Savage Heat rout Gardiner

Just another day at the gridiron office.

Coach Jim Lawson and his Hot Springs Savage Heat put in their final productive shift of the regular season on the friendly confines of their home field in Hot Springs last Thursday, blasting past the visiting Gardiner Bruins 55-7.

Now 9-0 for the season and the 2019 Western Conference 6-Man champs, the Savage Heat will host 4-4 Harlowtown-Ryegate, the No. 4 seeded team from the south, at 1 p.m. Saturday in the first round of the State 6-Man playoffs. The Heat opened the season with a 34-12 win over the Engineers back in August so they know what they will be up against.

“Harlowtown is a tough No. 4 seed, they played all the good teams close in their league,” Lawson said. “We are familiar with them, we will just have to go out and play our game and we should be all right.”

The Heat played their type of game very well in the win over Gardiner as coach Lawson’s son Kyle Lawson enjoyed a breakout effort, scoring four touchdowns to lead Hot Springs.

Lawson scored first on an eight-yard pass from Jack McAllister in the first quarter and added touchdown runs of one, three and 13 yards after that.

Brandon Knudsen scored two touchdowns for the Heat, one on a 60-yard punt return and the other on a 20-yard run, and McAllister picked up a fumble and sprinted 69 yards for Hot Springs’ other TD. McAlister also successfully kicked two two-point conversions, and Jesse Uski scored the Heats’ final point on a conversion run following Lawson’s last touchdown.

Evan Gungerich ran 40 yards for Gardiner’s only touchdown in the first quarter.

Kyle Lawson’s big game was by design. “We wanted to get Kyle more involved and he did a good job,” coach Lawson said. Kyle finished the game with a team-high 124 yards rushing on 15 carries in addition to catching four passes for another 41 yards. He was nominated for Western Montana Player of the Week honors based on his performance against Gardiner.

Knudsen added 59 yards rushing on six carries and completed two of five passes for 16 yards, McAllister completed three of three pass attempts for 37 yards.

In his first game back after sitting out the last two after getting his tonsils removed, Bert DeTienne led the Hot Springs defense with 10 tackles, Knudsen added nine tackles and recovered two strip fumbles he caused, and McAllister had nine tackles.