Glacier goes to the air to rout Big Sky, 63-0

A week after a numbing loss, the Glacier Wolfpack footballers showed how quick they can run out on an opponent — and pass over the top of them for that matter.

Senior quarterback JT Allen threw for 402 yards and three touchdowns and Jake Rendina scored four times on the ground as Glacier walloped Missoula Big Sky 63-0 in a first-round State AA playoff game.

The breeze blowing through Legends Stadium had little effect on Allen, who had scoring passes covering 53 yards to Jake Turner, 25 to Mason Naomi and 87 to George Herne. He completed 16 of 21 passes in easily his best performance, balancing an offense that has leaned heavily on Rendina all fall.

“We saw some stuff in their secondary,” said Allen, whose club advanced to a quarterfinal game at Billings Senior next Saturday at 1 p.m. “And we had it when we played them earlier in the season (a 36-18 Glacier win), and I missed a couple deep balls.

“Tonight we just put it together, all four quarters. Turner played really well, we blocked really well up front and got it done.”

Allen and most of the Pack had a forgettable game last week — a snowy 44-0 home loss to top-ranked Missoula Sentinel in which he threw for 20 yards.

On his first pass Friday Allen found Turner for a 29-yard catch and run; his sixth pass found Turner again, who broke a tackle and scored at 6:12 of the first quarter.

“Yep, you can expect the same thing from him every game,” Allen said of Turner, who had seven catches for 173 yards. “He’ll run hard and he’s going to give you everything he’s got. And I love that.”

It was 7-0, and Big Sky quarterback Colter Janacaro tore off a 34-yard on the next snap. That drive reached Glacier’s 26 before stalling, and set the tone: Second-quarter Eagles’ marches reached the Wolfpack 31 and 36, but first AJ Wood blitzed and downed Janacaro on fourth-and-2, and then Tyler Hausman picked off a pass.

After each foray, the Wolfpack scored.

A 42-yard pass to Connor Sullivan set up the first Rendina TD, covering 2 yards at 1:27 of the first quarter. Rendina’s 5-yard TD at 3:59 of the second quarter came after Allen found Naomi for 16 yards, setting up a first-and-goal.

With time running down Allen hit Turner again for 46 yards, and Rendina sprinted in from 12 yards out on the next play to make it 35-0 with 8 seconds left in the half.

In between Allen hit Naomi for his TD.

“First game he started all year, and he really stepped up and played really well,” Allen said of Naomi, who had four catches for 63 yards.

The second half got ugly. Rendina, who had 19 carries for 126 yards, took a Wildcat snap on fourth-and-2, bounced out of a tackle in the backfield and went around the right side 45 yards for his fourth TD, and 27th of the season on the ground.

On Glacier’s next possession Allen found tight end George Herne on a slant, and the senior absorbed a hit and kept going, 87 yards in all.

“JT was stepping up and throwing the ball,” said Turner. “It was awesome. He was just slinging the ball. All the receivers did a great job and JT was just playing really well.”

“I was proud of him, hanging in there, the perseverance,” Glacier coach Grady Bennett said of Allen. “People have loaded the box against us all year, and we’ve really had those opportunities — the off man, the Cover 0 — because people are trying to stop Rendina. And we just haven’t clicked.”

That changed Friday.

“Our receivers at times really haven’t attacked the ball,” Bennett said. “Tonight Connor did, Mason Naomi did it, Jake did it — just a brilliant effort by those guys.”

In the fourth quarter Wyatt Thomason tore off a 36-yard scoring run and Sullivan picked off Janacaro — his fourth interception — and returned it 40 yards for the TD.

Cole Johnson and Wood also had interceptions for Glacier, which held Janacaro to 186 yards of offense (105 on the ground), after he went for 439 against Flathead last week.

Glacier had 602 yards of offense.

“All week long we’ve really talked about playing four full quarters,” Bennett said. “We’ve shown flashes with a quarter or a half. I knew this team could play this kind of a game. They just kept the gas on and just played really well.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: Glacier's kickoff time at Senior was briefly changed to 7 p.m. on the MHSA.org website. Glacier activities director Mark Dennehy confirmed Saturday that the quarterfinal will start at 1 p.m.

Big Sky 0 0 0 0 - 0

Glacier 14 21 14 14 - 63

G - Jake Turner 53 pass from JT Allen (Patrick Rohrbach kick), 6:12-1Q

G - Jake Rendina 2 run (Rohrbach kick), 1:27-1Q

G - Rendina 5 run (Rohrbach kick), 3:59-2Q

G - Mason Naomi 25 pass from Allen (Rohrbach kick), 1:56-2Q

G - Rendina 12 run (Rohrbach kick), :08-2Q

G - Rendina 45 run (Rohrbach kick), 8:37-3Q

G - George Herne 87 pass from Allen (Rohrbach kick), 3:17-3Q

G - Wyatt Thomason 36 run (Rohrbach kick), 11:20-4Q

G - Connor Sullivan 40 interception return (Rohrbach kick), 8:10-4Q

Individual Statistics

RUSHING: Big Sky (32-135) - Colter Janacaro 23-105, Hunter Meinzen 5-15, Louis Sanders 3-11, Shawn Huseby 1-4; Glacier (31-200) - Rendina 19-126, Thomas 3-37, Casey Peiffer 4-26, Turner 1-5, Brian Marmolejo 1-3, Allen 2-2, Levi Frost 1-1.

PASSING: Big Sky - Janacaro 12-30-4 for 81 yards, Sanders 0-1-0 for 0 yards; Glacier - Allen 16-21-0 for 402 yards.

RECEIVING: Big Sky - Sanders 4-24, Tre Reed 3-30, Husbey 3-16, Issac Ayers 1-11, Cole Sandberg 1-0; Glacier - Turner 7-173, Sullivan 4-79, Naomi 4-63, Herne 1-87.