The Glacier Wolfpack got half the start it wanted Friday — the turnovers, but not the points — so instead of using Jake Rendina to protect a lead, it used the 230-pounder to build one.

Rendina ran 30 times for 233 yards and four touchdowns, keying a dominant third quarter that carried the Pack (3-0) past Western AA foe Missoula Big Sky 36-18 at Legends Stadium.

His touchdowns runs covered 9, 2, 5 and 34 yards, and most of his yardage came in a power package that wore down the Eagles (1-2).

“Straight up, ‘Patriot,’” said Rendina, a junior who now has 11 touchdowns on the season. “There’s a pulling guard, and it’s just power.”

The pulling guards? Tanner Norenberg and Bryce Almarez. But Rendina didn’t stop with those two.

“Our whole line — we may not be the biggest, like I’ve said,” he said. “But we are the toughest. We are the toughest.”

Rendina’s performance offset an uneven start in which Glacier jumped on an errant fourth-down snap (AJ Wood) and got an interception by Tyler Haussman on Big Sky’s first two possessions, only to turn the ball back with a Rendina fumble and a JT Allen interception.

Both turnovers came at the Eagles’ 8-yard line.

“We started off slow,” Rendina said. “I don’t know what it is at home -- we just need to turn it on in the first quarter.”

Big Sky led 6-0 thanks to a 17-play, 92-yard drive that was generally all Colter Janacaro. The senior quarterback had a 15-yard, third-down run to go with some solid throws. He capped the march with a 3-yard TD at 1:45 of the first quarter.

Glacier answered with a six-play, 64-yard drive — 37 coming on a Rendina burst on the first play. He carried four more times and found the end zone through a pair of Eagle tacklers. When Luke Bilau hauled in a PAT pass from Devon Wallack, Glacier had the lead for good, 8-6 early in the second quarter.

The score stayed there even though Big Sky loused up a fake punt (Ethan Diede batted a pass), giving the ball up and its own 43 late in the half.

Glacier got to the 26 before another interception, by Mitch Muralt, at the 46-second mark.

“We’ve been creating the turnovers and cashing in on them and it’s made a huge difference,” Glacier coach Grady Bennett said. “Tonight we didn’t do that. We definitely floundered in the first half, but that’s football.”

The second half was different.

“Obviously we were going to come out and run the ball, because we were struggling a little bit — struggling a lot — in the passing game,” Bennett said. “We decided we needed to really establish on this first drive: ‘Everyone assign correctly, lock on and just stay on a little bit longer.’

“If we stay on a little bit longer, we know Jake’s going to have a chance.”

On the first snap of the third quarter Rendina tore off a 42-yard run. The only non-Rendina carry on the seven-play drive was a 12-yard pass from Allen to Bilau on fourth-and-2.

On the Pack’s next possession Diede hauled in a 17-yard pass from Allen on fourth-and-5, setting up Rendina’s third TD.

Rendina closed out a solid all-round third quarter. Allen was 6-for-7 for 68 yards in the frame - with his 34-yard TD with 39 seconds left.

“We seem to get better as the game goes on,” Rendina said. “Every time we’d pound it, they’d get more and more tired, and we’d capitalize.”

The lead grew to 36-6 when backup running back Wyatt Thomason had a 13-yard touchdown run that was set up by his own 25-yard burst.

Big Sky tacked on a couple late scores, getting a tip-drill TD pass from Janacaro to Tre Reed and another Janacaro TD run. The younger brother of Levi Janacaro, now a Griz linebacker, ran for 84 yards and threw for 166.

“Both Janacaro brothers. ...have as big of hearts as any kids I’ve coached against in 30 years,” Bennett said. “Playing both ways — you just have to tip your hat to a kid like that. He’s a handful. We missed a few tackles but overall we hung in there with him physically as well. I’m proud of our defense.”

Rendina is proud of his team, which travels to play Missoula Hellgate Thursday.

“Every team we’ve had start 3-0, we’ve been to the chipper,” he said. “That’s what we’re looking for.”

Isaac Ayers added an interception for Big Sky, which won the turnover battle 4-2.

Big Sky 6 0 0 12 - 18

Glacier 0 8 21 7 - 36

MBS - Colter Janacaro 3 run (kick failed), 1:45-1Q

G - Jake Rendina 9 run (Luke Bilau pass from Devon Wallack), 11:53-2Q

G - Rendina 2 run (Patrick Rohrbach kick), 8:50-3Q

G - Rendina 5 run (Rohrbach kick), 4:54-3Q

G - Rendina 34 run (Rohrback kick), :39-3Q

G - Wyatt Thomason (Rohrback kick), 6:40-4Q

MBS - Tre reed 19 pass from Janacaro (pass failed), 3:29-4Q

MBS - Janacaro 5 run (run failed), 1:09-4Q

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: Big Sky (34-115) -- Janacaro 25-84, Louis Sanders 2-7, Ethan Giebenhaim 1-4, Hunter Meinzen 4-2, Kolby Jensen 1-3, Match Muralt 1-minus 10. Glacier (42-316) -- Rendina 30-233, Thomason 5-52, JT Allen 4-19, Levi Frost 3-12.

PASSING: Big Sky - Janacoar 18-31-1 for 166 yards, Sanders 1-2-0 for 46 yards. Glaciedr -- Allen 8-16-2 for 95 yards; Gage Sliter 0-1-1 for 0 yards.

RECEIVING: Big Sky -- Sanders 6-64, Reed 5-41, Shawn Huseby 3-78, Cole Sandberg 2-23, Muralt 2-0, Meinzen 1-6. Glacier -- Bilau 3-19, Rendina 1-8, Ethan Diede 1-7, Cole Johnson 1-16, Mason Naomi 1-14, Kale Mayhue 1-11.