For almost two quarters, the upset-minded Missoula Big Sky football team stayed with unbeaten Kalispell Glacier Thursday night at Missoula County Stadium.
Then the Wolfpack turned on the afterburners, scoring 38 unanswered points en route to a 55-14 win. Glacier boosted its record to 3-0 while Big Sky fell to 1-2, failing to build on the momentum of a win at Billings Skyview last week.
“We talked about it all week about how we have to keep our foot on the gas pedal and keep grinding,” Glacier coach Grady Bennett said. “Credit to Big Sky for playing hard.”
Glacier struck first when sophomore running back Kobe Dorcheus rambled 67 yards for a touchdown with 9:23 left in the first period. Five minutes later, the Wolfpack went up 10-0 on a Rhett Measure 35-yard field goal.
Glacier’s lead ballooned to 17-0 on a Gage Sliter 29-yard TD pass to Van Scholten before Big Sky got on the board early in the second quarter. Colter Ramos caught a 67-yard bomb from Drew Martins. The Eagles then recovered a pooch kick and Martins later found Joey Sandberg for a 5-yard TD pass as the hosts cut their deficit to 17-14.
The Wolfpack responded with two straight touchdowns to close out the half. Sliter ran nine yards for a score and threw a 6-yard screen pass to Kaid Buls that went for a TD, giving the visitors a 31-14 lead that they took into the break.
The second half was all Glacier. Jackson Hensley and Buls scored in the third quarter and Bridger Smith scored midway through the fourth quarter on a pass from Sliter to make the score 52-14. Measure added a short field goal late.
Glacier finished with 482 total yards to 217 for Big Sky. Sliter completed 25 of 32 passes for 367 yards and four touchdowns. Dorcheus ran for 76 yards.
“Gage (Sliter) is such a good decision maker,” Bennett said. “He responds to coaching really well and he does a great job going through his progressions.
“He knows where his eyes need to be to make his reads. It was another incredible performance by him and for the most part he had all day to throw.”
Martins completed 15 of 29 passes for 182 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Sandberg had 53 yards rushing and 13 yards receiving on two catches.