Winning in the wild, wild west

Which team will end up being the one that finally tames the wild, wild west?

Still in the heat of the race to be that team, the Hot Springs Savage Heat went to Gardiner Saturday and upended the homestanding Bruins 54-7 to improve their season record to 3-1 in conference and 4-1 overall in the suddenly whacked-out Western C 6-Man division.

What's making the Western C seem a little whacked out right now is some of the other results from last weekend. Previously considered the team to beat and the owners of wins over both Hot Springs and Noxon so far this season, the White Sulphur Springs Hornets went to West Yellowstone and surprisingly got whacked by the Wolverines 52-32, knocking the Hornets down to 4-1 on the season.

Interestingly, the Heat hammered the Wolverines 50-18 in Hot Springs back on Sept. 6, one week after losing an epic 20-18 encounter at White Sulphur Springs. All of which means that almost anything is possible as far as State C playoff positioning now goes, especially when the other players in the Western C, including 4-1 West Yellowstone, 3-2 Noxon and 3-2 Valley Christian are thrown into the mix.

Hoping to keep the momentum they have built over the past few weeks going, coach Jim Lawson and his Heat host Sheridan Friday in Hot Springs.

"There are a lot of teams still in the playoff mix," Lawson said, "nobody really controls their own destiny, there is just such good parity in our division. The results from week to week have been unpredictable. We just have to take things one game at a time and see what that gets us."

The win at Gardiner was a good bit of business for the Savage Heat.

The Heat scored 38 points in the first half to set the clock in motion the rest of the game, and did not allow Gardiner a touchdown until the fourth quarter when the issue was already settled.

"We pretty much dominated, it was a good game for us," Lawson said. "We played a lot better on defense – we seemed to have trouble tackling the week before in Noxon – but were much more solid on that side Saturday."

Lawson said Hot Springs' individual statistics from Gardiner were not overly impressive due to that stout defense, which often gave the Heat offense the ball in good scoring position.

Brandon Knudsen completed eight of 10 passes for 183 yards and five touchdowns, older brother Tyler Knudsen ran the ball eight times for 73 yards and two scores, Tyler Carr had two pass catches for 66 yards and two touchdowns, Kyle Lawson caught three passes for 40 yards and a TD, and Bert DeTienne caught a pass for a 17-yard touchdown.

Luke Waterbury scored a touchdown and had a team-high seven tackles, including four for losses, and Jack McAllister had four tackles and an interception.

"It's good to see our other kids stepping up more as the season goes on," Lawson said. "You can see the improvement from week to week."

The Heat continue their quest for the 6-Man playoffs this week against 2-2 Sheridan. Sheridan lost big to Noxon in Sheridan last Friday.

"Sheridan is a good team, they pass the ball pretty well," Lawson said. "We will have to defend their passing game to be successful."