Flathead welcomes winless Hellgate with playoff berth on the line

To this point in the season, playoff talk has been just that for Flathead — talk.

Not only talk, but talk full of caveats.

The Braves’ last-second win over Great Falls CMR last week virtually, practically and for all intents and purposes guaranteed them a playoff spot.

But tonight, Flathead finally has an opportunity to put the talk — and all those qualifiers — to rest and secure their postseason fate.

A win over Missoula Hellgate would clinch a playoff spot for Flathead, its first postseason berth since 2015 and just the third since 2009.

You don’t have to remind the Braves, nor the coaching staff, what’s on the line.

“That’s definitely one of our goals this year, to get in the playoffs,” Flathead coach Kyle Samson said. “It’s a big motivation for our kids to go out (tonight) and be ready to go and go get ourselves into the playoffs.”

With a playoff spot on the line, the draw could not be more favorable for Flathead (4-3).

Hellgate (0-8) enters Legends Stadium without a win this season, and the closest it’s come to victory was a 20-point loss to Billings Skyview.

The Knights have the worst average point differential in the state — minus 37.3 — and have averaged just 8.3 points per game.

Even so, Samson and his staff have cautioned the team against taking its opponent likely with so much at stake.

“One thing that we’ve really talked about is, yes, they’ve struggled,” Samson said. “They don’t have the record, but they’ve still got good football players. They play very, very hard.

“They’re going to come down here and give us a great challenge, because they want to win. I know they’ve been working very hard. We’ve got to be ready.”

A major key to avoiding a catastrophic upset, Samson said, is getting the offense rolling early, something the Braves struggled to do last Friday against CMR.

Flathead went three-and-out on its first three drives of the game, and quarterback Taylor Morton threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown on the fourth drive. Samson’s offense finally found its rhythm on the fifth drive, but the head coach would rather see that rhythm much earlier this week.

“We’ve got to do a better job offensively in that first quarter,” Samson said. “Last week wasn’t a very good first quarter. We finished very well.

“We always say, ‘First downs lead to touchdowns.’ Once you kind of get that first, first down, early on in the game, you can kind of relax a little bit and just go play football.”

The paramount reason Samson is confident his team can avoid becoming the victim of an upset is the presence and leadership of the 24-man senior class, which will be honored before its final regular-season home game tonight at 7.

Samson credited the class — the first the fourth-year coach has overseen all the way through high school — with not only keeping the team grounded through a turbulent season on and off the field, but also for serving as the bedrock of the entire program.

“They believe so much in this team and in the culture we’re trying to build,” Samson said. “They’ve really done a great job of building the foundation of our program.

“Being our senior night, I don’t think these seniors are going to take (Hellgate) lightly at all. They’re going to come out and be ready to go.

“Tomorrow night is the last guaranteed (game) right now that we have to play at home, so we really want to cherish that and enjoy the moment.”

And while it is indeed the last guaranteed game for Flathead at Legends Stadium this year, the Braves hope it is not ultimately the last time the seniors will get to step on the turf at home.

If Flathead wins its final two games, there’s a slim chance it could host a playoff game. But for now, the focus is simply on making it into the postseason field.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen going forward,” Samson said. “There’s still two weeks left, and a lot of things could happen. But the only thing we can control is (tonight).”