Red Devils run past Sheridan Panthers to keep pace

Football lives in Noxon; and it might just survive clear into the playoffs for the second year running.

Coach Bart Haflich and his Red Devils walloped Sheridan 55-14 in Sheridan Friday to improve to 3-2 in Western C 6-Man action. Noxon is only a game off the conference lead as previously unbeaten White Sulphur Springs lost 52-32 to West Yellowstone and fell to 4-1 last week, bunching up the teams at the top of Western C standings.

West Yellowstone and Hot Springs are also 4-1 (although Hot Springs is 3-1 in league play), and Valley Christian is 3-2 (and 2-2 in league) after a 44-24 loss to Valier of the Northern C division Friday.

Maybe fired up some by tough consecutive home losses to White Sulphur Springs and Hot Springs the two previous weeks, the Devils came out firing on all cylinders in Sheridan, roaring out to a 30-7 lead by the end of the first quarter and never looked back at the Panthers in posting the win.

“We played pretty well in Sheridan,” Haflich said. “We were able to get out to a good lead and have some fun with it.”

Becoming known as one of the best players in the Montana 6-Man ranks, Levi Brubaker got the Devils off to a hot start by taking the opening kickoff 65 yards back all the way for a touchdown, and then added the two-point conversion kick for an 8-0 Noxon lead.

A short time later, Brubaker crashed into the end zone on a one-yard run and again booted through the two for a 16-0 Noxon advantage.

After Sheridan scored on a long pass play, Cade VanVleet then got into the scoring action for Noxon on a 17-yard run, and Rylan Weltz scored shortly after that on a 40-yard pass play from quarterback Jeriko Smith, which coupled with another two-point kick from Brubaker, gave the Devils that 30-7 lead after the first quarter.

Brubaker reached paydirt again on a nine-yard pass from Smith, VanVleet scored again on a 38-yard run and Brubaker went on a 45-yard scoring jaunt after that to close out touchdown scoring for Noxon after that.

Brubaker kicked an impressive 36-yard field goal in the fourth quarter to complete Red Devil scoring in the game.

As is his habit, hard-hitting Edison VanVleet led the Noxon defense with 13 tackles in Sheridan.

Although the Devils are in fairly good position to make a run at the playoffs, Haflich doesn’t want any hiccups occurring between now and then. Being as it is homecoming week in Noxon, that task could be a little more difficult this week.

“We need to control what we can, and that means taking care of the games we have in front of us,” Haflich said. “We have to try to keep focused and that could be a challenge this week with all the distractions of homecoming week. We just have to remember that there is always a football game at the end of homecoming week and we should be all right.”

The Devils will be hosting the Gardiner Bruins Friday night at 7 p.m. in their homecoming game. Gardiner lost 54-7 to Hot Springs in Gardiner Saturday.

“Gardiner is a good-looking team,” Haflich said. “They have a solid running back and like to spread it out on offense. This should be a good chance to work on our pass defense this week.”