Prep Football: Great Falls High defeats Big Sky

Walker Ferda knows a thing or two about bouncing back from adversity.

“I’ve never in the 18 years I’ve been alive, I’ve never worked so hard to get back at something,” he said under the dark sky Friday. “And I think I’m going to remember that lesson for the rest of my life: How something pays off when you really put your mind to it.”

The senior tailback has had to battle back from a broken foot on three separate occasions in his high school career.

Now he’s back and better than ever.

The 5-foot-10, 180-pound running back toted the rock 19 times on Friday night in his team’s season opener against Missoula Big Sky. Those 19 runs turned into 106 yards and a touchdown, and the Great Falls High Bison outlasted the Eagles, 29-21, before several thousand fans at Memorial Stadium.

All the offseason workouts, the tough times, wondering if he’d ever make it back – it was worth every second, he said.

“That felt really good,” Ferda said, “and I hope our team gets addicted to winning.”

After Ferda, who missed the entire 2014 season and most of his sophomore season with those foot injuries, was called for a penalty late in the game, which pushed his team back 15 yards on a kickoff return, he responded by running the ball eight times for 47 yards from then on out, a chip appearing like a boulder on his shoulder.

“I had a personal foul,” he said. “I let a bad word fly and the ref didn’t like it. I wasn’t saying it to the other team but I was trying to pump my own line up and the ref just didn’t like it. I’m never going to do that again. I learned my lesson.”

Big Sky had the ball all the way on the Bison 33-yard line a few series later, aided by a huge kick return and a face-mask penalty. After being pushed back six yards, cornerback Kody Torgerson jumped in front of a route and picked off the throw.

The Bison (1-0) never gave the ball away from there, taking four minutes off the clock by doing one thing: handing it to Walker Ferda.

“I felt like I kind of almost messed it up for us, so I kind of had some extra pressure on myself,” he said. “I felt like I had to do that. I kind of turned it up. My coaches put it on me. They let me do that. I asked them if I could make it up to my team, and they let me run it over and over.”

Said his quarterback, Kaden Sukut: “He looked at me and looked at all of our guys and said we are going to get this back. I’m really impressed with him because in the first half, we had those couple big pass plays here and there, which was good for us, but then we kind of staggered off passing wise. We weren’t clicking and Ferda stepped up and carried the load. And he is very capable of doing that every week.”

Ferda didn’t do it alone, however. The Bison defense forced three turnovers, including two interceptions, one by Colby Friede and another by the aforementioned Torgerson, to halt a Big Sky (0-1) offense that saw success running the football with Michael Banna, an All-State fullback from a year ago who ran for 92 yards.

“We bent,” GFH head coach Matt Krahe said of the defense, “but we came through when it counted. We did have some big turnovers … and had a couple crucial fourth down stops. They were a couple long plays where we broke down fundamentally that we need to work on, but I really like the effort. I thought the kids played hard defensively and they rallied to the ball and finished the game out.”

Great Falls High, which outgained its opponent 330 to 312, struck first late in the first quarter. Sukut – who was 9-for-16 for 126, although he did throw two interceptions – lofted a perfect pass that hit wide receiver Maxx Sitzmann in full stride for a 73-yard score. The two-point conversion was successful, and the Bison took an early 8-0 lead.

“This means everything,” Sukut said. “For tonight, we have to enjoy it because we started off on the right foot. But looking forward, (Saturday) morning, we have to start prepping for Skyview. Celebrate tonight. Because we did, we did a great job. We got the first win, which is what we needed to do to get the season off right.”

Banna tied the game in the third quarter on a 1-yard rushing play, but less than two minutes later, Bison wide receiver Jamison Hermanson secured a handoff on an end-around, found an open lane and outraced the Big Sky defense for a 48-yard score.

“He did a great job,” Krahe said. “He showed off his speed. He’s got pretty good speed out there and was able to get in the end zone.”

Big Sky would edge to within one in the fourth quarter when quarterback Tyler Ogilvie scored on a 74-yard run. It was a quarterback sneak, and all the Eagle quarterback was trying to do was get the first down on what was a third-and-1 inside their own territory. Instead, he broke free from a group of tacklers and found pay dirt, though his team missed the PAT. GFH still maintained a 22-21 lead.

A little more than three minutes later, Hermanson, again on a sweep, found open space and scored from 28 yards out. He ran it twice Friday and found the end zone twice, totaling 76 yards. He caught seven balls for 44 yards as well.

“I think he is one of the more athletic kids on our team,” Ferda said of his teammate. “This offseason he really motivated me. I saw him working by himself before our whole team got bought into this stuff. He’s a unique kid. He was going to do it by himself if he had to but luckily our whole team got into it and this is what happens when that happens.”

Great Falls High welcomes Billings Skyview to Memorial Stadium next Friday.

“This is a goal that we set a long time ago, to come out and set the tone of the season by winning that first game,” Krahe said. “So for those kids to achieve that, and the hard work that they put in, it’s pretty amazing.”

Ferda was just that Friday night.

“It just lets us know that we can do something,” he said.

SKY 0 7 8 6 --21

GFH 15 0 7 7 --29

First quarter

GFH -- Maxx Sitzmann 73 pass from Kaden Sukut (two-point successful), 3:52

GFH -- Walker Ferda 8 run (Casey Klaue kick), 2:02

Second quarter

SKY -- Nick Wakai 31 pass from Tyler Ogilvie (Wakai good), 0:53

Third quarter

SKY -- Michael Banna 1 run (two-point succesful), 6:45

GFH -- Jamison Hermanson 48 run (Klaue kick), 5:23

Fourth quarter

SKY -- Ogilvie 74 run (Wakai no good), 8:35

GFH -- Hermanson 28 run (Klaue kick), 5:07

Sky

GFH

First downs

16

12

Total Net Yards

312

330

Rushes-Yards

41-186

29-204

Passing

126

126

Comp-Att-Int

15-25-2

9-17-2

Punts-Average

3-43

6-37

Fumbles-Lost

3-1

0-0

Penalties-Yards

6-51

7-82

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: SKY: Banna 21-92, Ogilvie 8-60, Sandau 4-19, Wakai 5-9, Janacaro 1-6, Dutton 1-0. GFH: Ferda 19-106, Hermanson 2-76, Sukut 3-11, Dess 1-7, Watt 1-4, Sitzmann 2-0

PASSING: SKY: Ogilvie 15-25-1--126. GFH: Sukut 9-16-1--126

RECEIVING: SKY: Wakai 4-58, Sandau 4-21, Banna 3-18, Malone 2-18, Lucostic 1-8, Lahti 1-3 . GFH: Hermanson 7-44, Sitzmann 1-73-1, Ferda 1-9