Senior, Kade Strutz (33), running in one of his many touchdowns of the game.
Senior, Cam Schwarzbach (17) blocking for Sophomore, Kody Strutz (16) and he runs for the endzone.
It's not quite the bustling holiday season but Big Sandy is already toiling away at vanquishing the Ghosts of Postseasons Past.
The first specter appeared against a backdrop of powdery white in the form of the 2018 6-Man football champs and last year's runner-up, the Wibaux Longhorns.
The Longhorns proved just a phantom of their former selves, however, and left Big Sandy with a 57-6 defeat to conclude an uncharacteristic 2-4 season.
It's not that they didn't know what was coming at them. They just didn't have the ability to stop it. Alternating doses of Kade Strutz carrying the ball to the left, to the right and straight down the middle of the field, to the tune of 25 rushes for 279 yards and six touchdowns left the Longhorns' heads spinning.
"I told the kids, y'know, Wibaux, they got a whole trophy case full of football trophies up there," Pioneers coach Larry Jappe told MontanaSports.com after the game. "So I told them before the game to get after it, make sure we just come out hard and just play Big Sandy football, do what we do."
Wibaux showed flashes of its former brilliance in the first quarter, stuffing Strutz on a fourth-down plunge near the goal line and converting on third down from the shadow of their own end zone with a Garrett Johnson reception down the right sideline for 20 yards.
That drive stalled soon thereafter, though, and Strutz made good on the next possession, breaking to the left sideline before cutting back across the middle for a 29-yard score as 1 minute, 34 seconds remained in the first quarter.
With a short field granted by way of a punt-catch interference penalty against the Longhorns, Big Sandy capitalized barely a minute into the second quarter with a toss over the middle 27 yards from Kody Strutz to Braydon Cline for six.
Kade Strutz stretched the lead to 18-0 with a 1-yard plunge at the 3:48 mark of first half and swatted the ball away from Wibaux passer Jonathan Harris two plays later with Cline covering up the fumble.
On the ensuing drive, Brady Pleninger's lone catch of the contest, for 16 yards running back across the field to snag it, set up Kade for another TD off a pitch from 5 yards out at 1:21 left. Just 53 seconds later, Big Sandy had the ball back and the power back rattled off a 75-yard TD that earned him a nickname from the announcer's booth, harkening back to the Kansas City Chiefs' tackle-breaker of the 1990s, Christian Okoye, with a twist: the "Norwegian Nightmare."
The Pioneers built on their 32-0 halftime advantage after Kody Strutz caught an east-to-west pass from Cline and took it north for 42 yards, setting up Kade Strutz for a 13-yard TD run.
Wibaux finally struck back with a Harris catch across the middle for 50 yards and a deficit reduced to 38-6.
It served little more than to annoy a smattering of Pioneer faithful, limited in number by MHSA COVID-19 regulations and braving temperatures hovering just a few ticks above the single digits. Temporarily, the mercy-rule running clock stopped. Kade Strutz set it back ticking for good with a sweep left for 15 yards as 49 seconds remained in the third quarter.
Lance Rutledge went up in the air to snatch a Kody Strutz pass and rumbled 34 yards over numerous arm tackles to stretch the lead to 51-6. Cline put a final stamp on it, avoiding a sack and shoveling the ball to Kody Strutz for 9 yards and the final touchdown of the game.
Big Sandy is now primed to host the Bridger Scouts (6-1), the South runner-up who proved their ability to go on the road and pull off an upset Saturday. They knocked off West runner-up Hot Springs with an 18-point comeback to prevail 41-38. The Scouts last faced Big Sandy in a 2017 state quarterfinal, winning 42-7 en route to a championship game appearance.
In other 6-man first-round playoff action, East champion Froid/Medicine Lake easily handled Broadview-Lavina 56-6; Central winner Harlowton/Ryegate outlasted Noxon, 38-14; South champ Shields Valley (the only top-seed that would be required to travel to Big Sandy for a theoretical title game) survived a scare from Richey-Lambert, 27-16; Power/Dutton-Brady knocked off Denton-Geyser-Stanford, 46-15; Savage ravaged Hobson-Moore-Judith Gap, 57-14; and West champion White Sulphur Springs dominated Sunburst, 78-21. Next week's matchups send Harlowton/Ryegate to Froid, PDB to Shields Valley and Savage to WSS.
