A big third quarter — and the play of quarterbacks Jarrett Wilson and Patrick Duchien — proved decisive in the West extending its Shrine Game winning streak Saturday at Naranche Stadium.
Polson’s Wilson and Florence’s Duchien each threw third-quarter touchdown passes and the West ran away for a 45-13 victory in the 76th annual Montana East-West Shrine Game. It serves as the West’s third consecutive win in the series.
Leading by eight points at the start of the third, the West’s defense stopped the East on a fourth-down play in the red zone, then hit a long pass from Wilson to Helena High tight end Dylan Christman to the East 40.
Wilson later found St. Ignatius receiver Bryce Umphrey with a 33-yard touchdown pass down the sideline to increase the West’s advantage to 22-7. The score then became 24-7 after the East surrendered its second safety of the night when an errant snap forced Great Falls’ Rafe Longin to fall on the ball in the end zone.
On the West’s ensuing possession, Duchien found Hamilton’s Eli Taylor with a 7-yard touchdown pass. Duchien bobbled the snap but he gathered the ball, rolled right and found Taylor wide open for a 31-7 lead with 2:45 left in the third.
In the fourth, a promising East drive was halted when Lewistown quarterback Gage Norslien coughed up a fumble in the red zone.
Late in the game, Duchien hit Dillon’s Eli Nourse with a 27-yard touchdown strike. That made the score 38-7. With 2:21 left, Butte High’s Jace Stenson ran one in from 15 yards, upping the score to 45-7.
Billings Central’s Kade Boyd stopped the bleeding with a 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown with 2:03 remaining. Boyd faked a reverse handoff on the return and sprinted down the left sideline to the end zone.
The West out-gained the East on offense 415 yards to 174. The West rushed for 183 yards.
The West prevailed despite 12 penalties and three turnovers of their own. The teams combined for 27 penalties.
Early in the game, Sidney’s Zander Dean intercepted Duchien at the East 12-yard line to snuff out a potential West scoring drive. But Norslien was sacked in the end zone by Florence’s Colten Rice a few plays later, which gave the West a 2-0 lead in the first quarter.
A pass interference penalty moved the West to the East’s 23, which eventually set up a 23-yard field goal by Jefferson’s Dylan Root to increase the West’s lead to 5-0.
Duchien found Christman over the middle to convert a fourth-and-5 early in the second quarter. That put the ball on the East 9, but a holding call negated a Duchien TD run and pushed the West back to the 19. Root then hit a 36-yard field goal, making the score 8-0 at the 11:32 mark of the second quarter.
At that point the West had 103 yards of offense while East had one yard.
The East eventually found life in the second quarter when Belt’s Garrett Metrione intercepted Duchien and took it back to the West 3. From there, Norslien powered into the end zone on a quarterback run to put the East on the board, cutting its deficit to 8-7.
The West had another touchdown wiped off the board on a holding call — this time a 6-yard run by Wilson late in the second quarter. But Missoula Sentinel’s Adam Jones made up for it later in the possession with a 5-yard TD run and a 15-7 West advantage with 1:58 left before halftime.
The West’s victory cut into the East’s all-time lead in the Shrine Game series to 41-35.
For video highlights, see the media player above.
West 45, East 13
| East | 0 | 7 | 0 | 6 | — | 13 |
| West | 5 | 10 | 16 | 14 | — | 45 |
First quarter
West — Safety (Colten Rice sacked Gage Norslien in end zone), 11:18
West — Dylan Root 23 FG, 1:47
Second quarter
West — Root 36 FG, 11:32
East — Norslien 3 run (Eli Groshelle kick), 10:35
West — Adam Jones 5 run (Root kick), 1:58
Third quarter
West — Bryce Umphrey 33 pass from Jarrett Wilson (Root kick), 6:42
West — Safety (Rafe Longin tackled in end zone), 6:30
West — Eli Taylor 7 pass from Patrick Duchien (Root kick), 2:45
Fourth quarter
West — Eli Nourse 27 pass from Duchien (Root kick), 4:37
West — Jace Stenson 15 run (Root kick), 2:21
East — Kade Boyd 90 kickoff return (run failed), 2:03
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