After beating the top passing threat in the state last week, top-ranked Glacier football (5-0) has to change gears and focus on the run as it travels to No. 5 Missoula Big Sky (3-2) tonight.

The Eagles excel on the ground, averaging more than 168 yards rushing in five games, relying on a big offensive line and power backs Cory Diaz and Michael Banna. Each is averaging more than 95 yards rushing this season.

“Their offensive line arguably could be the best in the state,” Glacier coach Grady Bennett said.

“They’re very big, they’re very physical and their two running backs are scary. They’re huge, they’re tough to tackle.”

That’s an area where the Wolfpack is comfortable, holding teams to just 61 yards a game and two rushing touchdowns, just 2.1 yards per carry.

“It’s going to be a kind of battle of wills,” Bennett said.

“They’re not going to change their game plan. They’re going to run the football with those guys. That’s what they’re going to do.

“We’re pretty good against the run. So it’s going to be fun to watch that battle unfold. It’s fun sometimes, with different opponents, where you get those kind of matchups with one team’s strength against another team’s strength. It’s fun to watch those kids battle and play it out. That’s really what it’s going to come down to [Friday] night.”

The Glacier offense has done its part to help the defense the last three games. The Wolfpack has taken early leads in each contest, then put pressure on its opponents with consecutive scoring drives, building a lead that forces many teams to be one-sided.

“The guys have really done a great job of taking the pressure off of our defense so they can just go out there and play free and loose and not have to worry about having to get a stop,” Bennett said.

“We’ve put the defense in a position where, when we get on a roll on offense, they can just go and let their hair down and hang out.

“That’s what we’ve been able to do is get rolling and put a lot of points on the board. If we can do that against Big Sky, it plays to our advantage. We want to just keep seeing improvement.”

Glacier has scored more points than any team in the state, averaging more than 49 a game, and in doing so has spread the wealth. Eight different players have scored a touchdown for the Wolfpack on offense, something that allows the team to be more versatile on game day.

“It comes down to a team trying to take away a certain player,” Bennett said.

“Some games they really try to focus on Logan [Jones] or try to focus on Sam [McCamley]. When that happens we have enough weapons to go to somebody else. Everybody’s ready. Our guys understand that any night can be sombody’s night. One day it might be Devin [Cochran], it might be Sam. It depends on what the defense is giving us and who has the hot hand that night. Brady [McChesney] is pretty good about finding those guys too”

The game starts at 7 p.m. at Missoula County Stadium.