Cat-Griz Report: Griz roll in Utah, Cats fall to Jacks

The Montana Grizzlies dominated from the opening kick against Utah Tech on Saturday night in St. George, Utah, scoring the first 43 points of the game on their way to a 43-13 victory. The win improves Montana to 2-0 on the season.

It was a complete team performance for the Grizzlies. The defense forced four turnovers, the offense controlled the tempo with the rushing attack and totaled 397 yards, and Junior Bergen returned a punt for a touchdown as all three phases were clicking for Montana.

The final stats don’t tell a full story of just how much Montana controlled the game. The Grizzlies led 36-0 at the half and 43-0 at the end of the third quarter. Outside of a pair of late touchdowns when the result was already locked in, Montana’s defense didn’t allow much.

“I thought our guys played hard. I think that can be mostly a given,” head coach Bobby Hauck said following the game. “I think you’d be hard-pressed to ever see us not play with a fury and a fierceness so that was good. We were up 43-0 at the end of the third, 36-0 at half. I think we played everybody that traveled.”

The Grizzlies indeed were able to give plenty of game time to the entire traveling roster in the second half. The biggest plays of the game all went in favor of Montana, as the Grizzlies were highly efficient on third down offensively while holding the Trailblazers to just 5-for-18 in third down conversions. Montana also stopped Utah Tech on downs twice to go along with three interceptions and a forced fumble. Nick Ostmo returned to action and had the performance of the day, running it 12 times for 118 yards and two touchdowns, averaging 9.8 yards per carry. He also hauled in a pair of receptions for 27 more yards.

“Nick (Ostmo) was really good tonight and it’s good to have him back,” Hauck said. “He missed a lot of training camp with some health issues and it was good to see him back. I think he felt pretty good tonight, it sure looked like it.”

His fellow running back Eli Gillman added 81 yards and a pair of scores as well. The rushing attack led the offense all day, as they outgained Utah Tech 262-103 on the ground. Clifton McDowell looked sharp in leading the Montana offense in the first half, running nine times for 32 yards and going 7-for-10 for 94 yards in the air. Trevin Gradney had his second interception of the season and Nash Fouch and TraJon Cotton also picked off a Trailblazer pass. Gradney had another big play, forcing a fumble that Montana would recover for the fourth turnover of the game.

Riley Wilson and Matai Mata’afa each had a sack while Levi Janacaro led Montana with six tackles. It was a complete team effort defensively as well as 16 different Grizzlies recorded multiple tackles. Gradney had a highlight reel interception in week one, and may have one upped himself on the first drive of the game for Utah Tech. Facing a third and short, the Trailblazers tried a quick out to the sideline for a first down. Gradney read the route, rising up and pulling the ball down with one hand to give Montana the ball in fantastic field position. McDowell started the drive for the Grizzly offense, picking up a third down conversion through the air to Fontes at the Utah Tech 25. He dropped a screen pass off the Xavier Harris a few plays later to set up first and goal from the 10. It was all Nick Ostmo from there. He had his first two carries of the year, and punched the second one in from four yards out to give the Grizzlies a lead within the first five minutes of the game.

The defense forced another three-and-out, and McDowell went to the air again for a big 21-yard gain to Junior Bergen. The running back group saw plenty of rotation early, and this time it was Xavier Harris’ turn to get a couple of big gains to set Montana up in the red zone.

McDowell nearly broke through for an 11-yard score but was tripped up near the goal line. He’d hand to Gillman on the next play and Montana would jump ahead 14-0 with just under five minutes to play in the first. The Trailblazers hit two big plays to get into Grizzly territory on the next drive, and then elected to go for it on fourth down from the Montana 40. TraJon Cotton covered a slant route well and Utah Tech turned it over on downs. The Grizzlies would score again early in the second quarter on a big play from Ostmo. He took a handoff on the right side and juked past the edge defender to break contain. From there, it was a foot race to the end zone for a 46-yard score. Montana would get a two-point conversion by Ryder Meyer to make it 22-0. Travis Benham, Montana’s punter, provided a special teams highlight midway through the second with a 60-yar punt that landed at the three-yard line, bounced directly into the air, and was downed at the one to pin Utah Tech in the shadow of their own end zone.

One special team highlight led to another four plays later. The Grizzlies forced the Trailblazers to punt from their own end zone, and Junior Bergen hauled it in on the midfield logo. He cut straight to the left, dodging two would-be tacklers. Once he reached the sideline, he cut back inside and raced up the sideline for a score.

It’s the second career punt returned for a touchdown by the preseason All-American special teams player.

“The guys did a good job blocking it and obviously Junior (Bergen) is fabulous when he has the ball in his hands in the open field,” Hauck said. “He has a real knack for knowing where everyone is. Junior watched the film from last week and thought he left a couple of big plays out there, not just one, but he really wanted the one and so did the other guys on that team. It was good.”

The big plays didn’t stop there. Utah Tech nearly hit on a big gain, but a holding call brought it back. Three plays later, a pass over the middle sailed high and Nash Fouch picked it off at midfield to give Montana one more scoring chance in the half.

Fontes came through with another third down grab to move the chains inside the Trailblazer 35-yard line. Ostmo continued his fantastic first half with a catch on a swing pass that he took for 20 yards to again put Montana in scoring position.

McDowell carried once, then handed to Gillman for a two-yard score. Gillman’s ninth carry was his second touchdown of the game, and he also had 40 yards at that point. Ostmo had 62 yards and two scores as well in the first half.

The extra point gave Montana a 36-0 halftime lead. The Grizzlies ran 36 plays for 251 yards in the opening half with 160 of those yards coming on the ground. Add in two Trailblazer turnovers and Montana’s defense holding them to 2-for-10 on third down, and it led to a dominant opening half hour.

“They weren’t handling us very well in the first quarter and then when we had the walk in on the two-point conversion to make it 22-0 I had the feeling it was going to be hard (for them) and that our guys weren’t going to let up,” Hauck said. “We kept it going and got another two touchdowns in the second quarter and felt pretty good at halftime up 36-0.”

The Grizzly defense made another big play early in the second half, forcing a third Trailblazer turnover. Utah Tech had a big pass near midfield, but after the catch Gradney tracked down the receiver and stripped the ball free. Ryan Tirrell got on top of it to give the Griz the ball back.

TraJon Cotton joined the turnover party for the Grizzly defense on the next Trailblazer drive, intercepting his first career pass to give Montana the ball back again. It was the fourth turnover forced by the Grizzly defense in the game. Ostmo busted another big run, this time for 41 yards, to go over 100 yards for the game. Vidlak had entered the previous drive, and he found Evan Shafer for a touchdown. It was the first touchdown as a Grizzly for the transfer tight end and it increased the Montana lead to 43-0.

Montana were able to play all 70 players that traveled to St. George, a testament to the control that they had on the game.

“It’s just wonderful to be able to get those guys in the game. They work hard,” Hauck said. “It’s not like the starters work harder than the guys that never play. They all do the same amount of work from January until now, so when they have the opportunity to play its awesome to get them in the game and see what they can do.”

Vidlak threw an incomplete screen pass that was ruled a fumble later, and Utah Tech were able to recover it and then score the first touchdown of the game with just over 10 minutes remaining. The Trailblazers would score again in the final five minutes to cut the lead to 43-13.

Montana will be back in action next Saturday at home inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium. The two-time defending D-II National Champions Ferris State will come to town for a blackout night game. The Grizzlies will look to finish the non-conference schedule undefeated for the third straight season.

So far, so good for Hauck and the Grizzlies.

“It’s good to be 2-0, we can’t be any better than that.”

Cats come up short at SDSU

BROOKINGS, South Dakota – Sixty minutes of bitterly-contested football that culminating in a play decided by the slimmest possible margin might be difficult to summarize for some, but Montana State quarterback Sean Chambers got to the heart of the topic.

“Heartbreaking,” he said after the Bobcats dropped a 20-16 decision at No. 1 and defending National Champion South Dakota State on Saturday night. The game concluded with Chambers narrowly missing on two passes into the Jackrabbits end zone as time expired.

“We anticipated a four-quarter game,” said Bobcat head coach Brent Vigen. “We knew we’d have to play our tails off, and I think we did that. Our guys played hard and made plays on both sides of the ball. We just didn’t make enough.”

Third-ranked Montana State controlled the game’s first two quarters, but SDSU gained the upper hand after the intermission. Still, one of the most-anticipated showdowns on the FCS calendar stood at a stalemate, tied 13-13, with after a Brendan Hall field goal with 10:15 to play.

Plenty happened from that point on. The Cats forced a three-and-out, then MSU marched to the Jackrabbits two-yard line. A penalty pushed the team back to the seven, and Hall’s field goal gave MSU a 16-13 lead with 2:04 to play.

SDSU responded. On first-and-10, Mark Gronowski found Grahm Goering on a 40-yard pass. On the next play a Gronowski screen to Griffin Wilde resulted in a 35-yard touchdown.

“Two big plays,” Vigen said. “They beat us in man coverage on a heck of a pass and a heck of a catch. Then we didn’t tackle on a screen.”

Trailing 20-16, Chambers led the Bobcats back. He found Derryk Snell for 19 yards, and again for 13, and then scrambled for a 13-yard gain. Then Chambers connected with Treyton Pickering on a 21-yard completion, giving MSU a 19-yard field for the win.

First, though, a false start pushed the team to the 24. On first-and-15, Chambers fired a pass to the back of the end zone. Clevan Thomas Jr. made the catch, the nearest official threw his hands in the air, and the clock read 0:00. Review, however, overturned the play to essentially end the game. One last pass fell incomplete.

“All the guys played their hearts out,” said junior linebacker Danny Uluilakepa said. “That’s what I feel bad about.”

Tommy Mellott completed all six of his passes for 34 yards, and rushed for 46 yards, but left the game in the second half with an injury. Pressed into full-time action, Chambers rushed for 90 yards and threw for 53 more.

South Dakota State finished with 341 yards, MSU 298. The Cats rushed for 211, led by Chambers, along with Julius Davis’ 57 yards.

After Montana State dominated the game’s first 30 minutes, South Dakota State flipped the script by using the same method that staked MSU a 10-0 halftime lead. The Jackrabbits gained 155 yards in the third quarter while holding the Cats to 18. That vaulted the top-ranked Jackrabbits to a win over No. 3 MSU in Brookings on Saturday night.

MSU controlled the Jackrabbits offense in the first half with a staunch defense, and controlled the clock with a steady ground game. The Cats held No. 1 South Dakota State to 91 yards before the intermission, 3.6 yards per the team’s 25 plays. The Jackrabbits rushed for 40 yards.

The Cats held the ball for two-thirds of the first half, gaining 118 yards on the ground. While MSU didn’t gain 10 yards on any rushing play, the team averaged 4.8 yards per attempt and wasn’t stopped for a negative play.

The half turned on a negative play MSU’s defense inflicted on the Jackrabbits. On the sixth play of SDSU’s opening drive, Danny Uluilakepa chased South Dakota State quarterback Mark Gronowski behind the line of scrimmage toward the Bobcat sideline. Uluilakepa clipped Gronowski’s leg, altering his stride, and the Walter Payton Trophy candidate’s knee grazed the ball and knocked it loose. Nolan Askelson pounced on it at the Bobcat 43.

The first half’s only touchdown ensued. Tommy Mellott gained eight yards and Julius Davis four, followed by a nine-yard pass from Mellott to Davis. Davis ran for six more to give Montana State a first-and-10 from the 30, then Mellott ran for five and Sean Chambers finished the drive. He ran for three yards, eight yards, three yards, and a three-yard touchdown.

On its next drive, the Bobcats again chewed up yards and clock. MSU moved 47 yards in 12 plays to drain eight minutes, 12 seconds off the clock. Brendan Hall kicked his first field goal as a Bobcat to give Montana State a 10-0 lead it carried into halftime. The last time SDSU was scoreless at halftime was October 3, 2015, at the hands of North Dakota State.

Despite the bitter ending, Vigen knows that plenty of season remains. “We can’t change the outcome,” he said. We’ve got to move on. We’ll get back to work on Monday.”