Cat-Griz Report: Griz roll late, Cats hold on at home

MISSOULA (AP) — Jordan Canada ran for 151 yards and three touchdowns, Jordan Johnson accounted for three additional touchdowns and Montana held off UC Davis 42-28 Saturday.

Canada's third touchdown, a 21-yarder, came one play after the No. 7 Grizzlies (5-2, 3-0 Big Sky Conference) held the Aggies (1-6, 0-4) on downs.

A week after giving up 77 points and 737 yards in a loss to Montana State at home, the Aggies were tied with Montana at halftime, 14-14, thanks to two Ben Scott touchdowns.

The Griz went up by two touchdowns in the third quarter when Jordan threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Mitch Saylor followed by a 74-yard TD run by Canada.

The Aggies looked poised to come back when Dalton Turay broke three tackles to score on an 11-yard TD pass from Scott. Canada made sure Montana kept its lead with a scoring run of 24 yards followed by 21-yard TD run to answer another Aggies score in the fourth quarter.

Scott finished with four touchdown passes.

"They didn't fall into the trap that this wasn't a good football team," Griz head coach Mick Delaney said. "They knew that the minute they started to turn tape on … that it was a very good football team."

The Grizzlies finished with 490 yards, 280 through the air, while the Aggies (0-4, 1-6) had 394 yards, 257 by Scott. It was Montana’s best offensive output of the season.

Montana started the scoring in the first quarter with an acrobatic 24-yard catch by Jones over a defender.

Scott tied it up in the second quarter with a drive that included three big passes to Ramon Vargas. The Aggies went ahead 14-7, their only lead of the game, on an 8-yard Scott pass to Gabe Manzanares.

The Griz tied the game just before halftime on a 5-yard run by Johnson.

The Griz are now on the road for one of their toughest tests in Big Sky play thus far. On Saturday night, they’ll visit Cal Poly.

Bobcats 23, Weber State 13

BOZEMAN (AP) — Shawn Johnson ran for 153 yards and a touchdown to lead Montana State to a 23-13 win over struggling Weber State.

Johnson scampered 63 yards for a score early in the third quarter to give the No. 9 Bobcats (6-2, 4-0) a 14-3 lead. Gunnar Brekke added a short TD run early in the fourth, but the Wildcats (0-7, 0-3) answered with a field goal and touchdown to cut it 20-13.

Weber State’s defense then got a stop, but muffed the punt at its own 13 and MSU tacked on a field goal to put the game out of reach.

Montana State ran for 304 yards, but the Weber State defense kept red-hot quarterback Dakota Prukop in check all day, holding the sophomore without a touchdown and to just 220 total yards.

Prukop had 14 touchdowns and over the 900 yards of offense the last two games. Prukop has won the last two Big Sky Player of the Week honors coming in.

However, MSU’s much-maligned defense played its best game of the season so far, limiting the Wildcats to little offense, especially in the first half.

"We felt like we had something to prove and we knew we were better than we were playing, so we really took it upon ourselves to step it up this week," said defensive end Odin Coe, who now has six sacks during his junior season. "One decent performance isn't good enough, though. We have to continue this through the rest of the season."

The Bobcats now have their bye week before returning to action Nov. 1 at Cal Poly.