The Hot Springs Savage heat dominated the North Star Knights Friday. Hot Springs ran away with a 55-0 shutout at home, and Coach Jim Lawson said his team ran the ball pretty well. “It’s hard to get a shutout in 6-Man,” he said. “North Star has some good kids and they put up a good fight.”

Lawson said the game against the Knights, who traveled from Rudyard, was a good chance to get everyone on the Savage Heat team some more experience, noting that the younger players got a lot of playing time in the second half.

Hot Springs played well on both sides of the football Friday. “Defensively we had a really good effort and a great game,” Lawson said. “We had a lot of different kids getting involved.” He noted that Will Corville moved to the defensive tackle position and played really well on defense. “He put constant pressure on North Star and caused them a lot of problems,” Lawson said. Jack McAllister had a huge game on defense, Lawson added, with 19 tackles. Kyle Lawson added 12 and Corville had nine.

Offensively, Kyle Lawson scored four touchdowns for the Savage Heat and led the rushing game with 134 yards. McAllister ran for 61 yards and a touchdown, Johnny Waterbury had 83 yards and a touchdown, Corville 66 yards and a touchdown and Alan Peters scored on a three-yard run for Hot Springs. McAllister also threw a touchdown pass to Vania Afonin.

“We’ve been looking for more kids to step up and embrace new roles, our young kids especially,” Coach Lawson said, “and they are doing that for us.” He stated that even though the Savage Heat have a week off of varsity play, the junior varsity team will see some action in the next couple of weeks.

Hot Springs is 3-0 overall and sits atop the Western Division for Montana 6-Man football. “They are excited for that but the kids know we haven’t played any conference games either,” Lawson said. “Those are the really important games.”

The Savage Heat will take a break this week with a bye. Their next game is September 25 against Valley Christian. That matchup will be played in Missoula. “We’re already looking forward to the Valley Christan game,” Lawson said.