Wolves headed to Quarterfinals

It was a dominant performance in all three phases of the game for the Three Forks High School Football team, who came out of the gates strong and never looked back in a 43-6 Class B Playoffs opening round win on November 2 at Huntley Project. With the win, the Wolves (7-3) advance to the Quarterfinals and November 9 matchup at undefeated and top-ranked Malta (10-0).

Moments after the victory, Three Forks Head Coach Connor Sullivan said they put in a game plan for the Red Devils on October 25, and the kids came ready to go all week.

"They executed that game plan and it showed out here today. They were keyed up, they were ready to go, and they followed their assignments," Sullivan said.

After receiving the opening kickoff in Worden, the Wolves quickly marched down the field and found the endzone on a two-yard rushing touchdown from sophomore quarterback Kanon Reichman, who would also run in the two-point conversion to take an 8-0 lead with 9:39 left in the first quarter.

The Red Devils would get deep into Three Forks territory on their first possession of the game, but the Wolves defense stood their ground and regained possession after stopping Huntley Pro-ject on a 4th and three play at the eight-yard line.

It would not take the Wolves long to score again when Reichman found an opening on the side-line with a 71-yard run to up the lead to 14-0 with 7:03 left in the first quarter.

Three Forks scored their third touchdown early in the second quarter when Reichman connect-ed with fellow sophomore Marcus Pestel on a 15-yard touchdown pass. Following a successful two-point conversion run from Sawyer Andersen, the Wolves increased the lead to 22-0 with 10:05 left in the first half.

On the next Wolves possession, Reichman was intercepted by the Project's Tucker Kaczmarek, which led to the only Red Devils scoring drive of the game, cutting the lead to 22-6 with 7:44 left in the first half.

Three Forks would answer back on a long drive that included a 27-yard pass from Reichman to Dylan Andersen on a fourth and 12 play from the Project 28-yard line. One play later, Reichman would score his third rushing touchdown to put the Wolves up 28-6 with 1:59 left in the first half.

After getting an interception on defense on the next Red Devil drive, Reichman would connect with Sawyer Andersen for a one-yard touchdown pass with 16 seconds remaining in the second quarter. After a successful Reichman to Dylan Andersen pass on the two-point conversion, Three Forks would take a 36-6 lead into halftime.

The Wolves scored the only points of the second half on a two-yard Reichman touchdown run with 1:50 left in the third.

"I thought our O-line busted their tails all day, setting up those blocks for Kanon, Sawyer, and whoever else may be carrying the ball. I can't say enough about our O-line. They come ready to work, and there were greatly executed plays," Sullivan said.

It was quite the day for Reichman, who ran the ball 19 times for 165 yards and four touch-downs, was 15 of 20 passing for 167 yards and two touchdowns, and added an interception on defense.

"He played awesome. He had one mental mistake on the interception, but we'll get that cleaned up. It helped we've been here before. He (Kanon) wasn't nervous; he didn't have too many butterflies, and he's been here before. He's only gotten better every single game, and we're excited to have him for another two years," Sullivan said.

Reichman praised the play of his teammates and an outstanding performance from the offen-sive line.

"We were ready to go, and our O-line did a really good job blocking. We had a good week of practice, and everyone competed, but we couldn't have done it without Jesus Christ," Reichman said.

Sawyer Andersen had ten carries for 80 yards and seven receptions for 57 yards and a touch-down. Dylan Swenson had four catches for 50 yards, Dylan Andersen had four catches for 41 yards, and Marcus Pestel had 38 yards rushing and 19 yards receiving.

Sullivan also lauded the team's defensive performance, including interceptions from Reichman, Sawyer Andersen, and freshman Gavin Etchison.

"As a defense, that's a tough offense to stop, the Wing-T. You've got to have great eyes, and our kids, there were a few mental errors, but that's to be expected. I'm very proud of the de-fense and how they performed today," Sullivan said.

Wyt Oliver led the Wolves with a team-high 13 tackles, and Sawyer Andersen was also in dou-ble figures with 11. Dylan Andersen, Hunter Feddes and Drydan Frisinger each had six tackles, Pestel, Reichman, and Swenson had five, and Josh Delger and R.J. Pyfer had four. Jackson Fan-ning finished with three tackles, Logan Douma had two, and Etchison and Israel Evrhett added one. Oliver and Delger each had a sack for the Wolf's defense.

It will be the second consecutive season that Three Forks will make the long trip to Malta for a postseason game with the Mustangs. The Wolves won an opening-round matchup 40-22 in 2023.

The high-powered Mustangs went 9-0 to start the 2024 season and picked up their 10th win on November 2 with a convincing 45-8 opening-round win over Thompson Falls.

"It will be exciting. It's a great opportunity for our kids. We know they are a great team and a great program. We are going to have to be ready to go," Sullivan said.

Reichman is also excited about the quarterfinal matchup against the top seed from the North.

"This is a great opportunity. You live for moments like this," he said.