Titans celebrate successful 2019 8-man season
See the bottom of this article for the Titans 2019 Season Review Highlight Reel
DRUMMOND – The Flint Creek Titans celebrated another successful season Wednesday night with their annual awards banquet. This year the event was held at the Community Hall in Drummond.
Flint Creek finished the year at 7-4 when they fell in the quarterfinals of the MHSA 8-Man Football Playoffs, losing to Great Falls Central Catholic 49-34 on the road. They made it to that game by beating West Yellowstone in double overtime 46-40, also on the road.
“At the start of the year we thought if we could get to the playoffs that we’d have had a pretty good year,” said Head Coach Mike Cutler, reflecting on the season. “The Western Conference was very heavy with seniors this year and we had such a young team. Last year we had five people leave the program that had played since they were freshmen, and this year we had games where we had sophomores starting.”
Cutler spent a few minutes thanking various groups and individuals that had contributed to the program throughout the year, including parents, administration, his coaching staff, media and of course his players.
Academic All-State Team
Everyone on the team this year received a letter before the coaching staff recognized the State All-Academic Team. To qualify for that honor players had to maintain a 3.5 grade point average throughout the first quarter of the school year. Thirteen Titans earned that honor and they were Wyatt Rigby, Andrew Tallon, Jacob Aaron, Colt Parsons, Ethan Parke, Leyton Wagner, Conley Wagner, Cooper Bradshaw, Aedan Dotson, Ben Bradshaw, Kade Cutler, Trevor Rouse and Daniel Brabender.
Bob Cleverly Game
Seniors Wyatt Rigby, Daniel Brabender and Conley Wagner were all named to the 37th Annual Bob Cleverley 8-Man All-Star Game. The game will be played at Montana Tech's Bob Green Field June 30, 2020.
While Rigby and Brabender had a season of play to draw from in their consideration, Wagner’s selection speaks highly of his character and previous play in being named as one of the first few alternates. Wagner played little more than 15 minutes this year, suffering a season-ending foot injury in the second quarter against Clark Fork in Flint Creek’s opener.
Most Honored Opponent
While the Titans don’t give out the typical team awards that most programs do, but did honor their most respected opponent with their annual award. This year the team voted to give that designation to quarterback Trey Green of Clark Fork. The Mountain Cats finished as state runner ups, losing to Fairview in the championship game.
Scout Team Players of the Year
The one award that Cutler and his coaching staff do make each year is to recognize an outstanding member of their roster that plays most of the season on the scout team. These players take on the personas of the opposition, learning some of their offensive and defensive sets for the starters to work against.
The year the Titan coaching staff selected two players for the dedication to the program in that capacity in Grady Radtke and Tyler Burden.
Captains
The captains, selected by the players, for Flint Creek this year were Wyatt Rigby, Daniel Brabender, Kade Cutler and Conley Wagner.
All-Conference and All-State
When it came down to handing out the postseason honors, the Titans got their fair share and more for such a young team.
Junior quarterback/defensive back/kick returner/punt returner Kade Cutler was tabbed as a First Team All-Western Conference, also receiving All-State honors at QB and DB. Offensively Cutler threw for 1,473 yards and 24 touchdowns on 93-for-173 (53.8%) passing. He was equally effective on the ground carrying the ball 224 times for 1,435 yards and 29 scores. Toss in his 557 yards and one TD on kick returns and Cutler finished the year with 3,465 all-purpose yards and 54 scores.
With one year to play Cutler is already the all-time passing leader for the Titan co-op, amassing 2,701 yards in three seasons to eclipse Colton Grange who collected 2,342 over the same time span(’15-’17). Cutler has also thrown 50 TDs in to out-pace Grange’s 44.
The same can be said of Cutler’s rushing. In the six-year history of the Flint Creek Co-Op he now ranks second all-time with 2,673 yards and 49 TDs behind Colby Manley’s 2,900 yds and 60 TDs over four years. Cutler’s efforts in 2019 (listed above) are both single season bests for the Titans.
Along with Cutler, seniors Wyatt Rigby and Daniel Brabender were also recognized for their play this season.
Rigby was tabbed as an All-Conference & All-State First Team selection for his work on the defensive line, where he has set the standard for years to come. For the second straight season Rigby posted in excess of 20 Tackles For Loss (TFL) netting 21.0. When added to his 20.5 from 2018 he has a Co-Op best 41.5 all-time, with Riley Allen and Grange tied for second at 24.5.
Among those TFL stats are a team record 10.5 quarterback sacks in 2019. Added to his 8.5 from 2018 and Rigby has a team best 19 sacks over his career. Allen is second behind Rigby with 10 total sacks and Andrew Gomez is third with nine which he collected all in the 2017 season.
Rigby was also selected to the Second Team All-Conference for his work on the offensive line.
Brabender made the All-Conference and All-State First Team for his play at Outside Line Backer in 2019 for Flint Creek.
He collected 48.5 total tackles on the year, 40 of which were solo efforts. He also added three pass break ups and two TFLs.
On offense, where he was selected to the Second Team All-Conference at tight end, he had 32 catches for 582 yards and a season-high 12 TDs.
Rounding out Flint Creek’s honorees was junior Preston Metesh who was tabbed as a Second Team All-Conference on offense. Metesh was the leading receiver for the Titans in 2019, hauling in 36 passes for 699 yards and nine TDs. He was second to Cutler in rushing with 627 yards on 102 carries for seven scores.
On defense Metesh tied Cutler with 56.5 total tackles and 10 pass break ups to rank second in both categories this year.
8-Man West
First team
Offense
Bryan Mask, QB, jr., Alberton-Superior*; Kade Cutler, QB, jr., Drummond-Philipsburg*; Nelson Smith, QB, sr., Darby*; Trey Green, RB, sr., Alberton-Superior*; Trey Fisher, RB, sr., Thompson Falls*; Isaiah Kovalsky, WR, sr., Alberton-Superior*; Kyler Francis, TE, sr., Alberton-Superior*; Brad Lantz, C, sr., Thompson Falls; Jack Jacobson, OL, sr., Thompson Falls*; Hewston Coon, OL, sr., Alberton-Superior*; Jake Calloway, SB, jr., Alberton-Superior; Kade Cutler, KR, jr., Drummond-Philipsburg; Dakota Wood, KR, sr., Seeley-Swan*; Layne Spidel, KR, sr., St. Ignatius; Nelson Smith, P, sr., Darby.
Defense
Jacob Lapinski, DL, sr., Alberton-Superior*; Dakota Irvine, DL, sr., Thompson Falls; Tucker Foster, DL, jr., Plains; Layne Spidel, DE, jr., St. Ignatius; Wyatt Rigby, DE, sr., Drummond-Philipsburg*; Hewston Coon, DE, sr., Alberton-Superior*; Walker McDonald, DE, so., Seeley-Swan*; Nate Wilhite, DE, sr., Thompson Falls*; Trey Green, ILB, sr., Alberton-Superior*; Nelson Smith, ILB, sr., Darby*; Trey Fisher, ILB, sr., Thompson Falls*; Jedi Christy, ILB, sr., St. Ignatius*; Wesley Buchanan, OLB, sr., Alberton-Superior; Daniel Brabender, OLB, sr., Drummond-Philipsburg*; Kade Cutler, DB, jr., Drummond-Philipsburg*; Isaiah Kovalsky, DB, sr., Alberton-Superior*; Kade Cutler, PR, jr., Drummond-Philipsburg; Nelson Smith, K, sr., Darby.
Second team
Offense
Troy Matt, RB, sr., St. Ignatius*; Preston Metesh, RB, jr., Drummond-Philipsburg; Nate Wilhite, RB, sr., Thompson Falls; Colt Crawford, RB, jr., Arlee; Esvin Reyes, RB, sr., Plains; Jedi Christy, WR, sr., St. Ignatius; Dakota Wood, WR, sr., Seeley-Swan; Daniel Brabender, TE, sr., Drummond-Philipsburg; Dakota Irvine, TE, sr., Thompson Falls; Aaron Waddle, C, jr., Alberton-Superior; CJ Forgey, C, sr., Arlee; Wyatt Rigby, OL, sr., Drummond-Philipsburg; Justin Miller, OL, sr., Thompson Falls; Hayden Currie, OL, sr., St. Ignatius; Tucker Foster, OL, jr., Plains; Charley Adams, SB, so., St. Ignatius; Caleb Maughan, SB, sr., Seeley-Swan; Walker McDonald, P, so., Seeley-Swan.
Defense
Hayden Currie, DL, sr., St. Ignatius; CJ Forgey, DE, sr., Arlee; Brice Hawkinson, ILB, so., Seeley-Swan; Esvin Reyes, ILB, sr., Plains; Brandon Zimmerman, OLB, sr., Thompson Falls; Preston Smith, OLB, so., Darby; Jake Calloway, OLB, jr., Alberton-Superior; Owen Mercado, OLB, jr., Seeley-Swan; Dakota Wood, DB, sr., Seeley-Swan; Roman Sparks, DB, jr., Thompson Falls; Charley Adams, DB, so., St. Ignatius; Kyler Francis, DB, sr., Alberton-Superior; Dakota Wood, PR, sr., Seeley-Swan; Deric Parks, PR, jr., Darby; Walker McDonald, K, so., Seeley-Swan.
Offensive MVP: Trey Green, RB, sr., Alberton-Superior.
Defensive MVP: Trey Green, ILB, sr., Alberton-Superior.
*Indicates all-state selection
NOTE – 2019 Season Statistics are official and are provided by the Flint Creek Titans. In some instances the comparisons made for the history of the program are compiled by the Flint Creek Courier and are unofficial.
