Glacier looks to get back to .500 with road test at Missoula Hellgate

The Glacier football team, reeling after two tough losses, hasn’t faced this kind of adversity in recent years.

“We’ve had two of the tougher, gut-wrenching losses that we’ve experienced here,” Glacier coach Grady Bennett said. “Last year we found a way to win some really incredible close games. Really, these are two of the first ones that haven’t gone our way.”

The Wolfpack, conceivably, are just a few plays from the perfect start they envisioned. Instead, they sit 1-2, near the bottom of the conference standings after three weeks.

This week, they head down to Missoula Hellgate (0-3), a game they’ll be heavily favored in. Still, Bennett said the team can’t look past the Knights.

“If we were 3-0 it might be an issue,” Bennett said. “We’re 1-2, we need to get going. We have to play well. The kids have come in very focused this week because they’re not very happy being 1-2.”

Glacier found something on offense in the last few minutes of last week’s loss at Helena High. Unable to move the ball for most of the game, quarterback Taylor Hulslander started connecting to receivers on short and underneath routes, finding holes in the Bengal defense and taking chunks of yards at a time. Glacier scored 14 points in the last 7:31, just missing a final touchdown that would have put them over the top.

“I think the key for Taylor was just to relax and play football again,” Bennett said. “When he got back to that in the fourth quarter and just started gunslinging like he does it was back to normal. It was fun to watch.”

Hellgate has had a rough start to the season, losing big to Helena and Butte, while dropping a close contest to crosstown rival Sentinel. The Knights have averaged just six points and 192 total yards per game, both league lows.

“It’s the perfect game to not worry about who the opponent is, not worry about their record and just play well and really have a good feeling about ourselves,” Bennett said. “Now is a chance to just go play. It’s one of those things where you just can’t wait for Friday night again. I think the kids are very excited to play again.”