Whenever he was asked about one of his running backs getting the ball a lot, former pro and college coach John McKay used to say, "It isn't heavy.''

West coach Paul Klaboe took that approach Friday night as Shaun Wolf packed the ball 50 times in a 28-20 season-ending victory over Billings Senior. Wolf broke his own school record for carries, which was 46 on Oct. 2 against Butte. While Wolf didn't get as many yards - he had 267 against the Bulldogs - his 203 yards and two touchdowns proved to be sufficient.

And let's not forget an 87-yard kickoff return by Seth Compton that swiped the momentum from the Broncs, who never really got it back, and allowed the Bears to avoid a losing season. Not that 5-5 and missing the playoffs is what they wanted, but it was a good way to finish the year.

"It didn't think it was that many times,'' Wolf said when told of his 50 attempts. "I didn't get too beat up. Our line did a good job tonight.''

Wolf had 133 yards on 28 attempts by halftime as the Bears took a 21-14 lead. He finished off a 73-yard, 16-play drive with a one-yard burst for a 7-7 tie. His second one-yard TD, which capped a 99-yard march, put West ahead for good with 4:34 left in the second quarter.

The Bears forced a punt to start the second half and drove to the Senior 2. Brady Gustafson faked a handoff to Wolf and loped around right end for a 28-14 lead. Gustafson had his best passing game since replacing the injured Derek Dennehy, going 7 for 10 for 107 yards.

"Shaun's ran well all year, ran hard and all that,'' Klaboe said. "We threw the ball when we had to. Our young guy (Gustafson) played pretty well, and held some poise, but Shaun's just a tough kid. Why not just keep giving him the ball. He wants it. He's healthy. He's big, strong, just keep giving it to him.''

When informed of the amount of carries, Klaboe joked, "That might be child abuse. I might be arrested here before we leave Daylis. That's a lot of carries for a high school kid.''

Senior (2-8) also had its moments. Chad Newell rushed for 110 yards on 13 carries, including touchdowns of 10 and 35 yards. Ben Sulser threw for 114 yards and ran for 54 more. West only outgained the Broncs 337-332 during the breezy evening.

Senior put together drives of 79, 65 and 80 yards. The Broncs converted a West fumble to take a 7-0 lead on Newell's first scoring run. After stopping Wolf a yard short of first down at their own 35, the Broncs scored in just three plays with Newell covering the final 35 yards for a 14-7 lead at the 11:17 mark of the second quarter. It took Compton only 13 seconds to erase that lead and Senior coach Mark Sulser though that was a turning point.

"They played perfect, managed the clock, ran the ball, a lot of third-and-shorts they converted,'' Sulser said of West. "You've just got to give them credit. We missed out on a couple of opportunities, kind of gave ourselves bad field position. And that kickoff hurt us, too, just that momentum. When you get down, you start playing catch-up and I'm not sure we needed to play catch-up quite so early because I thought we could run the ball and we did a nice job of that.''

Senior closed to 28-20 on the first play off the fourth quarter as Jeff Aders scored on sneak out of the Rambo package. West's Sesar Bonilla blocked the extra point attempt and the defense never let the Broncs get much going after that.

The Broncs managed just two first downs on their last three possessions. Sulser was sacked twice and threw an interception as Senior never got past its own 30.

"It feels really good,'' Wolf said. "I'm just excited to see what they can do next year. I'm leaving, it's my senior year, and it was good enough to end on.''

West 28, Senior 20

Scoring plays

First quarter

Senior - Chad Newell 10 run (Cooper Kouwenhoven kick) 7:43

West - Shaun Wolf 1 run (Zach Wilson kick) 4.3

Second quarter

Senior - Newell 35 run (Kouwenhoven kick) 11:17

West - Seth Compton 87 kickoff return (Wilson kick) 11:04

West - Wolf 1 run (Wilson kick) 4:34

Third quarter

West - Brady Gustafson 2 run (Wilson kick) 3:32

Fourth quarter

Senior - Jeff Aders 1 run (kick blocked) 11:50

Individual statistics

Rushing - Senior: Newell 13-110, Sulser 12-54, Scotty Owens 5-50, Cody Hert 1-3, Aders 1-1, Josh Bickham 2-0. West: Wolf 50-203, Seth Compton 3-21, Clay Compton 3-7,. Gustafson 1-2, Wilson 1-minus 3.

Passing - Senior: Sulser 11-20-1-114. West: Gustafson 7-10-0-107.

Receiving - Senior: Desin 4-36, Chase Boyd 3-53, Owens 3-17, Tyler Miller 1-8. West: Tyler Carlson 2-51, Seth Compton 2-20, Lee Hardt 1-20, Wolf 1-15, Jayc Van Zee 1-1.

Related

• Shaun Wolf making his mark on West football record books