AA Football: Glacier hopes scoring trend continues against Hellgate

The Glacier football team figured something out last week.

The Wolfpack had been gaining yards in its first three games, but it had trouble finding the end zone, scoring only 11 points per game in a 1-2 start.

That changed at Great Falls High last week, when the Wolfpack beat the Bison 53-36 while compiling 641 yards of offense, including a school-record six touchdown passes from quarterback Leif Ericksen and 218 rushing yards from running back Thomas Trefney.

“Thomas is such a good running back, but his first two weeks he wasn’t happy with the way he performed,” Glacier coach Grady Bennett said.

“He came out and you could see the difference. He’s a different running back. He even realized he had to step up his game across the board. He’s really done that and it’s paid off.

“Leif, I really enjoy watching him improve. He is really maturing in his decisions, the way he throws the ball, his footwork, everything he does.

“He’s a really smart kid, that’s always been his strength. He’s a baseball guy, so we’ve had to try to shorten up (his delivery). It’s all kind of coming together for him and he’s really playing well and in command of our offense.”

The Wolfpack also opened up the field on big plays, scoring two touchdowns of more than 50 yards. Before that, Glacier scored just two touchdowns from longer than six yards.

“Against Capital, we had a few shots deep that Leif missed,” Bennett said.

“We came away from that game feeling that there were four or five opportunities that we could’ve completed deep and just missed on them.

“Leif worked really hard last week working on the deep ball and we completed a bunch of those. We had some big plays, he made some great reads and for the first time we were able to get behind the defense and make some big plays.

“The other thing is the work we put in the red zone. We’ve struggled there so we put a ton of time in working on our package and our execution. We got in (the red zone) last week and were able to convert those and score.

“It finally came together. We knew it was there, it was just a bit off. We had to put in that work. It’s fun to see it come to fruition like that.”

This week offers a different challenge against Missoula Hellgate. The Knights are winless this season and in their last 27 games. Hellgate is averaging just five points per game and is giving up more than 48.

That doesn’t mean Glacier is expecting a breeze. The Wolfpack has its own problems to work on after giving up 36 points in last weeks win. It would also like to tighten up its special teams, where it was the best in the state last season.

“It’s that next step, we need to try to get better,” Bennett said.

“(The defense is) a little bit disappointed in their production and they want to get better. They had a great week of practice and they’re motivated.

“On special teams we’re not as good as we need to be.

“In all three phases we need to play better. There’s things we have to clean up.”

It would also be nice to win a homecoming matchup at Legends Stadium, where the Wolfpack is 0-2 this season.

“There’s so many other things that we can always focus on,” Bennett said. “Winning that first home game, winning the homecoming game, getting better in certain areas. The guys are pretty good about realizing it’s about us, it’s not about who the opponent is. That’s what we try to do every week.”

The game is scheduled to kick today at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on 103.9 FM in the Flathead Valley.