Prep Football: Geraldine-Highwood Rivals repeat

GERALDINE – The football stadium here is named after Rodney Tweet for a reason.

And on Saturday, Tweet and his "old school" style and philosophy produced another championship banner to fly over the field.

Tweet's decision to run a ground game in a 50 mph crosswind paid big dividends for his Geraldine-Highwood Rivals, who claimed the Montana Class C Six-Man Football state title with a 37-20 victory over the Westby-Grenora Mon-Dak Thunder Saturday afternoon at Rodney Tweet Field.

It is the second consecutive state crown for the Rivals (11-1), who defeated Denton-Geyser-Stanford 50-18 for the hardware last season. For the Thunder (11-2), it was their first-ever trip to the finals for the co-operative between Westby and Grenora, N.D. It also marked the first time a team where at least some of the players came from outside the state of Montana were participants in an MHSA championship event.

Since Six-Man football became sanctioned by the Montana High School Association before the 1982 season, the Geraldine and Highwood schools have combined to play in 24 state championship games, with each school have 11 shots before they formed the co-op three years ago. Highwood won the title ten of 11 times. Geraldine won it five of 11. And the two schools had five meetings against each other in the title game. The Mountaineers won all five.

Tweet has been coaching football for 34 years, 33 of those in Six-Man competition.

"In Montana, you've got to be able to play under all types of conditions," Tweet said. "Our pass defense and the wind helped out a whole bunch."

There were two completely different offensive styles there. The Rivals were satisfied with just letting the ground-pounders do the dirty work, running 39 rushing plays to just nine through the air and collecting 228 of their 355 total offensive yards on the ground.

The Thunder, using a spread offense, went to the other extreme: 42 pass plays, four on the ground. And while their senior southpaw quarterback, Cooper Olson, generated 300 yards in the air, it just didn't translate into points. He only completed three scoring plays.

The Rivals' signal caller, Darren Malek, oddly enough, was the more successful passer this day. While he only completed eight of nine tries for 127 yards, four of those throws reached paydirt.

"We set it up pretty good with the run game," Darren Malek said. "Logan Ferda and Jake Malek can really run the ball with that line in front of them, and that sets the passes up pretty easily for me. I have good blockers out there."

It was kind of touch-and-go in the first half. The Thunder scored on their very first drive, as Thomas Field pulled in a 22 yard toss from Olson. Then Darren Malek completed scoring plays of 30 yards to his cousin Jake Malek and 20 yards to Tyler Hooper in the second stanza, but they could not get the extra point between the uprights. Olson hit Daulton Holecek with a short pass with 1:03 left in the half, and Myka Penny booted the PAT for a brief ... very brief ... 14-12 lead. The Rivals then drove down the field, scoring when Ferda crossed the goal line from two yards as time expired in the first half. Luke Davison caught the conversion pass from Darren Malek, and the Rivals never trailed again.

"Our offense really clicked today," Jake Malek, who had 24 carries for 139 yards and a score, said. "It comes from Mr. Tweet having us work out every day. He's a great coach, and just knows this game so well."

Jake ran one in from 18 yards out in the third, marking the beginning of the end. Jordan LaFontaine and Luke Davison added TD catches in the fourth, and the celebration was on.

"We just try to carry on the tradition as seniors," Ferda, who ran for 90 yards on 14 totes and scored once, said. "Try to just build up the younger kids for next year and get them ready to play varsity. You want to try so hard to win, because when we were little, everyone above us was winning state championships.

"Coach Tweet likes to keep the running game going, and only goes to the passing game when we have to. We knew MonDak was going to throw it, so we knew that would be an advantage for us."

Westby-Grenora…6 8 0 6 — 20

Geraldine-Highwood…0 19 6 12 — 37

First quarter

WG—Thomas Field 22 pass from Cooper Olson (pass failed), 7:15

Second quarter

GH—Jake Malek 30 pass from Darren Malek (kick failed), 9:50

GH—Tyler Hooper 20 pass from D. Malek (kick blocked), 2:30

WG—Daulton Holecek 6 pass from Olson (Myka Penny kick), 1:03

GH—Logan Ferda 2 run (Luke Davison pass from D. Malek), :00

Third quarter

GH—J. Malek 18 run (kick blocked), 8:35

Fourth quarter

GH—Jordan LaFontaine 36 pass from D. Malek (pass failed), 9:51

GH—Davison 9 pass from D. Malek (pass failed), 2:35

WG—Walker Wilson 4 pass from Olson (kick failed), :17

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—Westby-Grenora, Cooper Olson 1-(minus 1), Thomas Field 2-9, Myka Penny 1-14. Geraldine-Highwood, Jake Malek 24-139, Logan Ferda 14-90, Devin Leistiko 1-(minus -1).

PASSING—Westby-Grenora, Olson 27-41-0—300, Field 1-1-0—18. Geraldine-Highwood, Darren Malek 8-9-0—127, Leistiko 0-0-0.

RECEIVING—Westby-Grenora, Daulton Holecek 6-56, Dillon Brunelle 7-56, Field 9-128, Walker Wilson 4-28, Penny 3-52. Gerlaldine-Highwood, Tyler Hooper 2-33, J. Malek 1-30, Jordan LaFontaine 3-67, Ferda 1-(minus 2), Luke Davison 1-9.

MISSED FIELD GOALS—none.

SACKS BY—Westby-Grenora, none. Geraldine-Highwood (4-for-25 yards), Hooper 3, Davison ¹/₂, Kurtz ¹/₂.