Wolfpack come up just short in 24-21 loss to Bengals

The Helena Bengals held off a late push from the Glacier Wolfpack to win 24-21 Friday night at Legends Stadium in Western AA football.

Helena wide receiver Manu Melo had five catches for 135 yards and was responsible for all three of the Bengals touchdowns.

Things got off to a fast start with both teams scoring touchdowns in the first four minutes of play. A 27-yard completion from Glacier quarterback Gage Sliter to Kole Johnson set the Wolfpack up with first and goal from the one yard line when Kobe Dorcheus found a crease on 1st and goal to score and make things 7-0 in favor of the Wolfpack.

“Kobe had a great game tonight, showed so much toughness when we needed him to, he started giving us that spark breaking tackles to give that offensive line a little bit of belief and things started to pop,” Glacier head coach Grady Bennett said.

Glacier’s defense followed that up by forcing a Bengals turnover on their first offensive play when Helena quarterback Carter Kraft mishandled the snap and Dylan Whitten jumped on the football for the recovery.

The turnover exchange continued when on the first play of the drive Sliter was intercepted by Colter Petre at the Helena six yard line resulting in two turnovers in two plays for the opposing teams.

The Bengals drive seemed destined to stall after Glacier forced them into a third and five situation, but Kraft took the snap from his own 12 yard line and heaved the ball to a streaking Melo who made the catch near midfield and dashed to the end zone knotting things at 7-6 after the Bengals missed the extra point.

Kraft found Melo again for his second score of the day on a six-yard completion midway through the first quarter after a botched Glacier punt resulted in a Helena fumble recovery deep in Wolfpack territory.

This time the Bengals would convert on their extra attempt when they went for two and Cade Holland took a toss play and found paydirt to make things 14-7 Bengals.

The Bengals would end up scoring 24 unanswered points, with Colter Petre nailing a 25-yard field goal try in the third and Kraft hitting Melo for a seven-yard touchdown score early in the fourth to make things 24-7.

That’s when Glacier found its rhythm offensively. Glacier got the ball back with 9:13 to play in the fourth quarter and marched down the field in less than two minutes for a seven play, 75-yard drive that ended with a Wolfpack touchdown. Dorcheus bullied his way to two big first down runs and Sliter capped things off when he faked a handoff, surveyed the field and fired a dart from the Bengals 18-yard line to the goal line where Kash Goicoechea found space for the touchdown, cutting Helena’s lead to 24-14.

Glacier made one last push when the Wolfpack defense held strong and forced a Helena punt to get the ball back with less than three minutes to play at the Helena 36-yard line. On the drive’s first play Sliter threw a perfect spiral deep down the field to Cohen Kastelitz, who made a one-handed circus catch over two Bengals defenders to move the ball to the Bengals three yardline.

“Cohen Kastelitz was a beast today, he competed, he blocked… He is such a competitor,” Bennett said.

On the next play Dorcheus danced to his right and followed his blockers to the end zone for his second rushing score of the day making things 24-21.

That was as close as Glacier would get as Helena recovered the Wolfpack onside kick attempt and was able to run out the clock to secure the win.

“Really proud of those kids and their resilience just battling all the way till the end, what happened in the locker room was really special with them owning things... It’s their team ultimately so when they start owning and leaders start to emerge that’s good stuff,” added Bennett.

Sliter finished the day with 327 yards passing, a touchdown and an interception while completing 19 of his 33 pass attempts. Dorcheus had 91 yards rushing on 17 carries while adding the pair of touchdowns on the ground.

The Wolfpack (3-3) have now dropped three straight games and take on the Butte Bulldogs (3-3) in a battle of .500 teams looking to right the ship, with the Bulldogs coming off a 41-0 loss to Capital in Western AA play Friday. Bennett noted the Pack are on the verge of turning it around despite the losing streak.

“We hate losing, we’ve lost three in a row, we've lost to three really good football teams but we are right there…keep working to get over that hump,” he said.

Helena 14 0 3 7 - 24

Glacier 7 0 0 14 - 21

G — Kobe Dorcheus 1 run (Rhett Measure kick good) 9:45-1Q

H — Manu Melo 88 pass from Carter Kraft (Colter Petre kick no good) 8:03-1Q

H — Melo 6 pass from Kraft (Two point conversion run by Cade Holland good)

H — Petre 25 yard field goal good 5:32-3Q

H — Melo 7 pass from Kraft (Petre kick good) 9:23-4Q

G — Kash Goicoechea 18 pass from Gage Sliter (Measure kick good) 7:15-4Q

G — Dorcheus 3 run (Measure kick good) 1:55-4Q

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: Helena (32-127) —- Holland 17-54, Kraft 12-39, Melo 2-30, Wetzel 1-4. Glacier (32-145) Dorcheus 17-91, Goicoechea 3-21, Jackson Hensley 4-21, Sliter 7-12, Kaid Buls 1-0.

PASSING: Helena — Kraft 16-30-0 for 227 yards. Glacier —- Sliter 19-33-1 for 327 yards.

RECEIVING: Helena — Melo 5-135, Holland 4-26, Carson Anderson 3-36, Petre 3-15, Dylan Christman 1-18, Kehler Woodland 1-14. Glacier —- Cohen Kastelitz 7-152, Buls 5-41, Kole Johnson 2-51, Dorcheus 2-41, Goicoechea 1-18, Hensley 1-16, Van Scholten 1-6.