GREAT FALLS — Things seemed bleak for the Great Falls High football team following a Week 8 loss at Billings Senior, which sent the Bison to a 2-5 record.
Fast forward two weeks and Great Falls is coming off back-to-back wins, including the program's first postseason victory since 2021, a victory over Helena High.
The Bison got the better of CMR 16-3 in the annual crosstown game, and followed that up with a 21-14 win over the Bengals to march their way in to the Class AA quarterfinals.
WATCH THE VIDEO:
"It's really special, you know, getting (coach Coda Tchida's) first playoff win," junior Steele Harris said at Great Falls Memorial Stadium during Tuesday's practice. "Hopefully we can go farther in the playoffs, but being the team that could be the first to do that for him, it's really special."
"We really wanted to get that playoff win, and do it for our head coach, coach Tchida," junior Mason Cannon said. "Just knowing that we can go in every single week and it's a new week, we can't look back and mourn on the losses. We got to keep pushing forward."
As Harris and Cannon said, it was the first playoff win as head coach for Tchida — who's in his fourth season at the helm.
"We came out with it at the end, we fought really hard and I'm just so proud of our effort and just how scrappy our team is," Tchida said. "I thought they played really well on Friday night."
While it was a milestone for Tchida, he said he was happy for his players that they got the win.
"Just the effort that they put in for the four quarters. I mean it was a, man, it was a fight," Tchida said.
Great Falls faced adversity in the win, trailing 14-7 at halftime. But the Bison responded by scoring the only two touchdowns in the second half.
Cannon rushed in for both scores, while Harris delivered the Bison's first TD in the first half.
"Going in to the locker room saying we're the better team, we just need to show it," Cannon said. "We need to fix our mistakes and go out there and just run the ball."
"We're really confident," Harris said. "We're pretty deep in to the season, so we've got a lot of experience. We kind of know what to expect when the game comes."
Another big test looms for the Bison, as they will hit the road to face off with Eastern AA No. 1 Billings West in Friday's quarterfinal. West took down Great Falls 38-6 earlier this season.
"It's a whole new other opportunity for us to go and show that we've improved," Tchida said. "That was Week 3, first conference game. They're a great football team. They're coached really well. They're great in all three phases.
"Our team has grown leaps and bounds in the last two weeks, and we're excited to go to Billings and continue to grow and give them our best shot."
Kickoff between the Bison and Golden Bears is at 7 p.m. Friday night.
