AA football: Glacier charges back late, drops Sentinel

Down, but not out, Glacier football relied on a few of its tested veterans to pull out a Class AA victory on a tough Friday at Legends Stadium.

The Wolfpack (4-2) had to fight back from a 10-point second half deficit to edge Missoula Sentinel 42-31.

Glacier senior Caleb Jones started and ended the late rally and Thomas Trefney iced it against a feisty Spartans (3-3) squad.

With Glacier trailing 31-21 in the final minute of the third quarter, Jones converted a short catch in the flat into a seven-yard touchdown to narrow the Wolfpack deficit to a field goal.

After a short drive resulted in a punt on Glacier’s next possession, it was Jones that came through in the clutch in the final two minutes. Facing third-and-9 from the Sentinel 25-yard line, Jones worked his way open on a slant over the middle and reached out for a catch in stride to move 20 yards to the Sentinel 5.

Three plays later, Trefney punched in the go-ahead touchdown to give the Wolfpack a 35-31 lead.

On the ensuing Sentinel possession, Jones gave the game its exclamation point, intercepting a deep pass from Mitch Roberts to Mitch Reynolds to give Glacier the ball back with a little more than a minute to play.

Trefney then put the game away for good, scampering two plays later for a 68-yard touchdown and a definitive victory.

“These are the most fun games,” Jones said.

“It’s cool to get big wins, but these are definitely the most fun. These are the ones that you live for and the ones that you practice for all the time.”

Jones finished with six catches for 101 yards and Trefney 180 yards and four touchdowns rushing on a school-record 35 carries. Senior quarterback Leif Ericksen finished 21 for 44 for 332 yards passing.

“What’s so fun about tonight is the kids were so resilient, they never quit,” Wolfpack coach Grady Bennett said. “Even in the face of adversity, with their backs against the wall, they just kept working, kept fighting, kept competing. I’m so proud of that effort.”

Glacier started the game fast, scoring on two of its first three possessions to take a 14-0 lead.

Sentinel slowly worked its way back, driving first 12 plays and 69 yards to cut the score in half, then on its next possession, 11 plays for 86 yards to net a 36-yard field goal.

The Spartans acted quickly, however, to take the lead, forcing a three-and-out on the next Glacier possession before blocking a punt on fourth down and falling on it in the end zone to pull ahead 17-14.

Glacier would pull back ahead just before half, calling a jump pass out of the Wildcat formation. Tadan Gilman faked a quarterback keep and flipped the ball over the line to tight end Jaxen Hashley to give the Wolfpack a 21-17 lead at the break.

Sentinel took control of the third quarter, scoring on its first possession to retake the lead and blocking a second Glacier punt later in the frame to set up another short touchdown and a 10-point advantage.

Glacier fought back with Jones’ touchdown at the end of the quarter, but couldn’t fully recover until its final flourish in the last two minutes.

“I don’t like those lulls, we can’t do that,” Bennett said. “But, when we needed a big drive we had some enormous responses … I’m really proud of the kids.”

Roberts finished 17 of 33 for 191 yards passing and had 14 carries for 65 yards in the loss. Reynolds had five catches for 108 yards for the Spartans.

Glacier junior Scout Willcut had a game-high eight catches for 140 yards. Jacob Willich intercepted a pass on the final play of the game and returned 57 yards, just 10 yards shy of padding the score.

Sentinel 0 17 14 0 — 31

Glacier 14 7 7 14 — 42

First Quarter

G—Thomas Trefney 1 run (Cameron Anderson kick), 8:22

G—Trefney 2 run (Anderson kick), 3:58

Second Quarter

S—Conner Crawford 4 run (Gabe Peppenger kick), 11:53

S—Peppenger 36 field goal, 5:37

S—Jory Breen punt block recovery in end zone (Peppenger kick), 4:28

G—Jaxen Hashley 2 pass from Tadan Gilman (Anderson kick), 0:08

Third Quarter

S—Ethan Jones 6 run (Peppenger kick), 9:59

S—Josh Deshner 1 run (Peppenger kick), 5:51

G—Caleb Jones 7 pass from Leif Ericksen (Anderson kick), 0:06

Fourth Quarter

G—Trefney 1 run (Anderson kick), 1:53

G—Trefney 68 run (Anderson kick), 1:18

—————

Sentinel Glacier

First Downs 12 21

Total Yards 322 513

Rushes-yards 34-131 39-179

Passing yards 191 334

Punt Returns 5-53 1-0

Kickoff Returns 5-73 4-72

Interceptions Ret. 0-0 2-57

Comp-Att-Int 17-33-1 22-45-0

Sacked-Yards lost 1-11 0-0

Punts 5-29 6-27

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 0-0

Penalties-Yards 10-79 7-38

Time of Possession 18:57 35:54

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—Sentinel, Mitch Roberts 14-65, Josh Deshner 9-24, Conner Crawford 7-21, Alec Steele 3-15, Ethan Jones 1-6. Glacier, Thomas Trefney 35-180, Tadan Gilman 2-8, Scout Willcut 1-3, Leif Ericksen 1-(minus 11)

PASSING—Sentinel, Mitch Roberts 17-33-2-191. Glacier, Leig Ericksen 21-44-0-332. Tadan Gilman 1-1-0-2.

RECEIVING—Sentinel, Mitch Reynolds 5-108, Alec Steele 6-57, Josh Deshner 2-16, Trevor Cunningham 2-8, Hunter Paulson 1-6, Ethan Jones 1-(minus 4). Glacier, Scout Willcut 8-140, Caleb Jones 6-101, Noah Lindsay 4-43, Thomas Trefney 2-38, Drake Dulin 1-10, Jaxen Hashley 1-2.

INTERCEPTIONS—Glacier, Caleb Jones 1-0, Jacob Willich 1-57.

SACKS—Sentinel, Collin Fischer 1-11.