Crosstown football VIII: Wolfpack drops Braves, 27-7

It wasn’t pretty, but with a 27-7 win over Flathead on Friday at Legends Stadium, Glacier clinched a perfect regular season for the first time in school history, the top seed in the state and home-field advantage throughout the Class AA football playoffs.

Glacier struggled to score against a Flathead defense that sat back on the pass and dared the Wolfpack to attack it on the ground. The strategy played into the Braves’ favor, slowing down the tempo dramatically and keeping the Wolfpack from ever getting its high-energy offense into rhythm.

“They slowed the tempo way down,” Glacier coach Grady Bennett said. “Almost every time they were getting the [play clock] count, almost every time they were getting delays.

“On defense they dared us to run it ... We can do either, we have to be able to win that way. Whatever teams do we have to be able to take advantage of it.”

Flathead held the ball for most of the contest, moving the ball consistently against the Glacier defense until it got onto the Wolfpack side of the field.

That’s where the Braves struggled most of the game, either committing penalties, missed plays or turnovers as they approached the red zone. The Braves made it past the Wolfpack 30-yard line just once all game, scoring on its final drive of the fourth quarter down four scores with less than two minutes to play.

“I thought our offensive line did a great job in the running game,” Flathead coach Kyle Samson said.

“I thought [quarterback] Easton [Johnson] played very well. He made some good third down conversions.

“We needed to finish a couple more drives that we didn’t. I’m proud of our kids. They fought hard against the best team in the state.”

Glacier was forced to punt on its only drive of the first quarter, but nearly scored on all three in the third. Senior quarterback Brady McChesney found Caleb Jones on a double move wide open up the right sideline for the Wolfpack’s first score of the game.

Glacier would fumble inside the Flathead 5-yard line on its next drive before running back Thomas Trefney made up for the error with a touchdown just before half.

The Wolfpack scored on its first drive of the third quarter and its only drive in the fourth quarter to build a 27-0 lead and ride its defense to another victory. Glacier had just eight drives in the game.

“We really needed a game like this to take some adversity,” said McChesney, who finished 6 of 15 passing for 55 yards and a touchdown.

“The past few games we have been just rolling over teams. This really helps us going into the playoffs. We look it as more of a positive than a negative.”

It was the lowest scoring game of the season for the Wolfpack, which averages more than 53 points a game.

“We needed that game and a battle,” Bennett said. “We needed to play for four quarters. We needed to be in a dogfight and have a little bit of pressure. It’s been so long. I’m glad it worked out that way.”

It was the first time Glacier’s starters have played a complete game since a Week 2 win over Great Falls C.M. Russell. In the seven weeks since, Glacier has won by an average of 43 points and has had sophomores playing in the fourth quarter of every game.

“It’s great when everything’s clicking and you’re scoring 60 every game,” Bennett said.

“But it’s not reality. At some point it’s not going to happen. So we needed it to not happen to realize that.

“I like their mentality and how they handled it, but it was good for us.”

Trefney finished with 22 carries for 144 yards and three touchdowns for Glacier. Logan Jones had 65 yards rushing.

McCracken led the Braves with 76 yards on the ground and Johnson was 10 of 23 for 142 yards and a pair of interceptions. Keaton Krantz had three catches for 70 yards.

“I thought Josh played great,” Samson said.

“He made some great reads and broke a lot of tackles. I thought the O-line did a great job. Glacier’s a really good defense and they held their own pretty dang good.”

The Wolfpack will host eighth seed Billings West in the first round of the playoffs next Friday. Glacier defeated West 31-7 on the opening week of the season in Billings.

“It’s going to be fun and it’s going to be a challenge,” Bennett said.

“They’ve definitely gotten better. They’re so much better than they were that first game we played them ... We feel like we are, too. We’ve gotten better every single week.”

Flathead 0 0 0 7 — 7

Glacier 0 13 7 7 — 27

Second Quarter

G — Caleb Jones 38 pass from Brady McChesney (kick miss), 9:41

G — Thomas Trefney 10 run (Brandon Purdy kick), 1:00

Third Quarter

G — Trefney 12 run (Purdy kick), 10:04

Fourth Quarter

G — Trefney 12 run (Purdy kick), 7:46

F — Josh McCracken 2 run (Alex Croymans kick), 1:27

————

Flathead Glacier

First downs 14 12

Total yards 246 261

Rushes-Yds 35-104 35-206

Passing Yds 142 55

Comp-Att-Int 10-23-2 6-15-0

Punts-Avg. 5-26 2-34

Fumbles-Lost 1-0 1-1

Penalties-Yds 14-116 11-95

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INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Flathead, Josh McCracken 18-76, Payton Boyce 8-17, Easton Johnson 8-7, Jess Beaman 1-4. Glacier, Leif Ericksen 3-(-3), Thomas Trefney 22-144, Logan Jones 10-65.

PASSING — Flathead, Easton Johnson 10-23-2-142. Glacier, Brady McChesney 6-15-0-55.

RECEIVING — Flathead, Keaton Krantz 3-70, Alex Croymans 3-24, Blake Wilson 1-13, Cody Eacker 1-13, Josh McCracken 1-12, Jess Beaman 1-10. Glacier, Caleb Jones 1-38, Alex Stewart 2-14, Jacob Janke 1-3, Logan Jones 1-2, Brady McChesney 1-(-2).