Cat-Griz Report: Griz roar, Bobcats stumble at SDSU

MISSOULA (AP) - Drake came up from Iowa intending the handle the crowd, but in the end couldn't quite bulldog Montana quarterback Dalton Sneed.

Sneed fired two touchdown passes 22 seconds apart and added a scoring run as the Montana Grizzlies pulled away from Drake 48-16 Saturday.

The junior threw scoring passes covering 13 and 10 yards to Jerry Louie-McGee and Samuel Akem in the final minute of the third quarter. Akem's touchdown, with 22 seconds left in the quarter, came one play after an interception and 25-yard return by Grizzlies' safety Reid Miller, and made it 31-10.

Sneed added a 13-yard scramble for a TD with 8:40 left in the game, answering a 3-yard scoring pass from Bulldogs' quarterback Grant Kraemer. That made it 38-16.

"I think they just wore us down," Drake coach Rick Fox said. "Their blitz was getting to us all day. We didn't finish a couple drives and that was big, and then they just wore us out.

"And the quarterback, he's just a great player. He just does so many things for you," he added.

Tailback Adam Eastwood added two scoring runs for Montana, including a 37-yard burst as the Grizzlies (2-0) pulled away from a 10-3 halftime lead. Eastwood's second TD made it 17-3 midway through the third quarter.

After Drake (0-1) cut the lead to 17-10 on a 49-yard Will Warner punt fake, Sneed had his two scoring passes. Sneed was 31 of 47 passing for 278 yards, and was also the Grizzlies' leading rusher with 65 yards.

"He did a nice job improvising, did a nice job throwing it on time and he did a good job handling somethings," Montana coach Bobby Hauck said of his quarterback. "There's a lot of checking (down) going on, and a lot of that is on his shoulders to get us in the right play."

Drake, a member of the Pioneer League, pushed the Grizzlies behind the play of Kraemer, who threw for 281 yards and a touchdown. Kraemer was also sacked seven times and intercepted twice. The Bulldogs had four second-half turnovers.

After Sneed's rushing TD, the Grizzlies tacked on a Tim Semenza field goal and a 40-yard interception return by Dareon Nash. Nash picked off a pass by Drake backup Alex Bray to cap the scoring with 3:34 left.

The Grizzlies took the lead for good at 10-3, with a quick 60-yard drive following Danny Donley's 45-yard field goal for Drake. Eastwood capped the march with a 2-yard touchdown run, at 13:21 of the second quarter. The score stayed that way until halftime.

"We were kind of a circus the first half," Hauck said. "We didn't handle things overly well. It was a good job by our guys hanging together.

"They gave a couple fronts and looks we didn't expect," he added. "They're a veteran, physical team, and I was impressed with them."

Louie-McGee had 14 catches for 133 yards for Montana, and Akem checked in at eight receptions for 86 yards. Devin Cates had nine catches for 80 yards for Drake, which saw its season opener last week washed out by bad weather midway through the first quarter.

"Our guys handled it as well as I imagined," Fox said of the Bulldogs. "We weren't sharp, but was it because of last week or was it because of the crowd and the environment and adapting to the situation? I'm not sure."

Fox was sure the biggest factor was Sneed.

"A guy like that, you think you've got him - and then he's gone," he said. "And he can do so many things, both throwing the running the football, it's tough to handle."

The Grizzlies head out on the road for the first time this season when they play at Western Illinois this Saturday.

SDSU 45, Montana State 14

Montana State played its second straight Missouri Valley Conference opponent Saturday night, and, after beating Western Illinois 10 days ago in Bozeman, things didn't go the Bobcat's way in Brookings, South Dakota.

MSU fell to 1-1 on the season after a 45-14 drubbing at the hands of third-ranked South Dakota State Saturday night, in a game in which Troy Andersen didn't play at quarterback due to an injured left hand.

"We got behind the sticks on offense and weren't able to get any momentum in the first half and were very disjointed," Bobcats head coach Jeff Choate said. "The defense hung in there and gave us a chance to stick around, and then by the second half, those guys were gassed. ... They can't play that much defense and still beat a dynamic team like South Dakota State."

Andersen, who started at QB in last week's win over Western Illinois, was injured in that game and was wearing a cast-like apparatus on his wrist and hand along with a glove. Andersen was put in at running back and took two carries for 3 yards. Starting QB Tucker Rovig and Willie Patterson were MSU's leading rushers with 8 yards apiece. With just 29 yards rushing, SDSU snapped MSU's streak of 42 straight games with at least 100 yards rushing.

The Jacks raced out to a 24-0 first-half lead, and defensively, they held MSU to just one first down and 44 yards of offense in the the first 30 minutes. Rovig struggled in the first half, completing just 7 of 16 passes for 26 yards and an interception. But he recovered in the second half and finished 13 of 25 for 164 yards and a TD.

Rovig led a couple impressive drives in the third quarter. On the Bobcats' first drive of the third quarter, Rovig's 42-yard pass to Patterson led to a 2-yard TD run by Maleek Barkley, capping a six-play, 75-yard drive and breaking up SDSU's shutout. On the next Bobcats possession, Rovig hit Kevin Kassis for 19 yards and tight end Connor Sullivan for 19 yards. The nine-play, 77-yard drive was capped by a 3-yard TD pass to Lance McCutcheon.

The Bobcats will return home to close out non-conference play against Wagner this Saturday in Bozeman.

Editor's Note: Havre Daily News sports editor George Ferguson contributed to this story.