Wolfpack gets another shot at Spartans in semifinal
Glacier quarterback Gage Sliter (7) completes a pass to wide receiver Connor Sullivan (2) in the first quarter against Billings Senior at Legends Stadium on Friday, Oct. 29. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
A gnarly Missoula Sentinel defense got its sternest test on Sept. 17, in the Spartans 29-21 win over Glacier: Nobody has scored more against the defending State AA football champs this season.
Now the Wolfpack, 8-3, gets another crack against a Sentinel squad it led 21-15 in the fourth quarter in September.
“And we were driving,” Glacier coach Grady Bennett noted. “I was thinking we were going to make it a two-score game and we fumbled. That was one of (Jake Rendina’s) few fumbles. They were able to recover and go down and score, and then score one more.”
The rematch, a State AA semifinal game, kicks off at 7 p.m. inside MCPS Stadium. The Wolfpack will be trying to avoid the untimely penalties and turnovers that hurt on the last visit, and also find more running room: Glacier managed 216 yards of offense the first time around, with Rendina getting 72 hard-earned yards on 23 carries. He has 1,340 yards on the season.
Sentinel was a loaded team a year ago, when it won its first AA championship since 1976. Yet in Charlie Kirgan and Zac Crews, the Spartans had powerful building blocks.
“Last year they were so good, obviously,” Bennett said. “But I really thought their best two players were Crews and Kirgan. They were just juniors; now they’re seniors. I can’t think of two better bookends.”
Both play defensive end, though Crews is better known as a dual-threat quarterback. Kirgan has a touchdown catch at tight end. “They’re just great, great players,” Bennett said.
Glacier has some excellent seniors as well, like Rendina, tight end Luke Bilau and receivers Jake Turner and Connor Sullivan. Both Sullivan and Turner had 45 receptions, balancing an offense led by junior quarterback Gage Sliter.
Bennett notes for all their talent, the Spartans are well-coached, including on defense.
“They’re sound, they don’t make mistakes,” he said. “It’s hard to put a game-plan together because you go in looking for a weakness to exploit, and they don’t have any.”
Still, it’s tough to beat the same team twice. Glacier proved it last week, beating Butte 36-27 in the playoffs after losing on the Bulldogs’ field a month before.
“We did a bunch of good things in the first game against Sentinel,” Bennett noted. “And we’re a much better team now, and of course they are, too. It’s going to be a fun matchup to see how much both teams have improved.”