Glacier’s Sullivan pilots a win

The Glacier Wolfpack was down one Jake, and for a minute it was down two, but still had the weapons to beat Missoula Hellgate 55-20 in a Western AA football game Friday night.

Connor Sullivan was one of those weapons.

The senior receiver and defensive back came up big on Senior Night at Legends Stadium, picking off two passes, hauling in 135 yards in receptions and making the play of the game: An 82-yard kickoff return for a touchdown with 9 seconds left in the first half.

Jake Rendina rushed for 222 yards and four touchdowns for the Pack, which is now 6-3 overall and 4-3 in league. He had three scores after his troublesome ankle sidelined him for a series; Glacier also played without top receiver Jake Turner.

Sullivan’s return, coming just seconds after Hellgate closed to 28-20 on a Connor Dick touchdown pass to Ian Finch, was a balm.

“That’s huge,” Glacier coach Grady Bennett said. “Because they get the ball first to start the second half. If they score bang-bang, everything changes.”

Instead Glacier took a 35-20 lead into intermission, then managed to hold the Knights (2-6, 1-5) scoreless from there.

Hellgate reached Glacier’s 24 on its first second-half possession and the 14 on its next; those drives ended in a turnover on downs and Sullivan’s second interception.

After his pick Sullivan hauled in a 45-yard bomb from Gage Sliter, setting up a 22-yard scoring pass to Tate Kauffman. That made it 41-20 and the outcome was decided.

“The thing about Connor Sullivan,” Rendina began. “From his sophomore to junior to senior year, he’s just taken a leap. He’s just at the peak. It’s his senior year and man, I’m so proud of him. You could see his speed and his ball tracing in the air, it’s awesome.”

Rendina was big as well, hitting a season-high for yards even though he limped to the sideline after a 2-yard gain on the Pack’s second drive. Glacier eventually gave the ball up on downs, then allowed a 70-yard Hellgate march, capped by Jacob Sweatland’s 1-yard TD run.

On the next possession Glacier drove 52 yards, ending with Wyatt Thomason’s 1-yard run, to lead for good, 14-7. Meanwhile Rendina was back on the sideline, getting loose.

“I heard a little crunch in there and I thought, ‘Oh, shoot,’” he said. “I came off and then — it just felt fine. A little pain or something — it was just cartilage. I think I gained a little speed from it, too.”

On his next 11 carries he gained 107 yards, including a 5-yard scoring run that put Glacier up 21-13 at 5:46 of the second quarter. Any other worries went away when he tore off runs of 33 and 35 yards on the next drive.

Sliter, who was 12-for-15 passing for 241 yards, capped that with a 10-yard strike to Luke Bilau for a 28-13 lead.

Rendina added scoring runs of 2 and 28 yards in the second half.

The Knights, who had an outside chance at the AA playoffs, got 105 yards rushing and 60 receiving from Sweatland. Dick threw for 182 yards but was intercepted three times, including once by Levi Frost.

Glacier ran double coverage on both Finch and top flight receiver Leo Filardi: Filardi didn’t catch a ball, though Finch caught eight for 101 yards and that one TD.

“Ian Finch, No. 11, is a heck of an athlete,” Sullivan noted. “He’s 6-foot-2, 215, something like that. Shoot, they scored, but Coach always says, ‘Win one play.’ That’s the mentality. I just flushed it.

“On the kickoff I went right, kind of lost myself a bit, stumbled, saw the left side was open so I just took it to the house.”

“He knew his buddy Jake Turner had been making plays,” Bennett said. “He tried to give it a go tonight and obviously wasn’t able to, and Connor knew that.

“Other players needed to step up and kind of take that role over. Connor had just an amazing game tonight, all three phases.”

Hellgate 7 13 0 0 - 20

Glacier 14 21 6 14 - 55

G — Jake Rendina 2 run (Patrick Rohrbach kick), 9:52-1Q

H — Jacob Sweatland 1 run (Leo Filardi kick), 3:45-1Q

G — Wyatt Thomason 1 run (Rohrbach kick), 1:54-1Q

H — Connor Dick 4 run (kick failed), 11:00-2Q

G — Rendina 4 run (Rohrbach kick), 5:46-2Q

G — Luke Bilau 10 pass from Gage Sliter (Rohrbach kick), 2:52-2Q

H — Ian Finch 3 pass from Dick (Filardi kick), :25-2Q

G — Connor Sullivan 82 kickoff return (Rohrbach kick), :09-2Q

G — Tate Kauffman 22 pass from Sliter (run failed), 1:40-3Q

G — Rendina 2 run (Rohrbach kick), 10:37-4Q

G — Rendina 28 run (Rohrbach kick), 2:43-4Q

Individual Statistics

RUSHING: Hellgate (33-167) — Sweatland 15-105, Sam Swain 1-30, Dick 15-18, Finch 1-14, Team 1-0. Glacier (38-263) — Rendina 28-222, Kash Goichoechea 4-26, Thomason 5-17, Sliter 1-2.

PASSING: Hellgate — Dick 15-35-3 for 182 yards. Glacier — Sliter 12-15-0 for 241 yards.

RECEIVING: Hellgate — Finch 8-101, Sweatland 5-60, Swain 1-13, Mario Rosemond 1-8. Glacier — Kauffman 5-93, Sullivan 4-135, Bilau 3-13.