Glacier whips Hellgate

There was no mystery and no last minute heroics.

But for the fifth-ranked Glacier Wolfpack, there was a lot of fun.

Friday's Glacier-Missoula Hellgate matchup had the makings early of a track meet, but when all was said and done, it was the Wolfpack that exhibited both speed and endurance as it outdistanced visiting Hellgate 69-21 at Legends Stadium.

After a furious start - Glacier's Anthony Gugliuzza returned the opening kickoff 93 yards only to be answered by Hellgate's 72-yard Jake Arledge to Luke Bewley hookup 76 seconds later - the Wolfpack settled in and racked up the yards - and the points.

Glacier (3-1) scored in every phase of the game - special teams, offense and defense.

Highlights included Gugliuzza's return, a 73-yard touchdown pass from Taylor Hulslander to Andrew Nelson, and a 95-yard interception return by Evan Epperly.

The defense scored twice - Andrew Robinson also recovered a fumble in the end zone.

"Great win, tons of kids got to play. It's fun to get all those kids on the field on a Friday night," said Glacier coach Grady Bennett.

"It's been a tough week, a long, hard week. To have it finish like this is good," he added.

"That was just a fun game," said senior defensive lineman Luke Halliburton.

"It reminded me of little guy football back when everybody was playing just to have fun. It was a great experience. Offense and defense both did amazing - defensive line, offensive line ... everybody performed outstanding," he said.

"Overall, it was just an amazing game. Everybody did their job and that's how it turns out. It was so much fun, just a blast! We play this game to have fun. It was just great. I loved it!" he added.

"The offense moved the ball all night. We had set a goal to score on our first drive and to not punt the ball," Bennett said.

Glacier punted once and finished the night with 374 total yards - 193 on the ground and 181 passing.

Kellyn Faraone was the top rusher with nine carries for 70 yards.

Quarterback Taylor Hulslander couldn't have had a much better night - he was 10-for-11 for 181 yards and threw three touchdown passes.

He spread the ball around beautifully, completing passes to seven receivers.

"Taylor is just playing so well. He's in such complete control of our offense. Just the way he's directing things, it's impressive. It's only his fourth start. He's only a junior. I'm starting to marvel at what he's doing. I never anticapted it would go this well for him ... that he would be this in command of everything.

"But he works so hard at it. He such a student of the game. He's studying as much as any kid I've had - and it's paying off," the coach said.

The other area that saw the reward of hard work was special teams.

"I'm really proud of where we are in our special teams. The kids are really buying into it, really doing good things. We're pretty solid. The kids are setting goals as far as where they want to be in the state, things they want to accomplish," Bennett said.

"We really thought we could get a kickoff return this week and they really bought into it and worked hard at it. So when we were receiving, they were all excited," he said.

"Defensively, they had one big play on us early, but other than that, they didn't score other than the drive where we gave them 50 yards in penalties.

"That's one area we've got to clean up. We have to keep working on that," Bennett said.

Hellgate 7 6 0 8 - 21

Glacier 21 27 22 0 - 69

First Quarter

G - Anthony Gugliuzza 93 kickoff return (Kyle Griffith kick), 11:46

H - Luke Bewley 72 pass from Jake Arledge (Andrew Filicetti kick), 10:30.

G - Aaron Mitchell 5 run (Griffith kick), 5:20.

G - Nic Cramer 28 pass from Hulslander (Griffith kick), 3:33.

Second Quarter

G - Andrew Nelson 42 run (Griffith kick), 9:50.

G - Mitchell 17 pass from Hulslander (Griffith kick), 8:23.

H - Zach Peevey 12 pass from Arledge (Kick failed), 1:57.

G - Nelson 73 pass from Hulslander (Griffith kick), 1:44.

G - Noah James 12 run (Kick failed), :12.

Third Quarter

G - Nelson 6 run (Griffith kick), 9:31.

G - Evan Epperly 95 interception return (Griffith kick), :16.

G - Andrew Robinson fumble recovery in end zone (Griffith kick), :03

Fourth Quarter

H - Arledge 42 run (Kick failed), 6:54.

H - Team safety, 6:39.

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Hellgate Glacier

First downs 12 14

Total yards 302 374

Rushing yards 106 193

Passing 196 181

Punt Returns 1-15 0-0

Kickoff returns 6-80 1-93

Comp-Att-Int 15-29-196 10-12-181

Punts 3-81 1-42

Fumbles lost 1 0

Penalties 4-30 8-76

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Individual statistics

RUSHING - Hellgate, Jake Arledge 17-69, Luke Bewley 15-12, Andy Nemec 2--1, Brandon DeYoung 3- -8, Zach Peevey 2-36, Dan Lympus 2- -4; Glacier, Taylor Huslander 2--1, Dawson Day 5-9, Aaron Mitchell 8-32-1, Noah James 2-10, Kyle Griffith 3-21, Kellyn Faraone 9-70, Andrew Nelson 3-52-2.

PASSING - Hellgate, Alredge 14-27-2-3, Nemec 1-2-7; Glacier, 10-11-181-3, Day 0-1-0

RECEIVING - Hellgate, Bewley 2-81, Brandon DeYoung 3-34, Peevey 6-41-1, Lympus 1-7, Kole Swartz 2-22, Caden Lockhart 1-11; Glacier, Mitchell 2-10, Noah James 1-12, Griffith 2-23, Gugliuzza 1-1, Nelson 2-83, Kelan Reed 1-18, Nic Cramer 1-28.

Class AA Standings

W L

Helena 4 0

Helena Capital 4 0

Glacier 3 1

Billings Senior 3 1

Billings West 3 1

Flathead 2 2

Butte 2 2

Great Falls 2 2

CMR 1 3

Missoula Hellgate 1 3

Missoula Sentinel 1 3

Missoula Big Sky 1 3

Billings Skyview 0 4

Bozeman 0 4

Friday's scores

Glacier 69, Missoula Hellgate 21

Helena 33, Flathead 3

Billings Senior 51, Great Falls Russell 14

Billings West 17, Butte 10

Great Falls 33, Billings Skyview 14

Missoula Big Sky 37, Bozeman 30

Helena Capital 47, Missoula Sentinel 13