Bobcats, Grizzlies win on Homecoming

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BOZEMAN - Sean Chambers passed for three touchdowns and ran 88 yards for another to lead Montana State to a 38-22 win over Portland State Saturday afternoon in Bozeman.

Playing under sunny skies, the Bobcats (4-1 overall, 2-0 Big Sky) broke open the Homecoming event with a dominating second half. Leading 17-14 at halftime, Chambers, Jared White and Derryk Snell took over while defensive stars Brody Grebe, Rylan Ortt and McCade O'Reilly helped shut down the Vikings (2-3, 1-1) as MSU claimed its 23rd consecutive home win, the longest streak in the college football.

Chambers finished with 118 yards rushing while completing 14 of 21 passes for 143 yards. He threw two scoring passes to Snell, who led the first-place Bobcats with five catches. In the fourth quarter, Chambers iced the victory when he connected with Clevan Thomas for a 20-yard score. It was Thomas' first touchdown of 2023.

White, who had only seven yards rushing at halftime, finished with 102 yards on the ground as MSU ran for 313 yards. Overall, the third-ranked Bobcats gained 456 yards to 311 for PSU.

The Bobcats scored first on a 3-yard run by Julius Davis. The Vikings took a 7-6 lead on a 31-yard gallop by quarterback Dante Chachere in PSU's first visit to Bozeman since 2017. Chambers answered with his first scoring pass to Snell and a 21-yard field goal by Brendan Hall put MSU ahead 17-7 before Chachere scored just before halftime to trim the lead to three points. Chachere led the Vikings with 83 yards on the ground.

The only score in the third quarter came on an 88-yard race to the end zone by Chambers. Thomas, who later caught a scoring pass, sprang Chambers loose with two downfield blocks while escorting Chambers into the end zone on MSU's longest play of the season.

Snell's second scoring catch ended the Bobcats' scoring. A late touchdown by PSU's Jobi Malary accounted for the final score in front of 22, 017 happy fans, MSU's 17th straight regular season sellout.

Meanwhile, Grebe spent a lot of the afternoon in the PSU backfield, accounting for a pair of sacks and two forced fumbles. Ortt came up with an interception and he and O'Reilly combined for 16 tackles. Jon Johnson, who recovered a key fumble in last week's win at Weber State, also intercepted Chachere who finished 14 of 25 for 105 yards. Overall, MSU sacked Chachere five times.

MSU has next week off before playing host to Cal Poly on Oct. 14.

Griz 28, Idaho Satte 20

MISSOULA - Montana football bounced back on Homecoming and defeated an explosive Idaho State team 28-20 to improve to 4-1 on the season and 1-1 in Big Sky play. The Grizzlies never trailed in the game and picked up their ninth win in the past 10 Homecoming games.

It may not have been the prettiest of games on a rainy day in Missoula, but head coach Bobby Hauck is glad to get back in the win column.

"It was a really fun game," Hauck said. "Exciting, certainly, and I think we just have to accept the fact that we have a hard time getting away from people. There weren't enough plays to get away from them, but winning by eight in that game is great, and I'm very happy to be at 4-1."

The Grizzlies outgained the Bengals 394-334, holding the best passing attack in the Big Sky to 289 yards through the air. The game was a battle of styles with Montana running the ball 51 times and the Bengals passing it 47 times. In the end, Montana did enough to remain undefeated against Idaho State inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

Clifton McDowell started the game and took the majority of the reps at quarterback, helping spark Montana's rushing attack. McDowell had 20 carries for 66 yards and a touchdown and added 160 yards and another score through the air. He completed 65 percent of his passes with no turnovers.

Freshman running back Eli Gillman followed his quarterback with 16 carries for 51 yards and a score, while Nick Ostmo had eight totes for 49 yards on a 6.1 average.

Montana pulled out a pair of trick plays for momentum-changing plays. Sawyer Racanelli threw a touchdown pass to Evan Shafer on a reverse, and punter Travis Benham converted a fourth down with a pass to Garrett Graves.

The offense was balanced with 220 yards coming in the air and 174 on the ground.

Montana's defense forced a pair of turnovers, both coming in the second half. Ronald Jackson had his first career interception on the first play of the half and Corbin Walker added another for a pair of important defensive stops. Braxton Hill led the Griz with eight tackles, one of them for a loss, and added a pass breakup.

Jaxon Lee also played well with six solo tackles and seven total. He had a big-time stop on a third and short that forced a Bengal punt.

Montana now prepares for perhaps the toughest stretch of the schedule this year with back-to-back road games against ranked opponents UC Davis and Idaho.

"It was good, and the guys were excited to gut out a good win over a conference team coming off a loss that was pretty bitter for us last weekend," Hauck added.

"It was a nice rebound for the guys to come back and get it. They are happy to win, and we're excited for next week."