Three turnovers. Three touchdowns.

That was the essential difference in Billings Skyview's 28-14 victory over Kalispell Glacier Friday night in the first round of the Class AA football playoffs. In the first meeting of the two programs, the Falcons converted a fumble recovery and two pass interceptions into 21 points to gain their first postseason victory since the 2004 team reached the championship game.

Skyview (8-3) will play either defending champion Helena Capital or Great Falls CMR in the semifinals next week, depending on the result of today's Missoula Sentinel-Helena contest. A Helena victory sends Skyview to Capital, while a Sentinel win puts the Falcons on the road to CMR.

"I'm happy to get to go and possibly upset the No. 1 or No. 2 team,'' said the Falcons' Casey Bigelow.

If the Falcons are going to have to any chance of doing that, they'll need to do many of the things they accomplished against the Wolfpack. They ran 12 more plays (65-53) and held 328-275 yardage advantage. But the biggest thing was the turnover count, which was 3-0 in Skyview's favor.

"We did a good job of holding on to the ball and we took advantage of our turnovers,'' said Skyview quarterback Connor Lebsock, who turned the game in Skyview's favor with an interception in the third quarter.

Lebsock jumped a slant route and gave the Falcons possession at the Glacier 41.

"They were running double slants,'' Lebsock explained. "They like to run that. I was looking at the down and distance, just thought I had it, so I jumped it and it turned out well. It could have been bad, though.''

But it wasn't, and Lebsock scored on a one-yard sneak to break a 14-14 tie with 7:18 remaining. On the next series, Shay Smithwick-Hann threw deep for Colter Hanson, but Brandon O'Hara was there to make an interception for Skyview. The Falcons then drove 54 yards with Carson Hilliard (146 yards) covering the final six for the clinching score.

There wasn't much to separate the Nos. 4-5 seeds in the first three quarters.

Skyview recovered a fumbled punt and had a short 28-yard drive to take the lead on Lebsock's one-yard run early in the second quarter. Glacier came back with a 79-yard march to even the score just before halftime as Smithwick-Hann got the final yard.

Bigelow helped put the Falcons ahead again. After Glacier reached midfield, he dropped Smithwick-Hann for an eight-yard loss. Two plays later, another sack gave Skyview the ball at their own 46. An 11-yard run by Lebsock and a 15-yard penalty for a late hit put the Falcons on the Glacier 22. Three plays later from the 18, Bigelow rolled around the left side and got the ball over the pylon for a touchdown.

"It was 29 sweep,'' Bigelow said. "I had to put the ball over the pylon. I just reached for it. Our linemen blocked really good … everybody was just blocking on that play. I was just happy to get in.''

Skyview's lead lasted just over two minutes. Smithwick-Hann threw a 54-yard pass to George Werk to the Skyview 25. The 6-foot-4 senior leaned over from the one with 4:13 left in the third quarter and it was 14-14.

As it turned out, that was the last offensive success for the Wolfpack.

"We had a few miscues in the first half, opportunities we should have come away with,'' Skyview coach Ron Lebsock said. "Glacier's a good football team. They played very, very well tonight. We were fortunate to be able to control the ball a little bit on the ground, hopefully kept their offense off the field a little bit because they are very, very explosive.''

The Falcons drove to the Glacier 33 on their first drive, but a penalty and a sack forced a punt. On the second series, Lebsock found a wide open Jake O'Brien, who was a least 10 yards behind the secondary, for an apparent touchdown. But the play was nullified by a penalty.

Skyview had 57 running plays overall, including 30 straight without a pass attempt in the second half. Hilliard did most of the work with 14 carries for 99 yards.

Taylor Hart ran for 84 yards for Glacier and Smithwick-Hann completed 8 of 16 passes for 96 yards. Smithwick-Hann was limited to 45 yards rushing and was sacked three times as the Wolfpack finished with a 7-4 record.

In other games Friday night, top-seeded Capital ran its winning streak to 32 games with a 33-7 victory over Missoula Big Sky and second-seeded CMR, after falling behind 14-7 in the second quarter, came back to crush Bozeman 60-21.

Skyview 28, Glacier 14

Scoring plays

Second quarter

Skyview - Connor Lebsock 1 run (Lebsock kick) 11:24

Glacier - Shay Smithwick-Hann 1 run (Brendan Hagan kick) 40.7

Third quarter

Skyview - Casey Bigelow 18 run (Lebsock kick) 6:54

Glacier - Smithwick-Hann 1 run (Hagan kick) 4:13

Fourth quarter

Skyview - Lebsock 1 run (Lebsock kick) 7:18

Skyview - Carson Hilliard 6 run (Lebsock kick) 3:15

Individual statistics

Rushing - Glacier: Taylor Hart 13-84, Smithwick-Hann 15-45, Bryan Chery 4-28, Stormy Day 2-9, Wiley Fusaro 2-8, B.J. Corpron 1-5. Skyview: Hilliard 26-146, Bigelow 8-47, Lebsock 16-46, Ryan Guelff 7-31.

Passing - Glacier: Smithwick-Hann 8-16-2-96. Skyview: Lebsock 4-8-0-58.

Receiving - Glacier: Chery 3-17, Jacob Leininger 3-17, George Werk 1-54, Connor Fuller 1-8. Skyview: A.J. Harmon 2-34, Jake O'Brien 1-18, Mike Nguyen 1-6.