Glacier passes 1st test, beats Skyview

The situation ... 6:40 to go, the Skyview Falcons had just cut the Glacier Wolfpack lead to four points - and a football game which had seemed firmly in hand for the Wolfpack is suddenly a bit of a question.

The remedy?

How about a 14-play, 80-yard Wolfpack drive that chews up five minutes of the clock and is capped by a 12-yard Taylor Hulslander touchdown run?

That did the trick on Friday night as Glacier downed visiting Billings Skyview 21-10 in the season opener.

Skyview's Jeremy Price had just scored on a five-yard run when Glacier coach Grady Bennett gathered the Wolfpack offense on the sideline and simply told it to go score.

"We just knew we had to go win. They were building some steam up. But Aaron Mitchell and our offensive line just pounded it down," said junior quarterback Hulslander.

Junior running back Aaron Mitchell ran nine times in that final drive - for 64 yards.

"(The Falcons) have life for the first time in awhile. To watch our kids go out and just end it like that, with that kind of drive is awesome and a really good sign for what's going to come," Bennett said.

"It was our best drive of the night. That's what we've been preaching all week with our no-huddle offense. They were so tired. But that last drive was when it finally clicked," the coach said.

"When you can turn over a game to the offensive line in the last few minutes and let them take over like that ... that's good stuff," Bennett said.

It felt like the Wolfpack had a grip on the contest almost from the beginning.

"It was one of those games where I kept looking at the scoreboard, thinking I should see 28-0 or 35-10," Bennett said.

"We were such in control, but we kept hurting ourselves, making a lot of mistakes. That's disappointing, but also a product of a lot of young kids," he said.

Defensively, Glacier gave up yardage in the early going - but when things started to get tricky, the Wolfpack stepped up.

It caused five first half Falcon fumbles and recovered three of them - one ended a Skyview drive on the Glacier 10.

"Our defensive line just kind of brought our team together, held us together in the toughest times," said Glacier junior lineman Caleb Harris, who recovered the fumble on the 10.

The Wolfpack broke the scoring ice - Hulslander threw an 11-yard pass to Andrew Nelson in the second quarter and Glacier led 7-3 at half.

But the Wolfpack still needed to make an adjustment or two.

"We knew we needed to run the football. We were not running it well in the first half. We were throwing it well, but with a young quarterback, we could not put the pressure on him to win a game like this in his first game," Bennett said.

"So we just tried to make sure we had the numbers accounted for. They were having a backer free too much in the first half. We weren't accounting for them," he said.

When Glacier started to do that - that's when the holes opened up.

Hulslander was in on all three Glacier scores - the 11-yarder to Nelson followed by a 7-yard hookup with Kyle Griffith in the third quarter and his own 12-yard run.

He finished the night 18-for-26 for 197 yards. He spread the ball around, too. Anthony Gugliuzza had four catches, Griffith had six and Kalen Reed, James Cutler and Nelson had two each.

"When you got a good offensive line and the perimeter talent we have, it makes a quarterback's life easy. The new offense the coaches have put in also makes it easy on a quarterback's life," Hulslander said.

"I'm really proud of Taylor," Bennett said.

"He never got rattled and I don't think there was one mistake mentally," he said.

If there was a problem for Glacier, it was penalties - one cost the Wolfpack a 79-yard punt return and it was whistled 12 times for a total of 77 yards.

"I thought we were much better in the second half. We had tons in the first half, but we cleaned up a few of those things," Bennett said.

"That's the key for this week - the kids do so many good things in all areas with discipline. We've just got to do it out here, " he added.

Glacier 21, Billings Skyview 10

Skyview 0 3 0 7 - 10

Glacier 0 7 7 7 - 21

Second Quarter

Glacier - Andrew Nelson 11 pass from Taylor Hulslander (Kyle Griffith kick), 7:10.

Skyview - Cole Sowden 22 field goal, :57.

Third Quarter

Glacier - Griffith 7 pass from Hulslander (Griffith kick), 8:49.

Fourth Quarter

Skyview - Jeremy Price 5 run (Sowden kick), 6:40.

Glacier - Hulslander 12 run (Griffith kick), 1:41.

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Team

Sky Gla

First downs 13 16

Rushes-yards 47-143 33-127

Passing yards 22 197

Passing (att-comp-int) 3-6-0 18-26-0

Fumbles-lost 3-5 2-2

Interceptions 0-0 0-0

Punts 3-33.7 4-32.5

Punt returns 3-37 2-21

Kickoff returns 3-36 2-31

Penalties-yards 2-14 12-77

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Individual

RUSHING - Skyview, Jeremy Price 23-130, Drake Shafer 6-7, Tanner Nelson 7-(-9), Matt Fuhrman 9-39, Nathan Borer 1-5, Konner Wiechman 1-1; Glacier, Aaron Mitchell 16-89, Noah James 5-18, Kyle Griffith 3-10, Taylor Hulslander 7-3.

PASSING - Skyview, Tanner Nelson 2-5-10; Konner Wiechman 1-1-12; Glacier, Taylor Hulslander 18-26-197.

RECEIVING - Skyview, Jeremy Price 1-8, Matt Fuhrman 1-12, Haakon Nordrum 1-2; Glacier, Aaron Mitchell 1-3, Noah James 1-19, Anthony Gugliuzza 4-45, James Cutler 2-15, Kyle Griffith 6-69, Andrew Nelson 2-20, Kalen Reed 2-26.

Class AA

Team

W L

Billings Senior 1 0

Billings West 1 0

CMR 1 0

Helena 1 0

Helena Capital 1 0

Glacier 1 0

Flathead 0 1

Great Falls 0 1

Butte 0 1

Missoula Hellgate 0 1

Missoula Big Sky 0 1

Billings Skyview 0 1

Friday's scores

Billings Senior 56, Flathead 28

Billings West 35, Great Falls 13

Great Falls Russell 37, Butte 14

Helena 57, Missoula Hellgate 0

Helena Capital 57, Missoula Big Sky 6

Glacier 21, Billings Skyview 10

Today's Game

Bozeman at Sentinel