Heat hold off Eagles

Valley Christian turned out to be a little bit more than bargained for but, in the end, the visiting Eagles were just what the Hot Springs Savage Heat needed.

Rallying back from a surprising early deficit, the No. 2 ranked Heat fought past Valley 53-38 Saturday night to open the Montana 6-Man football season.

Now 1-0 and the second ranked 6-Man team in Montana according to the latest 406mtsports.com poll, the Heat will visit 0-1 Gardiner Saturday afternoon. Gardiner opened their season with a 51-0 loss in Noxon last week.

Hot Springs coach Jim Lawson was glad to come away from the Valley Christian game with the victory. “We feel fortunate to come out with the win,” he said. “Valley is a good football team, they are going to be in the mix for who gets into the playoffs.”

Lawson said the Heat fell behind early and did not take control until the third quarter.

Lawson’s son Kyle had a great game on both sides of the ball, rushing the ball 17 times for 182 yards, catching six passes for another 177 yards on his way to rolling up an incredible total of 502 total yards of offense. And, oh yeah, he scored six touchdowns.

Defensively, Kyle Lawson led the Heat with seven tackles and grabbed two momentum-turning interceptions in the pivotal third quarter. Bert DeTienne also snared a crucial interception in the second half.

Hot Springs’ other big gun in the win over Valley was Jack McAllister.

In spite of taking a nasty hit which left him in a heap midway through the first half, McAllister picked himself back up and led the Heat to the comeback win. McAllister completed 12 of 19 passes for 219 yards and four touchdowns, and scored another TD rushing.

“Jack is a trooper, he really toughed it out,” coach Lawson said. “He took a tough shot there in the first half but managed to fight his way through it.”

Banged-up body and all, McAllister also managed to pull down five tackles on defense. Lincoln Slonaker led the Hot Springs defense with an amazing total of 15 tackles.

Coach Lawson looks ahead to Gardiner Saturday but further, looks forward to the Western Conference 6-Man race for the playoffs.

“Valley showed me that they are a legitimate threat,” he said, “and we know Noxon and White Sulphur Springs are also very good. This should be an interesting race for the playoffs this fall.”