AA Football: Pack swamps Bison
Glacier wide receiver Cohen Kastelitz (1) celebrates with TJ Gannon (62), Aiden Krause (79) and Kole Johnson (4) after a touchdown on a 70-yard flea flicker on the first play of the game against Great Falls at Legends Stadium on Friday, Aug. 25. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier head coach Grady Bennett congratulates quarterback Jackson Presley (12) after a touchdown run by Kobe Dorcheus in the first quarter against Great Falls at Legends Stadium on Friday, Aug. 25. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier running back Kash Goicoechea (6) celebrates with teammates after a touchdown run in the first half against Great Falls at Legends Stadium on Friday, Aug. 25. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier punt returner Alex Hausmann (3) heads upfield with a return in the first half against Great Falls at Legends Stadium on Friday, Aug. 25. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier quarterback Jackson Presley (12) looks to pass in the third quarter against Great Falls at Legends Stadium on Friday, Aug. 25. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier defenders Kobe Dorcheus (33) and Aiden Krause (79) sack Great Falls quarterback Riley Collette (11) in the first half at Legends Stadium on Friday, Aug. 25. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier defenders Kobe Dorcheus (33), Aiden Krause (79) and Isaac Keim (9) celebrate after a sack of Great Falls quarterback Riley Collette (11) in the first half at Legends Stadium on Friday, Aug. 25. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier quarterback Jackson Presley (12) picks up yardage on a run in the first quarter against Great Falls at Legends Stadium on Friday, Aug. 25. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier defensive lineman Isaac Keim (9) and fellow defenders put a stop to a run by Great Falls running back Izayah Brown (0) in the first quarter at Legends Stadium on Friday, Aug. 25. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier running back Kash Goicoechea (6) heads to the end zone on a touchdown run in the first half against Great Falls at Legends Stadium on Friday, Aug. 25. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier wide receiver Cohen Kastelitz (1) heads to the end zone on a 70-yard touchdown reception on a flea flicker on the first play of the game against Great Falls at Legends Stadium on Friday, Aug. 25. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier running back Kobe Dorcheus (33) reaches just short of the goaline on a run in the second quarter against Great Falls at Legends Stadium on Friday, Aug. 25. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier defenders Kobe Dorcheus (33) and Kaleb Shine (16) sack Great Falls quarterback Riley Collette (11) in the first half at Legends Stadium on Friday, Aug. 25. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier wide receiver Cohen Kastelitz (1) celebrates after a touchdown reception in the first quarter against Great Falls at Legends Stadium on Friday, Aug. 25. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier quarterback Jackson Presley (12) looks to pass in the third quarter against Great Falls at Legends Stadium on Friday, Aug. 25. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier quarterback Jackson Presley lived up to the hype Friday, completing 19 of 26 passes in the Wolfpack’s 44-0 runaway win over Great Falls High, at Legends Stadium.
And yet his NCAA quarterback rating, a gaudy 180.9, paled in comparison to teammate Rhett Measure’s. His was 1,018.
That’s what happens when your only throw — on a flea-flicker pass, on Glacier’s first offensive snap — goes for 70 yards and a touchdown to Cohen Kastelitz. The TD, 17 seconds into the game, set the tone for a convincing non-conference win over the Bison.
“We just planned that we were going to run a little fake pass there,” said Kastelitz, who caught four passes for 120 yards and two touchdowns in the Pack’s season opener. “Throw it to Rhett, and then he was going to throw it down to me. It worked out, that play.”
“Dustin Haines is so good,” said Glacier coach Grady Bennett, referring to his offensive coordinator. “We want to have the mentality with his group of always being on the attack. And trick plays — to Coach Haines they’re not trick plays. They’re just part of the offense. Just another play we run, at any point of the game.”
After that Presley, the 6-foot-2 sophomore, was sharp, taking underneath routes early and completing some real nice, on-time passes — 28 yards to the sideline to Kastelitz, 33 yards up the seam to Measure — later on. He threw for 255 yards, finding Kastelitz for 14 yards for one score and sophomore Ethan Kauffman for 19 yards on another.
“He’s super talented,” Kastelitz said. “He gets the ball where it needs to be, all the time. He’s a really good QB. Really good.”
Great Falls’ offense found no such traction. The Bison ended the first half without a first down (and totaled just four), and got little positive yardage from anyone besides bruising running back Izayah Brown.
Glacier scored on its first five offensive possessions. Kobe Dorcheus capped an 8-play, 60-yard drive with a 4-yard touchdown run to make it 13-0 at 7:16 of the first quarter; the key play, after the Pack had two procedure penalties, was a 21-yard strike from Presley to Alex Hausmann on third-and-18.
The next drive covered 63 yards in eight plays. Isaac Keim turned a short pass into a bulldozing 27-yard gain, and that set up Kastelitz’s second TD, in which he got past one tackler and sped in for the score.
“It was a hitch behind the corner and I just had a bunch of really good guys blocking for me,” Kastelitz said. “I think it was Kobe and probably Isaac Keim.”
It was 20-0, and the gap grew to 27-0 on the first of Kash Goicoechea’s two touchdown runs, a 1-yarder at 8:05 of the second quarter. His second, a tackle-busting 16-yarder, came with 4:40 left in the half.
Measure’s chip-shot field goal at 5:43 of the third quarter made it 37-0 and started the running clock; Kauffman’s first varsity touchdown was part pretty pass, part great catch on the first play of the fourth quarter. He was the eighth Glacier gridder with a Friday.
“Ethan is a good example of a kid who on a normal team, would start both ways,” Bennett said. “He is a good football player. But he’s in a mix with so many senior football players. You can see how talented he is.”
The one red flag was colored yellow: Glacier had 15 penalties for 126 yards.
“Some of them are just fully on us, and some of them are things we need to teach better as coaches,” Bennett said. “And we’ll do that this week.”
Offsetting the mistakes more than once was Presley.
“As a sophomore — we don’t see something like that in Montana, the skill set he brings. The tangibles and intangibles… still, he’s a sophomore. He had a couple bad throws, he was a little bit nervous, got us in a couple wrong formations. But I expected that.
“Once he settled down, you started to see some of the things he can do. That laser to Rhett Measure up the seam? You don’t see a high school quarterback at any grade make that throw.”
There’s talent up and down the roster. Aiden Krause was in on two sacks. Hausmann had a 35-yard punt return. Dorcheus was in on a couple sacks and tore off a 32-yard run to finish with 90 on the ground.
“I think it’s going to be a really good season,” Kastelitz said. “As it keeps progressing we’re going to get better and better. I’m excited for it.”
Great Falls 0 0 0 0 - 0
Glacier 20 14 3 6 0 44
G — Cohen Kastelitz 70 pass from Rhett Measure (Measure kick), 11:43-1Q
G — Kobe Dorcheus 4 run (kick failed), 7:16-1Q
G — Kastelitz 14 pass from Jackson Presley (Measure kick), 1:10-1Q
G — Goicoechea 1 run (Measure kick), 8:05-2Q
G — Goicoechea 16 run (Measure kick), 4:40-2Q
G — Measure 21 FG, 5:43-3Q
G — Easton Kauffman 19 pass from Presley (Measure kick), 11:45-4Q
Individual Statistics RUSHING: Great Falls (27-25) — Izayah Brown 12-32, Riley Colletet 9-9, Ryder English 6-minus 7. Glacier (25-155) — Dorcheus 12-90, Goicoechea 7-53, Presley 2-8, Teagan Dixon 2-3.
PASSING: Great Falls — Colette 3-9-0 for 20 yards. Glacier — Presley 19-26-0 for 255 yards; Measure 1-1-0 for 70 yards.
RECEIVING: Great Falls — Trace Hulett 1-13, Talan Shine 1-7, Brown 1-0. Great Falls — Kastelitz 4-120, Measure 4-66, Bridger Smith 4-33, Dorcheus 3-26, Isaac Keim 2-38. Alex Hausmann 1-21, Kauffman 1-19, Kole Johnson 1-4.
