Griz, Cats shine bright under in home-opneners

MISSOULA - The Montana Grizzlies gave head coach Bobby Hauck his 100th career win at UM in style, carrying the momentum from last week's historic win into a blowout 42-7 win over Western Illinois in front of a sold-out Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

Hauck is already the all-time leader in wins at Montana but extended his program record by reaching the historic milestone. He improved to 100-26 in 10 years at the helm of the Grizzly program, and the Griz improve to 2-0 heading into the bye week.

"The players were pretty enthused about it, which was cool," Hauck said of his 100th win. "They were very excited for me, the staff, and the program. From my perspective, they are all hard to get, and they are all special in their own way, but the number is kind of cool."

In the first home game in front of a capacity crowd for No. 4 Montana since December of 2019, the Grizzlies gave the fans plenty to cheer for on both sides of the ball. The defense put together another dominant performance, not allowing a point to the WIU offense and extending its streak without allowing a touchdown to over seven quarters.

"That stadium was awesome. It's fun to see it full," Hauck said. "In fact, I told our players this week, 'you really haven't seen the full force,' and it was full tonight. It was a load of fun. Everyone was enjoying it."

Montana outgained the Leathernecks by 367 yards and never allowed the visitors from the Missouri Valley Football Conference into the red zone. Montana controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides, rushing for 242 yards and allowing just 40 while also getting into the backfield for 11 tackles for loss. The big plays came often for a Grizzly defense that recorded six sacks and forced three Leathernecks turnovers. Western Illinois picked up just nine first downs compared to 26 for Montana.

"We played well. The defensive numbers remain spectacular," Hauck said. "I mean, the defense shut them out. Washington, we shut out for 55 minutes and change. So we've got 115 minutes of shutout defense going for our defense now, which is spectacular. It was an unbelievable night for our defense."

Patrick O'Connell led the defense with nine tackles, 2.5 sacks, and three tackles for loss. He also set up a Montana score with a forced fumble inside the Western Illinois 10-yard line in a Player of the Game effort. His fellow linebackers also put together a game to remember. Jace Lewis also forced a fumble while recording six tackles, and Marcus Welnel intercepted a pass and had six tackles.

Cam Humphrey put on a clinic on the other side of the football, throwing for five touchdowns and over 250 yards in leading the offense. The Grizzlies had 10 different receivers with a catch a pass and four with a score.

"Cam did a nice job getting the ball down the field, hitting people on deep balls, and they were challenging us to do that," Hauck said of his quarterback.

Malik Flowers was the recipient of several of those deep balls, hauling in three catches for two touchdowns and 100 yards. They were the first receiving touchdowns of his career, although he had previously found the end zone on three kickoff returns. Erik Barker also scored his first career touchdown on his first career pass reception, while veterans Samuel Akem and Mitch Roberts each added scores. It was the 23rd career touchdown reception for Akem as he continues to climb in Montana's record book. The young backfield for Montana had a productive day, with Junior Bergen and Isiah Childs combining for 151 yards. Childs scored his first-career touchdown on the second drive of the game for Montana.

The Grizzly offense was consistent all game long, punting just once. Montana converted 50 percent of their third downs (6-of-12) and also went for it on fourth down three times, picking up the first on two occasions. All told, it was a thorough victory in every aspect of the game for a confident Montana team.

After a scoreless drive from each team, Malik Flowers jump-started the Montana offense on the second drive, first rushing around the edge for a 14-yard gain before breaking free deep for a 33-yard yard third-down gain to put Montana in the red zone. The Grizzlies then got on the board with the first career touchdown from running back Isiah Childs from seven yards out. The Griz defense forced a three and out before Gabe Sulser provided a 24-yard punt return to start Montana's next drive in Leathernecks territory. A Montana fumble would end the drive at the conclusion of the first quarter. Western Illinois looked for a moment to have cracked the Grizzly defense halfway through the second quarter, but a penalty negated a touchdown, and Montana forced a punt. Freshman Junior Bergen then helped the Griz march down the field, putting together 19 and 12-yard gains on the ground. Once in the red zone, Humphrey found Samuel Akem for a touchdown strike to put the Grizzlies ahead 14-0.

A big pass play by Western Illinois on the next drive was negated when two Grizzlies held up the receiver, allowing Jace Lewis to deliver a massive hit that forced a fumble. A rocking stadium was quickly silenced as Western Illinois scored its first touchdown on a 75-yard interception return just three plays later.

It didn't rattle Humphrey. The senior quarterback responded on the next drive, completing all five of his passes. The final completion came on a broken play that saw Humphrey scramble to his right to find Mitch Roberts in space in the end zone. Montana took a 21-7 lead with just one second remaining in the half.

The Grizzlies received the kickoff to start the second half and wasted no time in adding to their lead. After a couple of nice runs by Childs, Humphrey took a 39-yard shot downfield to find a streaking Malik Flowers for his first career receiving touchdown.

Defensively, the Grizzlies continued to smother the Leathernecks. An O'Connell sack forced them into a third and long where Marcus Welnel intercepted his second pass of the season. Montana would quickly turn it back over with an interception of their own. The Grizzly defense would not be denied, however. On the first play for the Leathernecks, O'Connell once again found his way into the backfield. This time, his sack coughed loose the football to set Montana back up with goal-to-go from the six-yard line.

On a fourth-down attempt, Humphrey faked the handoff and found freshman Erik Barker wide open in the end zone. Barker's first career touchdown came on the tight end's first career catch, and it put Montana ahead 35-7.

Joe Babros forced a fumble with a sack on the next drive, but the Leathernecks were able to recover. It all but ended the drive however, and Montana got the ground game into rhythm on the next possession. Bergen and Childs busted off multiple double-digit gains to move Montana into WIU territory. From there, it was deja vu for the Griz.

Flowers once again sped behind the defense where Humphrey found him for a 28-yard pitch and catch to put the Griz ahead 42-7. The touchdown was the second of the day for Flowers and brought him to an even 100 yards receiving.

The Griz now have a bye before opening Big Sky Conference play Sept. 25 at home against Cal Poly.

Bobcats 45, Drake 7

BOZEMAN - Playing at home for the first time since beating Austin Peay in a December 2019 playoff game, No. 11 Montana State led from the outset while dominating in every aspect of the game and improving to 1-1 on the season. A sell-out crowd of 19,797 watched Drake of the Pioneer League fall to 1-1.

The Bobcats dominated the opening half, going up 24-0 before Drake scored just before halftime. MSU got the rout started with a 29-yard field goal by freshman Blake Glessner. Before the first quarter was over, quarterback Matthew McKay tossed a horizontal pass to Willie Patterson who did the rest on a 23-yard score.

MSU pushed the lead to 16-0 on another McKay to Patterson hook up, this time from 31 yards as the junior from Tacoma, Washington, hauled in McKay's ball over his shoulder. As the half was winding down, Isiah Ifanse plowed up the middle behind the blocking of Justus Perkins and Zach Redd to score from 4 yards out. But the Bobcats left a few extra ticks on the clock and Drake was able to go the length of the field and score on a 2-yard toss from Ian Corwin to Cross Robinson with 11 seconds remaining in the half.

After a slow start Ifanse closed out the half with 33 yards on 12 carries. McKay was sharp early, hitting 13 of 16 passes for 160 first-half yards. As he was in the season opener at Wyoming, Lance McCutcheon was the top receiver, getting six balls for 76 yards. Overall, McKay connected on 19 of 25 yards and had three touchdown tosses. In addition, the transfer from North Carolina State made good decisions while running for 61 yards on eight keepers. Ifanse led the Bobcats with 60 yards on 19 yards. McCutcheon finished with seven catches for 121 yards.

The trend continued in the second half. Immediately after Coy Steel's long punt return, McKay again got things rolling by hitting McCutcheon on a 45-yard strike to make it 31-7. That was the only score of the third quarter. In the fourth quarter Ifanse was stopped at the goal line only to fumble. As the ball bounced into the end zone, tight end Ryan Davis alertly pounced on the loose ball for another MSU touchdown.

Defensive highlights came from the front line as Chase Benson, Amandre Williams and Daniel Hardy combined for three sacks. Ty Okada was in on eight tackles and Troy Andersen another seven.

The game's final score occurred when backup quarterback Tucker Rovig hit a streaking Cam Gardner down the left sideline for a 28-yard touchdown. It was the first score of Gardner's Bobcat career.

MSU forced nine Drake punts while holding the Bulldogs to just 228 total yards. Meanwhile, the 13th-ranked Bobcats totaled 435 yards on 66 offensive plays.

MSU is home again next week to play San Diego, another member of the Pioneer League.