As the seconds ticked off the clock at Nelson Stadium that fine autumn Saturday, a palpable sense of uneasiness spread like a virus among the purple and gold clad faithful.

Their beloved Carroll College football trailed Rocky Mountain College by a touchdown. In the fourth quarter, no less. Suddenly, the realization dawned that the Fighting Saints, long thought to be invicible in these parts, might actually lose a football game. At home, no less.

As most know, the Saints got their act together that day and scored a pair of late touchdowns to subdue the upstart Bears and remain undefeated and in their rightful place atop the Frontier Conference. It was the Saints' 30th consecutive home victory and 41st in their last 42 home games.

And the adoring throngs let out a sigh of relief on their way to the nearest watering hole where the debate began anew: "What on earth is wrong with those guys?"

I complained that I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.

Helena, meet thy neighbors from Butte.

Margin of victory is rarely a subject of debate in Butte. Any victory, no matter the margin or the foe, is cause for celebration.

After a recent Carroll football thrashing of Montana Tech, one IR staff member walked in the newsroom and simply said "That was a boring game."

These Butte kickings have become so routine that they can be pretty well taken for granted in these parts.

The rivalry between Helena and Butte has grown markedly one-sided in recent times. This fall, the score in head-to-head meetings is 10-0 in favor of the Capital City, when including Carroll College, high school varsity teams and NorPac junior hockey teams.

A closer look shows why that really isn't surprising.

Capital High is the top-ranked, three-time defending state AA football champions and enters the playoffs this week riding a state record 31-game winning streak and as the favorite to make it four in a row.

Helena High, while living in the Bruins' exaggerated shadow, has turned in a fine 7-3 season in its own right. No one, not even Capital or second-ranked C.M. Russell, wants to face the Bengals in the playoffs.

Townsend won the District

5-B title and has advanced to the state quarterfinals.

Sheila Williams' Helena volleyball team has a good shot to win state later this month, an unfortunate illness to star Monica Grimsrud not withstanding.

Helena's Matt Barker, just a sophomore, captured the AA state cross country title two weeks ago. Townsend's Chiarra Warner won the girls' B title as a freshman, for crying out loud.

Carl Straub's Bengal boys soccer team took third place at the state tournament last weekend.

Carroll has clinched Frontier Conference titles in football and women's soccer. Moe Boyle's volleyball squad will try to make it a triple crown if it can win at least one of two tough road matches this week.

The Helena Bighorns are the envy of the Northern Pacific Hockey League, having won the past two championships and winning their first 10 games out of the gate this season.

Is it any wonder Helena sports fans expect to win?

Have we, after so many victories, become intoxicated on the wine of our own success?

Butte fans, on the other hand, might drink for an entirely different reason.

The Butte High Bulldogs have posted records of 1-9 (football), 0-11-1 (girls soccer), 5-9-2 (boys soccer) and 7-15 (volleyball) this autumn. Nary a winning record to be found.

Butte's one playoff appearance was the boys soccer team's surprising run to the state tournament consolation game, where the Bulldogs were summarily shut out by - you guessed it - Helena.

The NorPac's Roughriders aren't much better, starting the season 1-12. This coming on the heels of last winter's 3-45 campaign. The two meetings thus far between the Bighorns and Roughriders have a cumulative score of Helena 15, Butte 0.

Carroll holds a 75-28-4 series edge over Montana Tech (formerly Montana Mines) in a series that dates back to 1920.

Some days I feel for my colleagues at the Montana Standard. Bruce Sayler, Pat Ryan and Bill Foley are all fine hard-working blokes, to be sure, but - save the gridiron success of Class A power Butte Central Catholic and a girls softball team that advanced to the Little League World Series last summer - haven't much to crow about recently.

So why has Helena enjoyed so much athletic success when Butte has not?

Beats me. Could be many factors. Certainly coaches like Mike Van Diest, Boyle, Dave Thorvilson, Pat Murphy, Tony Arnston, Scott Cunningham, Glen Wall, Straub and Williams are among the best at what they do.

Maybe its just a bumper crop of athletes like Matt Miller, Nelo Butler, Chase Kloker, Grimsrud, Micah Meadows, Bubba Bartlett, Katie Beall, Meaghan O'Connell and on and on.

If there's one thing that three decades of watching sports has taught, it's that success tends to be cylical. Even the best of programs aren't immune to lean times.

As one University of Nebraska football fan wrote on an internet message board, shortly after the Cornhuskers had been thrashed 70-10 by Texas Tech a few years back: "I suppose you have to be willing to take it as well as dish it out. But it sure was a lot more fun when we were the ones dishing it out."

Helena sports fans can certainly drink to that.

Mark Vinson: 447-4070 or mark.vinson@helenair.com

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