Great Falls High opens football season with Big Sky

Matt Krahe hasn’t seen much consistency in his tenure as head coach.

Entering his sixth season in charge of the Great Falls High football team, that’s been the focus.

“I think, really, on both sides of the ball, what I’m looking for and what we’ve been preaching is consistency, to not have those highs and lows throughout the game,” said Krahe on Thursday afternoon, a day before his team opens the season against Missoula Big Sky at 7 at Memorial Stadium.

They will come, he added, but it’s best to minimize them. The Bison, 2-8 in 2014, haven’t made the playoffs since 2008, a quest that begins Friday night in the much-anticipated doubleheader at Memorial. The Rustlers are set to battle Kalispell Flathead at 4 in the afternoon.

“We want to kick this season off right,” Krahe said. “A good team from Big Sky is coming in. They’ve got a couple guys that have a lot of experience on the offensive side of the ball. We are going to have our hands full.”

The Eagles, 8-4 a season ago, made it to the semifinals of the playoffs before losing to eventual champion Glacier; however, they lose a ton of talent, including starting running back Cory Diaz and first-team All-Stater at three different positions, Colin Bingham, who’s now at Montana.

The mindset for the Bison stays the same, the head coach said.

“We go into every game with the idea that we are going to win that,” Krahe said. “This one is no different.”

Senior tailback Michael Banna, a first-team All-State fullback back in 2014 after rushing for more than 1,000 yards, will assume Diaz’s responsibilities. The Eagles, which beat the Bison 40-6 last season in Missoula, like to run the football.

“He is a big part of their offense,” Krahe said of Banna. “He started last year for them at fullback, and I’m sure he’ll be their feature back this year. He’s a big kid. I think he’s listed at about 210, 212 pounds. And he runs extremely hard. We’ve been working all week on containing that run and pursuing to the ball.”

The Bison, meanwhile, will see a new quarterback take command of their offense Friday. Kaden Sukut takes over for the departed Jordan Wilkins. It will be his first start in a varsity game, though he did see some snaps last season and has performed well at the junior varsity level.

“We’ve got a good mix of guys that have quite a bit of experience coming back at the varsity level,” Krahe said. “Defensively, in the back part of our secondary, we are going to be young as far as varsity reps.”

The starter at tailback is also a new face. Well, not entirely new. Walker Ferda, a senior, has battled injuries in recent years and missed all of the 2014 season with a foot injury.

“He’s chomping at the bit to get out there and run,” Krahe said. “He has a chip on his shoulder, that’s for sure. He’s going to go out and have a good night.”

Smoky conditions covering the state of Montana have put a lot of football games in jeopardy this weekend and several have been moved to different sites. In Great Falls, air quality levels went from moderate (yellow) to unhealthy for sensitive groups (orange) to unhealthy (red) all in a matter of hours Thursday.

Great Falls Public Schools athletic director Gary DeGooyer said Tuesday the football games would likely be canceled if it was deemed unplayable, but that a final decision will be made Friday morning. He also said that he would cancel or postpone sporting events if levels reached very unhealthy (purple) or hazardous (brown), which are the next two levels above unhealthy. Check gftrib.com for updates.

GFH

Offense

QB…(10) Kaden Sukut, 6-1, 205, Sr.

RB…(17) Walker Ferda, 5-10, 180, Sr.

TE…(7) Riley Watt, 6-1, 200, Sr.

OT…(76) Erik Warner, 6-3, 245, Sr.

OT…(78) Bret Britt, 6-1, 275, Sr.

OG…(57) Brandon Mikkola, 5-8, 220, Sr.

OG…(72) Christian Johnson, 6-2, 326, Sr.

C…(59) Seth Dabler, 5-8, 260, Sr.

WR…(12) Maxx Sitzmann, 6-0, 180, Sr.

WR…(2) Robert Bruskotter, 5-10, 170, Sr.

WR…(20) Jamison Hermanson, 5-11, 160, Sr.

Defense

NG…(79) Jeff Legg, 6-4, 315, Sr.

DE…(47) Tim Hanning, 5-11, 213, Jr.

DE…(78) Bret Britt, 6-1, 275, Sr.

LB…(55) Steven Watson, 6-0, 175, Sr.

LB…(44) Luke Almos, 6-2, 210, Jr.

LB…(58) August Woehler, 5-11, 195, Sr.

LB…(49) Dugan Mahoney, 5-10, 195, Jr.

S…(33) Joey Greene, 5-11, 168, Sr.

S…(21) Chase Perry, 5-10, 150, Sr.

CB…(26) Colby Friede, 6-1, 150, Jr.

CB…(1) Kody Torgerson, 6-0, 160, Jr.