Montana High School Football Playoffs Kick Off This Week with Several Marquee Matchups

No. 8 East Helena hosts first playoff game; Malta/Whitewater/Saco/Dodson looks to rebound from first loss

Malta/Whitewater/Saco/Dodson will look to bounce back from its first loss of the season as it opens defense of its Class B state title this week. / Stockton Oxarart/X

All the preliminaries are over. The high school playoff season in Montana is upon us, and High School on SI Montana will have all the scores you need in one place.

As we head into the weekend, with spots in the quarterfinals on the line, here are five games to watch around the state.

Dawson County (4-4) at No. 8 East Helena (7-2), Friday

It’s a momentous occasion for the Vigilantes, who earned the 5-year-old program’s first home playoff game by beating Fergus 42-6 last week to enter the final regular-season version of the High School on SI Montana Top 10. 

Led by their first 1,000-yard rusher, junior RB Leo Longcake (1,044 yards, 17 TDs), and junior QB Bearek Shuman (1,931 yards, 22 TDs), East Helena will welcome the Red Devils to town. Dawson County, which won three in a row before falling to No. 1 Billings Central Catholic last week, goes as far as sophomore Ethan Rivas (1,371 yards, 14 TDs) will take it.

Fergus (6-2) at Sidney (7-2), Friday

The Golden Eagles’ reward for losing to East Helena last week is to make the 271-mile drive east on Highway 200 to face an Eagles team celebrating their first winning record since 2017 after winning five games combined over the past three seasons.

Sidney has relied on a bevy of sophomores and juniors to lead their revival, including junior QB/FS Gradin Sukut (1,535 total yards, 23 TDs; 49 tackles, seven interceptions, seven pass breakups), sophomore RB Aaron Schmitz (794 yards, 11 TDs) and junior SS Brody Keysor (50 tackles, nine for loss).

Joliet (6-2) at No. 5 Manhattan (8-0), Saturday  

The action turns to the smaller classifications when the calendar flips to November, and the Tigers got no favors despite winning a third consecutive Southern B Conference title. The Hawks might be a No. 4 seed from the Eastern Conference but only because they were upset by Baker 42-36 in the final week and saw the tiebreakers go against them. Senior QB Jake Cook (1,507 yards, 22 TDs) must come up big for Joliet to end a two-game slide and pull off the first-round upset.

Anaconda (6-3) at Malta/Whitewater/Saco/Dodson (8-1), Saturday

The defending B champion Mustangs suffered their first loss last week to Glasgow, dropping them into this tricky first-round matchup against the Copperheads, who finished third in the West. Sophomore QB Kazner Oxarart (1,459 yards, 19 TDs) was held in check by Glasgow and must come up big in a high-profile duel with Anaconda dual-threat senior QB Travis Dye (2,601 total yards, 27 TDs).

Big Sandy (6-3) at Power-Dutton-Brady (8-1), Saturday

Both teams enter the Class C 6-person playoffs as No. 2 seeds, with the Pioneers falling 52-6 to Chester-Joplin-Inverness to drop into a road game in Dutton against the Titans, whose only loss came in Week 4 to Northwest champion Lincoln. Power-Dutton-Brady was idle last week after its Week 9 opponent forfeited — the second time in three weeks it lost a game from its schedule — and will have to shake off any rust from its light slate over the past month.

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