AA football: Glacier, CMR have quite the rivalry
Glacier and Great Falls C.M. Russell are beginning to build quite the interesting football rivalry.
The last game Glacier played CMR was an anomaly, a 52-7 thrashing in the state semifinals to earn the Wolfpack a spot in the state title game and end the illustrious career of longtime Rustlers coach Jack Johnson.
The time before that was a 20-14 Wolfpack win in week two of last season that didn’t end until after 1 a.m. the following day because of lightning storms and a timed sprinkler system.
The previous two were each decided by three points, one going each way. The two before that the teams split double-digit victories.
The next chapter begins tonight at 7 at Legends Stadium.
“(The semifinals) was a freak night. You may coach athletics for 50 years and never have a night like that,” Glacier coach Grady Bennett said. “You just don’t expect that to happen again.
“Every time we’ve played them it’s been a battle. Most of them have come down to the last possession. We expect them to be pretty hungry from last year’s game as well.”
CMR is returning a wealth of talent from the team that won seven straight games entering the semifinals last season.
Running back Andrew Grinde leads the Rustlers on offense, compiling 247 yards of offense and four touchdowns in CMR’s 33-28 win against Missoula Sentinel last week. Dallas Farren, who threw for 293 yards in his first start for the program, is expected to start under center for a unit that shouldn’t look too much different from the highly-efficient offenses under Johnson.
“That staff has been with Jack Johnson for years,” Bennett said of new Rustlers coach Gary Lowry. “They’ve made a few changes, obviously, but it’s going to be the same CMR.”
Glacier played up to its lofty billing in its opener last week against Billings West, thrashing the Golden Bears 31-7. Quarterback Brady McChesney threw for 255 yards and three touchdowns and Logan Jones had 170 yards of offense for a team looking to return to the state championship game.
Perhaps the biggest item to come out of the opening week for the Wolfpack was the showing by its defense, which throttled West once it settled into the game, holding the Bears to 37 yards of total offense in the second half.
“We need to be more crisp on offense,” Bennett said. “I felt like we left 20 points out there. The defense played pretty solid. We still have to tackle better, but you always want to tackle better.”
Glacier enters its first home game of the season as a favorite, but CMR offers a healthy test for how good the Wolfpack can be.
“Hopefully the guys will be hungry enough to know they can’t take anything for granted,” Bennett said. “You can puff your head up about being No. 1, or about everybody saying you’re supposed to be pretty good. That can end in a hurry on a Friday night in AA football.
“The guys have a pretty good mentality and know they need to compete and play every down as hard as they can.
“CMR is a good enough team to beat anybody. So we have to play well.”