Knights take on Desperados today
The Glacier Knights have arrived - in Salt Lake City and in the Rocky Mountain Football League AA playoffs.
Flathead Valley's semi-professional football team, once stricken with losing records year after year, earned its first winning season in the team's six-year history. The Knights finished 6-2 and clinched the AA North Wild Card and a date in the postseason.
Today they find themselves on the road facing the Utah Valley Desperados (7-1) in the opening round of the six-team playoff.
"I'm feeling very excited about it," second-year Glacier coach Will Wheat said. "The guys are amped up and ready to go out there and take it to them and bring the playoffs back to Montana."
Glacier's two losses this season came at the hands of the Big Sky division champion Great Falls Gladiators (7-1), who have a first-round bye and play the winner of Glacier and Utah Valley in the second round.
It's been an earnest reform by Kalispell's collection of men ages 18 and up who come from all walks of life and suit up to play every Saturday for nine weeks out of the year.
In the five previous seasons, the Knights have a combined record of 4-36. In four seasons, from 2004 through 2007, Glacier lost 33 straight games before picking up a win in Wheat's first season as coach. The Knight went on to finish 3-5.
This season, the Knights' offense has one of the best rushing attacks in the league, led by a strong tandem that includes AA's leading running back Mike Kuehne. Kuehne finished the regular season with 668 yards on 130 carries for a 5.1 yards per carry average. The second-closest back totaled just over 500 yards rushing.
Mike Pan completes the
Glacier 1-2 punch and tallied 388 yards on 58 carries for a 6.7 yards per carry average this season. Last week against Helena, Pan totaled 120 yards on eight carries in the 13-0 victory.
Quarterback Jeff Greenwell has prospered thanks to the strong run game and earned a 75.5 QB rating, the fourth best in the league.
After the regular season finale, Wheat awarded the game ball to the O-line and the team went on to celebrate before focusing on Utah Valley.
"I congratulated the guys … There's a lot of guys on the team that put the extra effort in," Wheat said.
Defensive end Kyle Holloway leads the fifth-ranked Glacier defense, which has held opponents to an average of 10.9 points per game this season.
Against Helena, Holloway had four sacks and broke the RMFL individual game sack record.
Utah Valley comes into the playoffs ranked first in team scoring with a 29.1 points per game average.
For what it's worth, the Knights are 4-0 against Utah teams the past two seasons.
"They want that third opportunity to take it to Great Falls," Wheat said. "We're going for it."