Top-ranked Glacier looks for 1st win in Helena

Tangle with Capital  tonight at Vigilante Stadium

In its eighth season and in the midst of a four-year ride to the top of the state, Glacier football doesn’t have a lot of boxes to tick off its checklist. The Wolfpack has accomplished nearly everything as a program in the regular season.

Except win in Helena.

The Wolfpack has gone 0-7 at Vigilante Stadium in Helena, losing all three attempts against Capital and four against Helena High, including once in the playoffs. While the games have gotten closer over the years, Glacier has lost by an average score of 41-17.

Glacier’s last trip to the Capital City came in a 23-17 loss to Helena High in the 2012 season. Glacier is 3-5 all-time against Capital and 0-7 against Helena High, traditionally two of the strongest programs in the state.

“Helena and Helena Capital, every year are in the top four,” Glacier coach Grady Bennett said.

“We just haven’t been there yet and the year’s we’ve gotten better and been more competitive, we’ve had a couple pretty good games there but we haven’t been good enough to win there. We’ll see if this team we have this year is good enough to finally get it done.”

The top-ranked Wolfpack (7-0) gets another chance today as it travels to Helena Capital (1-6). Glacier has won its last three meetings with the Bruins but has yet to clip them on the road.

Capital’s record is a little deceiving this season, with the Bruins posting impressive defensive numbers despite only one win on the ledger.

In its current six-game losing streak, Capital has lost four of those games by a combined 15 points. The Bruins are second in the league in scoring defense and pass defense, trailing only undefeated Helena High, and are fifth in total defense. Senior receiver Sean Mulcahy is one of the top pass catchers in the state despite playing on an offense that has had trouble scoring after the first quarter this season.

“They have not had many years like this,” Bennett said.

“They’re obviously not happy with the way they’re playing and they’re going to do everything in their power to finish the season on a good note.

“So, we know we’re going to see the best they have all year, they’re going to play their best football game and really be motivated to finish in a positive way. For us it’s a great challenge to see if we can go in there and win against a team that’s going to be super motivated.”

As Glacier has been rolling through its schedule this season, averaging more than 50 points a game while giving up only a little more than 15, the coaches have tried to keep the team’s focus on continuing to improve.

“We have to keep getting better,” Bennett said.

“This team has. A couple of our really good teams I feel at times maybe have started to plateau a little bit and get to that point where you haven’t seen the same growth.

“This team just keeps getting better. We see it every week in practice, we see it every Friday night. It’s exciting.”

Despite its dominance, Glacier is in a fight for the top seed in the playoffs with Helena High. Both teams are unbeaten through seven games, with the Bengals closing the season against one team with a winning record and Glacier against none.

Since the two teams don’t meet in the regular season this year, if both teams finish their slate undefeated, this season’s tiebreaker will come down to strength of schedule, which is determined by each opponent’s final win total.

As of this week, Glacier, whose unique games are against Bozeman (4-3) and Butte (3-4), is at a disadvantage in that metric to Bengals, who instead played Billings Senior (5-2) and Skyview (4-3).

None of that seems to concern Bennett and the Wolfpack, who prefer to focus on the task at hand.

“I told the guys, ‘There’s things in life you don’t want to waste any energy on because you can’t control them,’” Bennett said.

“If you waste energy on them you’re just hurting yourself.

“All we can control is ourselves. We have to do our job first of all, then everything else we can’t control that.

“The big thing is let’s try to go to Helena and win for the first time, so if we do have to go back there at some point we’ve tasted victory there and we have a feeling that we can do it.”