Last Friday was an unusually easy night for the Glacier football team.

Undefeated this season, Glacier (5-0) hasn’t won every game with ease, twice coming back from down 17 points in the fourth quarter to pull out dramatic wins.

With their starting quarterback and running back injured at the end of their last game and much of the team battling bumps and bruises after a brutal opening stretch that featured two of the top teams in the state, the Wolfpack could have used a break.

And a break is what they got.

Missoula Hellgate forfeited its season, its date with the Glacier falling last week at what Wolfpack coach Grady Bennett called a perfect time.

“With the injuries we had and with what was going on in our season, it couldn’t have come at a better time,” Bennett said.

Waiting on the other side of the bye week for Glacier is an athletic Missoula Sentinel team under the lights at Washington-Grizzly Stadium on the campus of the University of Montana.

The Spartans (3-2) have been a tough out for Glacier in recent years, the two teams finding themselves in shootouts two of the last three times they met.

Last year, Glacier scored two touchdowns in the final two minutes to win 42-31 at home.

Three years ago, in the last game the Wolfpack played at Washington-Grizzly, the teams combined for 1,173 yards from scrimmage as Glacier held off the Spartans 59-41.

Glacier has scored at least 42 points in the last four meetings with Sentinel, averaging 53 points per game in the stretch.

“Us and Sentinel have been great matchups,” Bennett said. “Our games have been crazy. They’ve been battles down to the last second, there’s been crazy plays and there’s been great games.

“We have to expect it to be a shootout-type game. We don’t want it to be, but you have to go in expecting that.”

In order to keep that shootout in the holster, the Glacier defense will have to keep a close eye on Sentinel quarterback Mitch Roberts, who ran for 111 yards and threw for 218 yards in a win over Helena High and threw for a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns in a win against Billings Skyview last week.

“We have to start by trying to contain (Roberts), and try to make him a little one-dimensional, if possible,” Bennett said.

“It’s hard to do. Our defense really has a challenge.

“If we don’t spy on him and make sure to keep him in the pocket as best as possible, he can kill you. You can be great in coverage and he can still hurt you.”

Glacier should be more equipped to keep up on offense after the week off, with starting quarterback Tadan Gilman and starting running back Drew Turner both given time to rest after sustaining injuries in the last two contests.

The Wolfpack defense has also had time to plug some of the holes it leaked in competitive games against Great Falls High and Bozeman.

They worked on giving up fewer of the passing routes underneath safety coverage that have allowed teams to pile up yards on the normally stout Glacier defense.

“I think we improved a lot. The two weeks helped,” Bennett said.

As for the big stage, Bennett wants his team to enjoy the experience of playing under the lights at the state’s biggest venue, where he once set records as a quarterback for the Grizzlies.

“I want them to enjoy it,” Bennett said.

“Then be able to be disciplined enough that after they soak that (atmosphere) in to get their mind focused on what they need to do and go play the football game.”

The game is scheduled to kick at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Spartans homecoming celebration.

With Montana also playing its homecoming game the following afternoon, fans will be able to park in lots M, P and Z, with Campus Drive closed to parking for the high school game. All fans will sit on the west side fo the stadium.

The game will be broadcast in the Flathead Valley on 103.9 FM.