Heat halt Rebels 25-13

Call them the Eveready Savage Heat, they just keep winning and winning and winning…

Coach Jim Lawson’s Hot Springs Savage Heat won an early season non-conference battle of the unbeatens Friday, knocking off the Shields Valley Rebels 25-13 in a well-played game in Hot Springs.

Now 3-0 and ranked No. 3 in the most recent 406mtsports.com Montana 6-Man power poll, the Heat travel to Valier Friday night to take on the 1-2 Panthers in another non-conference affair.

The Heat spotted Shields Valley (a cooperative between the Clyde Park and Wilsall school districts) a 7-0 lead in the first quarter, but quickly took control of the game after that.

Hot Springs scored the game’s next four touchdowns in the first and second quarters, the final one on the last play of the first half, to take a 25-7 lead into halftime. The Rebels scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter to produce the final scoring in the game.

“We knew we would be tested by this team, Shields Valley is a very good squad,” Lawson said. “We had a little trouble defending them at first, we had to switch up our defense and tighten up our pass coverage. After that we did pretty well, did a good job defensively and that kind of set the tone.”

Luke Waterbury scored Hot Springs’ first touchdown on a six-yard run, Brandon Knudsen hooked up with Kyle Lawson for a 43-yard scoring pass for the second, and Waterbury reached paydirt again on a one-yard run for the third.

With time running out in the first half, Knudsen hit Lawson with a nine-yard scoring strike for the Heat’s final touchdown of the evening. Waterbury caught the one-point conversion pass from Knudsen for the last Hot Springs point of the game after that.

The Heat had some more chances to score in the second half but couldn’t quite cash in on those chances. “We had some opportunities but weren’t able to finish those drives,” Lawson said.

Kaden Acosta scored Shields’ first touchdown on a 12-yard pass from Dylan Flatt, and Aiden Jenkins crossed the goal line on a 30-yard pass from Flatt in the fourth quarter. Jenkins also pulled down the conversion pass from Flatt following the Rebels’ first touchdown.

Heading for Valier this Friday, the Heat know that the Panthers opened the season with a 52-0 loss to powerful Power/Dutton-Brady, followed that up with a 32-26 loss to Tri-Cities and defeated North Star 47-44 last week.

The Heat do have a history with Valier however, mainly through the 6-Man playoffs in years past. Some of those games were slightly acrimonious.

“Valier is a big physical team that likes to run the ball, we will have to stop their ground game,” Lawson said. “The kids are playing well and we hope to keep that up in Valier.”

Against Shields Valley, Knudsen completed 15 of 20 passes for 184 yards with the two touchdowns to Kyle Lawson, and two interceptions, in addition to rushing for a team-high 86 yards.

Lincoln Slonaker rushed seven times for 40 yards, Waterbury eight times for 34 yards and the two TDs, and Kyle Lawson caught a total of 10 passes for 134 yards.

Lawson and Knudsen each pulled down eight tackles and Jack McAllister six. McAllister also had an interception in the game.