Griffith, Glacier sink Billings Senior
<p>Glacier's junior wide receiver Kyle Griffith (3) dives into the end zone for the Wolfpack's first touchdown during Glacier's playoff victory over Billings Senior Friday night at Legends Stadium.</p>
<p>Glacier's senior wide receiver Anthony Gugliuzza (85) celebrates with Andrew Nelson (2) after Glacier's playoff victory over Billings Senior Friday night at Legends Stadium.</p>
Kyle Griffith was up all night Thursday - for the worst reason.
He had a high fever, he was shaking, chilling and had a terrible headache.
On Friday, three hours before the Glacier Wolfpack was to take on Billings Senior in the first home playoff game in Glacier history, Griffith was at the hospital taking in three liters of fluids.
But midway through the second quarter, it was Griffith ripping a Taylor Hulslander pass away from a Bronc defender (on third and 13) and hoofing it 23 yards to the end zone for Glacier's first touchdown of the night.
He got more fluids at half and finished the evening with seven catches for 114 yards, two touchdowns, kicked a field goal and three extra points - and the Wolfpack (9-2) downed Billings Senior 24-10 at Legends Stadium for Glacier's first ever playoff victory.
"I was very sick," Griffith said.
"The IV helped. It helped my head a lot, so I didn't have so much of a headache," he said.
"What a gutsy performance by Kyle Griffith," said Glacier coach Grady Bennett.
"He just gutted it out. He wasn't going to miss this for anything. It's a great lesson for kids. You can't be stupid, but if you have enough heart, it's one of those things you can gut it up," Bennett said.
As much as Griffith meant to the Wolfpack on Friday night, Bennett was just as proud of the Glacier defense.
"Tonight our defense was amazing," Bennett said.
That unit hasn't gotten much attention in the past few weeks, he said.
But Billings Senior has the No. 2 offense in the state in both scoring and yards - and the Wolfpack shut it down.
"Our first shutout of a half of the year and it's in the playoffs against a great offense. I'm so proud of the effort of those guys. That's the kind of defense we are. They just really put it together, five turnovers ... oh, my goodness," Bennett said.
"We had enough tonight. The defense stepped up big, we were pretty solid on special teams."
The next thing is to keep going - right now, the coach said.
Glacier has had a bit of a thing in making one step forward each year.
"I don't want to wait now until next year to do the next step. It's not over. Our goal has always been to get to the top of the hill," Bennett said.
"We're making history every step of the way. It's so much fun to coach (these kids)," he said.
The Wolfpack defense established itself early on - it forced a three-and-out on Billings Senior's first drive and intercepted a Bronc pass on Senior's second drive.
The Wolfpack offense missed on its first two attempts, but kicked a field goal on the third time out, then followed that with both of Griffith's scores. It led 17-0 at half.
"I thought we were more physical than them in the first half," Griffith said.
"Our defense did great. They have a really good offense, but our defense shut them down. The 17-0 kind of lowered their morale," he added.
"We definitely came out with a lot of fire. We were excited for the whole week for this," said Glacier quarterback Taylor Hulslander.
"One of our goals every week is to score on the first drive. We didn't do that, but we certainly came back. We never put our heads down. We forget the upsets or whatever and then come back," he said.
He credited the offensive line.
"They gave us a lot of time passing and also running the ball. There were a lot of holes," Hulslander said.
And Aaron Mitchell was only too happy to see those. He carried for 114 yards and a touchdown.
"He understands now how good he can be," Bennett said of Mitchell.
"He's definitely picked it up. We were more of a passing offense the beginning of the year, but he's picked it up. That takes a lot of pressure off me. It's real easy to give the ball off and smile as he runs downfield," Hulslander said.
Senior had a different resolve in the second half - it scored twice in the third quarter.
But the Wolfpack was able to score early in the fourth - an 8-yard Mitchell run - and then the defense stepped up with two interceptions and forced the Broncs to turn the ball over on downs.
Billings Senior 0 0 10 0 - 10
Glacier 0 17 0 7 - 24
Second Quarter
G -Kyle Griffith 24 field goal, 9:11
G - Griffith 23 pass from Taylor Hulslander (Griffith kick), 5:08.
G - Griffith 23 pass from Hulslander (Griffith kick), 0:33.
Third Quarter
BS - Cooper Kouwenhoven field goal, 6:41.
BS - Chad Newell 4 run (Kouwenhoven kick), 2:24.
Fourth Quarter
G - Aaron Mitchell 8 run (Griffith kick), 8:58.
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Senior Glacier
First downs 18 13
Total yards 356 340
Rushing yards 207 132
Passing 149 208
Punt returns 1-27 1--2
Kickoff returns 4-65 3-82
Comp-Att-Int 12-28-4 13-17-0
Punts 2-80 3-122
Fumbles lost 2-1 0-0
Penalties 9-80 16-125
Individual statistics
RUSHING -Senior, Ben Sulser 25-71, Chad Newell 23-83, Nolan Saraceni 9-53; Glacier,Taylor Hulslander 5-19, Aaron Mitchell 20-114, Noah James 1-5, Kyle Griffith 1-5, Anthony Gugliuzza 2-minus 11, Kellyn Faraone 1-0.
PASSING - Senior, Ben Sulser 12-28-4-149-0; Glacier, Hulslander13-17-0208-2.
RECEIVING - Senior, Nolan Saraceni 2-18, Kale Lemelin 3-29, John Daubert 7-102; Glacier, Griffith 7-114, Gugliuzza 3-75, Andrew Nelson 3-19.