Glacier 55, Butte 21
Jackson Pepe scored three touchdowns and the Wolfpack offense rattled off 55 first downs en route to a big home victory over the Bulldogs.
Pepe took a 44-yard punt return to the end zone, caught a 10-yard TD pass from Tadan Gilman and rushed in a 20-yard score to give Glacier an early lead. Gilman finished with 251 yards passing and two TD passes and 77 yards rushing. Drew Turner added a 23-yard run and finished with 80 yards rushing. Hunter Rauthe returned a fumble recovery 5 yards for a score and Patrick O’Connell caught a 55-yard TD pass. Cole Crosby capped the Pack’s scoring with a 2-yard TD run.
Glacier piled up 521 yards of offense.
The Wolfpack (7-1) play Flathead (3-5) on Friday night in Legends Stadium. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. After that Glacier wraps up the regular season at home against Missoula Big Sky. Two games before the start of the postseason, Glacier is tied for second place in Class AA with Billings West. Billings Senior is in first at 8-0.
Helena Capital 30, Flathead 20
Flathead scored 20 unanswered points in the second half but it wasn’t enough to battle back and defeat the Bruins.
Capital led 23-0 at halftime but Flathead mounted the comeback with a 2-yard touchdown run by Ryan Skramovsky with roughly three minutes left in the third quarter. Quarterback Bridger Johnson hit James Flannigan for a 17-yard TD pass and Johnson scrambled in for a 16-yard score with barely one minute remaining to make it 30-20.
Flathead finished with 317 yards of offense but lost two fumbles and Johnson had three interceptions. Flannigan had eight catches for 169 yards.
Flathead plays Glacier on Friday night at 7 p.m. The Braves end the regular season on the road against Missoula Sentinel.
Eureka 25, Bigfork 6
The Lions ended the Vikings’ reign atop Western 7B.
Matt Anderson scored a pair of touchdowns, Jacob Nowakowski scored a 67-yard TD pass from Garrett Graves ad Cannan Smith added a 8-yard run to defeat Bigfork and claim the conference title. The victory snapped Bigfork’s seven-year streak as district champs.
Anders Epperly scored the Vikes’ lone TD on a 29-yard TD from Augie Emslie.
Eureka is the No. 1 seed from Western 7B and hosts a first-round playoff game against the No. 2 seed from Eastern 2B, Malta (4-3). Dates and times have not been announced yet.
Bigfork, the No. 2 seed in Western 7B, will hit the road for the playoffs this week and square off against the top seed from Eastern 1B, Fairfield (7-0). Dates and times have not been announced.
Click here to view a playoff bracket.
Polson 42, Columbia Falls 27
The Pirates captured the Northwestern A division title with a big win over the Wildcats.
Tanner Wilson scored four touchdowns, including a pair of TD connections with Matthew Rensvold, as Polson dealt the Wildcats their first loss of the season. Wilson was 12 of 23 for 310 yards and an interception. Rensvold finished with 12 catches for 255 yards.
Columbia Falls quarterback Dakota Bridwell was 37 of 61 for 439 yards and two touchdowns but also had two interceptions. He also rushed in a score. Polson’s Cameron Brown returned a pick 34 yards for a score.
Columbia Falls kicker Brandon Karberg hit a 25-yarder and 20-yarder.
Columbia Falls had 490 yards of total offense while Polson had 416.
Columbia Falls (6-1) wraps up the regular season with a home game against Frenchtown (2-6) on Friday night. Polson (6-1) travels to Havre (5-3).
Whitefish 42, Frenchtown 14
Tyler Cote scored four touchdowns to lead the Bulldogs to their third win of the season.
Cote scored on runs of 65 yards, 13 yards and 2 yards.
Whitefish (3-5) travels to Hamilton (5-3) to finish the regular season on Friday night.