BILLINGS — It was a night of firsts for Billings Skyview.
And for the Falcons it was the perfect night to record their first win of the season as a hard-fought 24-21 Eastern AA football victory over Belgrade occurred as Skyview celebrated homecoming.
While it looked like Skyview would easily win with a 24-7 lead with 8:02 remaining in the game, Belgrade fought back but the Falcons held on and after the postgame handshake the players wearing blue and white met their fans in a gleeful celebration on the field.
With the win, the Falcons improved to 1-3 overall and 1-1 in the Eastern AA. Belgrade fell to 0-3, 0-2.
“It was pretty stressful,” said Skyview coach John Simpson of the moments leading up to the win. “But I’m really happy for our players, for our coaches, for the fans, their families, the Heights community. It’s a great win for us tonight. We’re going to celebrate.”
For the Falcons, senior Garrett Crooks provided fireworks early and sparked the team when he intercepted Hudsen Rask to end a long Belgrade drive and returned the ball 74 yards for a touchdown at the 4:54 mark of the first quarter. The pick-6 gave Skyview the first score of the game and a lead the Falcons never relinquished.
Crooks, a defensive back who also plays running back on offense, said it was his first touchdown this season.
“I was tired. That was a long run, but it was sweet to finally get in the end zone this year,” said Crooks. “I’ve been waiting, three games. I’ve been running the ball. I mean not really making much work, but I love my line. I love this team. We have so much talent. We’ve just got to figure it out. And there’s plenty of season left.”
Skyview was going to go for a PAT kick, but the defense was whistled for encroachment and the Falcons elected to go for two points. On the attempt, Belgrade was whistled for pass interference and Skyview responded as Jaxon Zagata found Merek Fisher for the first of many big catches by the 6-foot-6 tight end and an 8-0 Skyview lead.
Skyview had been close to victory in the season opener against Helena, leading 14-7 at intermission before falling 28-20 on the road. This time the Falcons built a 17-point lead as Rayce Newman scored his first touchdown of his varsity career on a 21-yard pass from Zagata at 8:02 of the fourth quarter and held off a Belgrade rally to win.
“It feels good. It’s been long overdue, but I’m glad I finally got in,” said Newman, who is in his third year of varsity for the Falcons.
“It’s not exactly the way we wanted to win, but a win’s a win so we’ll take it.”
The Skyview defense also recorded its first safety of the season when a Belgrade snap on a punt went out of the end zone and Skyview led 10-7 at 10:57 of the second quarter.
Fisher caught his first touchdown of the season on a six-yard pass from Zagata for a 17-7 lead after the PAT kick by Cooper Malcher at 8:08 of the second. Zagata finished 24 of 34 passing with one interception for 186 yards and his favorite target was Fisher, who had nine catches for 66 yards including a couple key catches to convert on fourth down leading to the Falcons’ final score of the game.
“There’s a reason why colleges are looking at him,” said Simpson of Fisher. “It’s not by accident. He had a great game. That was the most catches I think he’s had yet as a tight end so that was great.”
With 2:25 on the clock in the fourth, Skyview’s Kory Galloway intercepted the ball to end Belgrade’s hopes for a come-from-behind win. It was another big play for the Skyview defense, which led the way for the Falcons.
“Our defense really came together because we fly around,” said Newman, who starts at middle linebacker. “A big emphasis that coach likes to bring is that we play together, rally to the football, and that’s just helped our tackling a lot when there’s multiple guys for the ball.”
Skyview will travel to Great Falls on Sept. 26. Crooks said after a big win the Falcons will be ready for the Bison.
“We didn’t really play to our fullest I don’t think. These Thursday games are always tough. We get a short week, Monday and Tuesday, and then prep for Wednesday,” he said. “I hope we come back strong and go win against Great Falls High. We’re going on the road. It should be good. But this team is talented, man, and I’m excited.”
For Belgrade, Rask connected with Noah Shugart for a 70-yard TD in the first quarter and a 45-yard score in the fourth. Jacob Hahner scored on a seven-yard run in the final stanza for the Panthers.
While Belgrade didn’t come away with a win, coach Jesse Schmidt said the Panthers will learn from the loss and that he likes his team’s chances when it hosts Billings Senior on Sept. 26.
“This team, this year has no quit in them,” Schmidt said. “We’ve gotten down in a couple of games and we fought till the end. And tonight proved that. We cost ourselves on some mistakes tonight, beat ourselves at times. But you know, we clawed back and fought back and almost came back to win.”
“We saw some flashes on both offense and defense this week. I thought special teams we did OK on. There’s some stuff that we’ve got to fix, but at times we had some big plays that showed up. We’ve just got to kind of fix some of the big plays that we gave up and come back next week.”
Email Gazette Sports Editor John Letasky at john.letasky@406mtsports.com or follow him on X/Twitter at @GazSportsJohnL
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