The Hamilton Broncs remained perfect after a 54-23 win over Whitefish on Friday night for Homecoming. It only took 64 seconds before the Broncs scored. Eli Taylor caught a 34 yard pass from Tyson Rostad for the first score and the Broncs were on the board. A little more than two minutes later, Rostad hit Taylor again, this time from 17 yards out, for the touchdown. Jaiden Klemundt, who took over the kicking duties from Austin Drake who is injured, kicked the PAT. Hamilton scored once more in the first quarter. This time it was Klemundt who caught a 47 yard pass for the TD.
Whitefish came out in the second quarter and scored twice to close the gap down to only nine points. That would be the closest they got to Hamilton in the game.
Rostad had one more scoring pass, this time from 26 yards out. His target was once again Taylor. Rostad completed 18 of 22 passes and averaged 20.3 yards per play. He also had two interceptions.
Taylor had six receptions for 153 yards. Klemundt had 10 receptions for 165 yards. Liam O’Connell caught two passes for 47 yards and one two-point conversion.
Hamilton moved their play onto the ground in the second half and used up more of the clock. Ben Tack got the Bronc ground attack going with a two yard run at the end of the second quarter. Tack had another two yard run for six in the third and one final scoring plunge in the fourth quarter. He finished with 80 yards on 20 carries. Aiden Sission scored from one yard out in the third quarter.
Tack, who transferred to Hamilton from Stevensville last January, said playing for the Broncs has been really fun. “It’s fast paced. And our offensive line is the best in the state.”
“Whitefish is a really good team,” said Hamilton coach Bryce Carver. “That’s what we expect out of a Whitefish team.”
Carver went on to say that although Whitefish had four wins and two losses, he felt they probably would have won the other two if it hadn’t been for missing kids and a couple of key turnovers.
“We had our hands full today. We preached that all week. Our kids came in and fought the whole game and answered the call that we challenged them to and they did a great job.”
Taylor said, “We had good defense and offense tonight. We threw the ball and ran the ball really well. They had good athletes but we did pretty good against their defense.”
Hamilton will play Libby in Libby this weekend. Carver said that is always a tough game and they are preparing for that.
Corvallis fell to Columbia Falls, 32-0. Darby lost to Seeley-Swan, 14-8, and Charlo topped Victor. Stevensville and Florence did not play.