MISSOULA – Four weeks ago, Kalispell Glacier sat near the bottom of the Class AA football standings with a 1-5 record. Now the Wolfpack appear to be heading to the playoffs with a four-game winning streak and a ton of momentum.
Glacier finished the regular season with a Thursday night victory at Missoula Hellgate, 40-21. The Wolfpack improved to 5-5 and should receive a spot in the eight-team Class AA state bracket. Hellgate, which snapped a nearly six-year long losing streak earlier in the season, finished the year 2-8.
Preston Blain did most of the scoring for Glacier on Thursday. The senior running back finished with four touchdowns on the ground. His last score gave the Wolfpack their biggest lead of the night, 33-14, early in the fourth quarter. As it has done all year, Hellgate refused to give up. The Knights answered with a nearly 80-yard touchdown pass. Rollie Worster connected with Brandon Coladonato up the left sideline. The junior wideout then cut all the way back to the right sideline for the touchdown, running well over 100 yards on the play.
Glacier quickly pushed the lead back up to three scores on a 33-yard touchdown pass from Evan Todd to Drew Deck with about six minutes left in the game. It proved to be the final score as the Knights didn’t have another answer.
Hellgate took a lead to start the game. A Worster touchdown run was the only score of the first quarter. Blain scored on two short runs in the second, but Glacier failed on both point-after attempts. The Wolfpack led 12-7 at halftime.
Blain added his third touchdown up the middle early in the third quarter to make it 20-7. Hellgate converted a 4th-and-13 deep into Glacier territory when Worster found Jakob Bunch in traffic. Worster ran in another touchdown to cut the lead to 20-14.
Todd and Blain ran in touchdowns a couple minutes apart to finally give Glacier a cushion.
