Pack shakes off rain delay, Panthers

It’s notable that the Glacier Wolfpack waited out a 44-minute weather delay Friday night, and still made short work of the Belgrade Panthers.

Senior running back Jake Rendina ran for three touchdowns and junior quarterback Gage Sliter threw for three scores in his first start for the Pack, which scored early and often against Belgrade.

The only surprise — aside from the clap of thunder and the delay just after the opening kickoff — was that the 235-pound Rendina had just 14 carries. That’s usually a half’s worth of totes.

“Not this year,” Rendina said, smiling. “We have the whole arsenal, you know what I’m saying. We’re out there scheming. Everybody thinks I’m getting the ball. I mean — who knows?”

Belgrade was outschemed right away, while Sliter completed passes of 17, 19 and 17 yards to Jake Turner, Turner again and Luke Bilau. Rendina crashed in from 3 yards out and it was 7-0 before the game was 90 seconds old.

The hits kept coming. Connor Sullivan returned Belgrade’s first punt 32 yards, then made a sealing block while Turner took a swing pass from Sliter 23 yards for a score.

Sullivan soon added another 21-yard punt return to the Belgrade 46. Two plays later Luke Bilau caught a lateral pass, then threw another pass to Sullivan for 39 yards and the score.

“He’s still got it,” Rendina said of Bilau, a senior tight end. “Freshman year, he was my quarterback.”

It was 20-0 with 5:12 left in the first quarter. The gap grew to 42-0 by halftime, with Sliter completing 15 of 19 passes for 186 yards. That included a pretty 29-yard scoring strike to Tate Kauffman on a corner route, and a 7-yard TD to Bilau.

“A lot like Leif Erickson, Brady McChesney, he’s very cerebral and very smart,” said Glacier coach Grady Bennett, comparing Sliter to a couple former Wolfpack QBs. “But I thought for game No. 1, his composure, his decision making was even better than I thought it’d be.

“The receivers caught the ball and I was very proud of how they blocked for each other. Connor Sullivan throws a great one for Jake Turner.”

The lone hiccup was a pass to Sullivan that was tipped and intercepted by Belgrade’s Aidan Kulbeck. Belgrade then lost a fumble deep in its own end, Rendina giving sophomore Kash Goicoechea credit for the strip-sack.

That set up Rendina’s second TD, from 9 yards out, making it 35-0. Rendina added a 2-yard scoring run midway through the third quarter, and Patrick Rohrbach completed the scoring with a chip shot field goal to start the fourth.

Goicoechea is among a fleet of sophomores making impacts for the Pack.

“They played so well. What I liked about it was they played so hard,” Bennett said. “They’re sophomores but they’re not intimidated at all. I heard (nose tackle) Aiden Krause’s name all night tonight, he was just flying around. Kash was just flying around.”

Senior Levi Frost provided the wallop of the game, on Belgrade punter Dyson Kinnaman as he scrambled after bobbling a snap. It set Glacier up with yet another short field.

“That’s obviously contagious and gets the rest of the guys flying around like they need to,” Bennett said. “It’s exciting. Good first game.”

Belgrade 0 0 0 0 - 0

Glacier 21 21 7 3 - 52

G — Jake Rendina 3 run (Patrick Rohrbach kick), 10:31-1Q

G — Jake Turner 23 pass from Gage Sliter (Rohrbach kick), 8:17-1Q

G — Connor Sullivan 39 pass from Luke Bilau (Rohrbach kick), 5:13-1Q

G — Tate Kauffman 29 pass from Sliter (Rohrbach kick), 9:11-2Q

G — Rendina 9 run (Rohrbach kick), 4:40-2Q

G — Bilau 7 pass from Sliter (Rohrbach kick), 1:02-2Q

G — Rendina 2 run (Rohrbach kick), 8:10-3Q

G — Rohrbach 22 FG, 11:55-4Q

Individual Statistics

RUSHING: Belgrade (34-117) — Diego Casas 10-32, Wyatt Lambeth 2-23, Dyson Kinnaman 1-11, Gage Ruddick 11-8, Beau Kastner 2-3, Austin Spangler 8-minus 18. Glacier (24-110) — Rendina 14-74, Wyatt Tomason 9-36, Kash Goicoechea 1-minus 4.

PASSING: Belgrade — Casas 2-6-0 for 11 yards; Spangler 2-4-0 for 10 yards. Glacier — Sliter 16-20-1 for 200 yards; Bilau 1-1-0 for 39 yards.

RECEIVING: Belgrade — Ta’Veus Randle 3-13, Wyatt Orrell 3-8. Glacier — Turner 6-72, Kauffman 3-47, Bilau 3-39, Sullivan 2-51, Austin Robinson 2-19, Rendina 1-11.