Glacier coasts past Flathead in crosstown matchup

At the crosstown game, the Glacier Wolfpack was back to making big plays.

Junior quarterback Gage Sliter threw for 269 yards and three touchdowns, and Jake Rendina piled up three more rushing scores as Glacier handled Flathead, 56-0, in their 15th meeting at Legends Stadium.

The Wolfpack (5-3 overall and 3-3 in the Western AA) had command almost from the start. Flathead’s first possession ended when quarterback Jackson Walker, trying to reach the ball for a first down, fumbled and the Pack’s Levi Frost recovered at the Flathead 30.

Five plays later Rendina rumbled in from 3 yards out, and the rout was on. Glacier ended up with a 384-55 bulge in total yardage while snapping a two-game skid; Rendina ran his season TD total to 16.

It might have been 17 but he had a 43-yard screen and a 7-yard run called back on the same drive. The Pack still scored, Connor Sullivan hauling in a TD pass for a 28-0 lead.

“Everything we were facing, playing so poorly last week, I really challenged the team and they responded,” Glacier coach Grady Bennett said. “I just really wanted the fellas to come out and compete hard, execute well, be efficient. It doesn’t matter who your opponent is, you still have to go out and execute well and do the things you’re supposed to do.”

Down 7-0, it got worse for Flathead (0-8, 0-6 in league) on the next possession when Walker was hit at the end of a 22-yard burst and left the game with a right knee injury.

Haiden Bunyea came in and was immediately shaken up as well, as he threw his first pass away; Braden Capser came in to make it three QBs in three plays for Flathead. Eventually Capser took over near the end of the second quarter.

By then Sliter had thrown touchdown passes to Luke Bilau, Jake Turner and Sullivan.

“That’s a tough situation, right there,” Flathead coach Alex Cummings said. “I really hope Jackson gets the OK — I hope we get some good news on that. He’s a kid that plays super hard and is a super leader for us.”

Flathead’s deepest foray into Glacier territory came on the drive when Walker was hurt; Glacier muffed a punt and the Braves took over on the Pack 42. But they had to punt again.

Glacier succeeded no matter the field position. Pinned back at its 16 by a Flathead punt with 1:46 left in the first half, the Pack went 84 yards in six plays. The big gain was a 47-yard catch and run by Turner, who had seven receptions for 116 yards.

The bad news is he came down hard on a shoulder at the end of it, and came off while Rendina lined up for an 8-yard scoring run on the next snap to make it 35-0 at the half.

“Seeing him with his shoulder pads off is a little disconcerting because he’s playing such good football for us,” Bennett said. “In every area. He’s going to get X-rays on it.”

Behind Turner, Bilau had three catches for 62 yards. Rendina once again didn’t have his 2020-level workload, carrying just 12 times for 71 yards.

“Don’t need to, yet,” said the 230-pound senior, who has been nursing an ankle injury. “We’ve got Gage, we’ve got great receivers, we’re dishing the ball out, pass game sets up the run game, run game sets up the pass game.”

“We challenged some of our seniors,” Bennett said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys out there and sometimes that youth starts to show up. So the seniors have to really step up and play well. “I had a good meeting with Luke and he stepped up and really played great. Jake Rendina played great — he’s starting to get healthy now.”

Glacier got an 82-yard kickoff return from Kash Goicoechea to start the second half, and after Rendina added his third TD, Isaac Keim got on the board by stripping the ball away from Flathead running back Joe Jones in the end zone.

That capped the scoring at 3:03 of the third quarter.

Glacier remains home next week to play Missoula Hellgate, on Thursday. Flathead concludes its season Friday at Missoula Big Sky.

“My takeaway is we have a group of kids that really play very hard,” Cummings, ever positive, said. “We’re on the ground floor right now and we’re starting on a lot of young kids. We’ve got a little bit of the injury bug right now and we’re asking a lot of a lot of young kids.

“At some point in time we’ll get it done, and it’s going to take some time.”

Flathead 0 0 0 0 - 0

Glacier 14 21 21 - 56

G — Jake Rendina 3 run (Patrick Rohrbach kick), 9:43-1Q

G — Luke Bilau 16 pass from Gage Sliter (Rohrbach kick), :34-1Q

G — Jake Turner 14 pass from Sliter (Rohrbach kick), 9:53-2Q

G — Connor Sullivan 8 pass from Sliter (Rohrbach kick), 7;35-2Q

G — Rendina 8 run (Rohrbach kick), :43-2Q

G — Kash Goicoechea 82 kick return (Rohrbach kick), 11:47-3Q

G — Rendina 1 run (Rohrbach kick), 7;12-3Q

G — Isaac Keim fumble recovery in end zone (Rohrbach kick), 3:03-3Q

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: Flathead (32-48) — Jackson Walker 4-33, Joe Jones 12-16, Kaden Henshaw 8-10, Haiden Bunyea 3-1, Trevor Burke 2-minus 1, Braden Capser 3-minus 11. Glacier (28-118) — Rendina 12-71, Xander Stout 5-15, Jake Turner 1-12, Kaleb Shine 1-11, Wyatt Thomason 1-8, Sliter 3-4, Carter Lapke 2-3, Isaac Ritter 2-1, Goicoechea 1-minus 6.

PASSING: Flathead — Bunyea 2-7-0 for 7 yards; Capser 0-7-0 for 0 yards; Walker 0-1-0 for 0 yards. Glacier — Sliter 15-20-0 for 269 yards; Shine 1-1-0 for minus-3 yards.

RECEIVING: Flathead — Caleb Riley 1-4, Gabe Lake 1-3. Glacier — Turner 7-116, Bilau 3-65, Sullivan 3-47, Tate Kauffman 1-23, Rendina 1-18, Ritter 1-minus 3.