HELENA — With 2:15 to go in the first half of the Helena High-Capital crosstown matchup, it felt like the Bruins and Bengals were in for a competitive, down-to-the-wire game.

That's what fans have come to expect in crosstown after all. But just one play after Trygve Braun of Helena High found the end zone, to trim the Capital lead to 20-14, Bruins senior Walker DesRosier returned a kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown.

The special teams touchdown extended the Bruins lead to 13 (27-14) and the lead wouldn't shrink below that in what ended up as a 40-21 win for Capital, its third straight in the Helena crosstown series.

"Really, all I had to do was run," DesRosier said of his kickoff return. "It was wide open. I saw the hole and saw my lead blocker and there was nothing there so I thought, I'm just going to run."

And run the 5-foot-9, 145-pound senior did, right into the end-zone cheering section of Capital students. 

"I was just looking at them and it was crazy," DesRosier said. "It was so exciting."

In a game defined big plays — on offense and defense — a play on special teams might have been the most impactful in the Capital win.

"Walker was the all-around MVP on offense, defense and special teams tonight," Capital head coach Kyle Mihelish said. "You couldn't hold him down for anything. He played great at corner, he played great at receiver, we moved him to H when Conor Toivonen went out and he had the big return. We blocked it up great and Walker went out and hit it."

The game started with an explosive play on special teams as Pacer Lybbert returned the opening kickoff for the Bengals into Capital territory. Mac Lundstrom connected with Carter Petre to move the ball inside the 10 before Trygve Braun finished the drive with a five-yard touchdown run. 

That was with 8:29 left in the first quarter. Just one minute later though, Capital QB Merek Mihelish found the end zone to trim the deficit to 7-6. The lead wouldn't last long for the Bengals who surrendered a pair of Cole Graham touchdown runs in the second quarter to take a 20-7 lead before Braun's second rushing touchdown made it 20-14 with 2:15 to go before half.

Then, just when it felt like the momentum had shifted, DesRosier took it back for the Bruins who never relinquished it again. 

"It feels great," Graham said said of the win. "It's going to be the last one (crosstown football) and it's always good to beat your rival."

The senior running back/linebacker still returning from injury not long ago, added another touchdown in the third. He finished the game with 81 yards on 11 carries, which is a sign that he's close to 100 percent. 

"We were kind of planning on that," Graham said. "Last week, they gave me a few more running plays so I could get ready for a game like this or further down the road."

In the fourth quarter, Drew Almquist caught a 13-yard touchdown pass from Merek Mihelish who was 18-of-24 for 185 yards to go along with 88 on the ground. 

Lieberg caught a 54-yard touchdown pass from Lundstrom to give the Bengals some life, but a lengthy drive from Capital, led by Mihelish and Graham put the win on ice.

"We wanted to go out there and win and kind of took some motivation in people talking about last year and how if it wasn't for rain and all that stuff we would have lost the game. So even though we won last year, we came out ready to play some football," Merek Mihelish said.

Both Almquist brothers, Dylan and Drew were a problem for Helena High on Friday night as Dylan caught seven passes for 76 yards. Drew caught 6 for 60. They are also ran for a combined 73 yards. Dylan also had a key interception right before the half with Helena threatening but trailing 27-14.

That was kind of the story for Helena High. The Bengals did some productive things. Mac Lundstrom threw for 227 passing yards. Lieberg had three receptions for 62 yards and Braun had 85 yards total, but Helena had 13 penalties for 124 yards, which makes it difficult to win.

"Give a ton of credit to Capital High," Broadhead said. "They got after us tonight in all three phases of the game. That's on us as coaches. We didn't have them ready to go. It's not so much what we did do or didn't do, I think it's more about what they did tonight so hat's off to them."