Copyright Kalispell Inter Lake
At eight-plus hours, the Eureka Lions surprisingly don’t have the longest road trip of the Montana high school playoffs this weekend. That honor belongs to St. Regis, which will need to travel more than nine hours to face Scobey in the 8-man quarterfinals Saturday. For the Lions, who play at Red Lodge Saturday, it is stlll a haul. Awaiting the Lions are the 8-1 Red Lodge Rams, who boast a University of Montana commit in senior running back Kougar Kappel. The 175-pounder is explosive, as witnessed by his 55-yard run on Red Lodge’s first snap from scrimmage last week against Townsend. Kappel ended up with 35 carries for 299 yards and three touchdowns. One TD covered 69 yards and another tying the game 33-all in overtime. The Rams hit the extra point for the 34-33 playoff win over the Bulldogs. In between the Rams got help from quarterback Brock Johnston, who has an excellent target in Caton Pierce (who also plays QB). Red Lodge’s lone loss came 33-12 at Glasgow to start the year. Eureka (7-2) had an easier time with its first-round playoff foe, beating Fairfield 47-13. Quarterback Rogan Lytle ran his season totals to 837 yards and 13 touchdowns passing and 995 yards (and 12 TDs) rushing. Complementing Lytle are, among others, running back Josh Lambertsen (571 yards, 11 TDs on the ground), receiver Tyce Van Orden (12 catches, 245 yards and 4 TDs) and tight end Emmet McKim (23-301, 5 TDs). It will be interesting to see how McKim, who has 86 tackles, Ayden Helgert, Lytle and the rest of Eureka’s impressive run defense hold up against Kappel and Co. The Lions allow just over 72 rushing yards per game; the most they allowed is 133, against Missoula Loyola. The Rams’ lone loss came 33-12 at Glasgow in their season opener.
