batter.

Kirstie Thomas led the Lady Argonauts at the plate as she had two hits, including a home run, and drove in both runs.

UGF erupted for 15 runs in the nightcap as it took advantage of four Yellowjacket errors. Chloe Cross and Van Blaricom each hit grand slams as the Argos scored five runs in the fourth and eight in the fifth to break open what was once a one-run game.

Mindy Larson and Cross each had two hits and scored three times. Shelby Abeyta pitched a complete game for the victory as she struck out three and walked three while allowing six hits for her third victory of the season.

The two teams conclude their four-game series with a doubleheader Sunday beginning at 12.

Lady Griz thump Southern Utah twice

MISSOULA – Delene Colburn smashed a three-run homer in the third inning of game one to propel Montana to an 8-2 win over Southern Utah Saturday at the Grizzly Softball Field.

UM swept the twin bill with a 6-2 win in the nightcap.

Great Falls High’s Mercedes Bourgeau had two hits in the doubleheader, doubling in a run in the second game.

Saints conclude spring football drills

HELENA – Carroll College football closed out spring drills Friday with a short scrimmage featuring mostly young players who are battling for spots in next year’s rotation.

“We held the starters out. We wanted to get our twos and threes a lot of reps today and we wanted it to be a light day,” head coach Mike Van Diest said. “The guys we held out were starters but we haven’t got every starter position figured out yet. We put a few guys out there so we can get them on film and have a little bit more to evaluate them on and make some tough decisions.”

Although many experienced starters didn’t see the field, a few spots are still wide open and the competition continued, especially at the running back position where Ryan Walsh and Dylan Green are starting to pull away from the pack. Walsh had an exceptional day that included a 20-yard touchdown run. Green had just three runs but gained 38 yards.

“Ryan Walsh and Dylan Green are going to complement each other very well this fall,” Van Diest said. “We have a few more freshmen coming in at the running back position that we think can help us. I think it was important that those guys performed well today especially without our two starting tackles in the game.”

Van Diest feels comfortable with the way his team played late in the spring but he knows there is a lot of room to grow in the offseason.

“Between now and August 14, our first practice, we have a lot of improvement to make,” Van Diest said. “But we’ve got a lot of time left to make those improvements.”