Class C Showdown: Fort Benton and Belt Look Towards Their Friday Matchup

“It’s a really important game.” said Jory Thompson, Fort Benton head coach. “We’re going to have to be really good up front to hang with these guys.” said Jeff Graham, Belt head coach. In what promises to be a thrilling matchup that could come down to the last play, the undefeated Belt Huskies will welcome to town the also unbeaten Fort Benton Longhorns on Friday at 7. Both teams know each other well, and both know what it will take for their team to take home the victory Friday night and also the importance of what a victory would mean. “We’re a little small, we’re asking quite a few sophomores and juniors to compete with Fort Benton and that’s probably their strength is up front. I mean, they’ve got athletes everywhere but size wise they are huge compared to us.” said Graham. “I think the biggest key is knowing that we’re going into a dogfight and that no matter what happens on any given play, we’re still in the fight, and we keep battling. That’s the biggest key.” said Thompson. But in this intense competition, theres a mutual respect between Fort Benton’s Jory Thompson, and Belt’s Jeff Graham. Two experienced coaches with an appreciation for the opposite side. “Jeff Graham? Yeah, I don’t know how you don’t love that energy man. Energy, crazy man. Like I’m watching film on Belt this week and probably the highlight of the whole film is watching him run up and down the sidelines, jumping up and down like something crazy happened in his life. Guy is nuts, man. Love that.” said Thompson. “They compete well in basketball, track, football, I mean they’ve been up there at the top the last three years. He’s got that smash mouth brand back, that’s kind of how he played at Western, he was a tough player and very physical and those guys get after it. We’re going to have to match their energy.” said Graham. Only time will tell, but with both teams having hot starts, we could see these two matching up come playoff time.