Jefferson High’s football squad started its 2023 with high expectations — but in its Aug. 24 opener in Boulder, it ran into a deep Florence-Carlton team. The result: a 20-0 loss to begin the season.
The start of the game seemed to go Jefferson’s way: Florence fumbled on the kick-off, and the Panthers recovered. But a pair of quarterback sacks gave the ball back to the Falcons on their own 30. The Panther defense did a great job of reading the Falcon plays, leading to a quarterback sack — and four plays later, Florence was forced to punt.
The Panthers took over on their own 20, and a couple of runs by Jack Johnson put the ball on the 34. But that is where the progress stopped, and Jefferson was forced to punt. The Falcons put together a drive, and on second and two they ran in for a touchdown. The PAT was good, and Florence took a 7-0 lead.
Luke Oxarart returned the kickoff to the 45, and it looked like the Panthers were picking up some momentum. But then a snap went over quarterback Oxarart’s head. He was able to get the ball and made a great run for a first down, but the Panther drive died.
A couple of Panther penalties erased a nice run and gave the Falcons great position, and with 7:21 left in the half they were able to score again, making it 14-0. Jefferson’s defense clamped down for the rest of the game and kept the game close, but the Panthers couldn’t put any points on the board, and Florence took the non-conference win 20-0.
This week the Panthers travel to Cut Bank for another non-conference game Sept. 1. It has been a while since these two teams met so it should be an interesting game. Game time is 7:00 p.m.
Volleyball
The Lady Panther volleyball teams opened their season Aug. 24 against Columbus in front of a raucous home crowd in the Panther gym — and the varsity came away with a convincing win.
Arena Faler got the Panthers going with the first three points of the game, and Ryian Eveland powered over a kill to make it 4-1. Columbus came back to tie the game at 6 before a pair of kills by Eveland made it 10-7.
Maddy Averill’s ace gave the Panthers a 16-12 lead but Columbus pulled back to 17-14. Clara Genger’s kill made it 18-14 and a sneak kill by Cameron Toney gave the Panthers the first game, 25-15.
Game two was close all the way, with the lead changing hands several times before the Panthers went on a run to go up 17-10. Columbus came back to 20-17, then tied the game at 21. The score was knotted at 24 and again at 25 before the Panthers pulled out the 27-25 win with two points by Toney.
The Jefferson cheering section really got into the game in the third. The Panthers were down early, 2-6 and 4-7, but gradually worked back to tie the game at 8 and again at 9 before the Panthers went up for good. Eveland’s block point and Toney’s kill made it 14-12, before a weird moment when the ball rolled along the top of the net and out of bounds. But the Panthers went on to win game three, 25-16, for the straight-set match victory.
Faler put over 9 kills and had 4 digs, while MacKenzie Layng had one kill, 19 assists and 6 digs. Toney notched an ace, 4 kills, 1 block and 3 digs; Haileigh Henschel had 2 aces, 1 kill, 4 assists and 15 digs; Madelynn Averill 1 ace, 1 kill and 12 digs; and Eveland 1 kill and 2 blocks. Avery Popp scored 3 aces and 1 assist; and Maia Walters 2 digs.
The C and JV teams both won in three sets. This week the Panther C team was set to play East Helena on Monday. All three squads host Three Forks on Thursday and Whitehall on Tuesday, Sept. 5.
Cross Country
Jefferson’s cross country teams hosted the season-opening for the Panther Invitational on Saturday. The Panther boys took the win handily with 21 points, besting Three Forks’ 49 and Helena Capital’s 51.
Luke Mest took first individually in 16:20, while Dominic Hurlbert was 3rd, 17:08, Logan Hornung 4th, 17:59, Mack Boyd 7th, 19:13, Christian Gillmore 8th, 19:30, and Dylan Mikesell 28th, 24:13.
For JV boys, Capital won with 25 points, followed by Jefferson, 37, and Broadwater, 63. Marshall Jensen placed 3rd for the Panthers in 20:26, Caelum Dunn 5th, 21:24, Adam Sherlock 10th, 22:50, Matt Zelenka 14th, 26:26, Colin Gallagher 15th, 27:25, Pierce Ward 17th, 27:52, and Steele Hansing 23rd, 29:43.
In the girls’ race, Helena Capital was the only team that had enough runners for a team score for the girls. Jefferson’s KK Morris placed 14th in the girls varsity race in 26:23. Peyton Sterns won the girls’ JV race in 22:17, with Lily Oelkers 6th, 24:31, Hudsyn Allen 16th, 28:36, Natalie Russ 17th, 28:40, and Addie Holman 21st, 31:13. The team standings were Helena Capital 29, Jefferson 48, Three Forks 55.
This week the hoofers will be in Kalispell on Friday, Sept. 1, with a noon start. This is the site of the State meet, so it will be good for the teams to be there to get to know the course.
