Bruins another stern test for Wolfpack

The Glacier Wolfpack are coming off a tough first loss of the football season, and things don’t get a whole lot easier tonight with Helena Capital coming to Legends Stadium.

The 7 p.m. kickoff matches a pair of 3-1 teams. Capital is 2-0 in the Western AA; No. 4 Glacier 1-1.

“Capital’s always one of the contenders,” Glacier coach Grady Bennett said. “Every year. One thing I think is pretty unique is I’m not sure one coach on their staff is not from Helena Capital.

“They have a tight, committed culture. You know what you’re going to get, and you have to beat Capital — they’re not going to beat themselves.”

The Bruins, who are not ranked — their loss came to Billings West, 28-0 — have players: Joey Michelotti at quarterback; Luke Sullivan averaging 8.8 yards at running back and Dylan Graham averaging 7.1; Eric Cockhill and Tom Carter at receiver.

That’s not to mention defensive tackle Talon Marsh and his 10 sacks.

“He’s a really good player,” Bennett said, mindful that the Bruins’ Cole Soper has another seven sacks. “You have to take care of him every play because he’s a game-wrecker type.”

Glacier’s offense had tougher going in its 29-21 loss at Missoula Sentinel last week, partly because the Wolfpack enjoyed solid field position much of the night.

Untimely turnovers and penalties helped the Spartans rally from a 14-7 deficit.

“We had one key turnover and made maybe 3-4 big errors that ended up extending (Sentinel) drives,” Bennett said. He added how pleased he was that the Pack was in the game until the end.

“What we didn’t do was those little details, those discipline things that win the game,” he added.

Jake Rendina continues to lead Western AA in rushing at 514 yards — five behind Eastern AA leader Michael Deleon of Billings West. Glacier quarterback Gage Sliter’s .618 completion percentage leads AA signal-callers with more than 21 attempts.

Jake Turner, Connor Sullivan, Luke Bilau and Tate Kauffman have all caught TD passes.

“You always want to put up bigger numbers and points,” Bennett said. “Execution was definitely not where we wanted it to be (against Sentinel). A lot of that was the quality of opponent. All that said and one, I was OK with how we played.”