Big Sky Conference play opened with a bang as marquee games around the league came down to the wire on a wild opening weekend that put the league’s resiliency on full display.
Cal Poly surely played its way into the FCS Top 25 with its second win over a Top 10 team in as many weeks. The Mustangs beat the Montana Grizzlies for the third straight year, posting a 42-41 win in San Luis Obispo over No. 6 UM.
Montana State missed a game-tying two-point conversion attempt with 101 seconds left to fall to North Dakota 17-15 in Bozeman. (game story, click here)
No. 4 Eastern Washington’s offense continued to roll, piling up 540 yards of offense and scoring 50 points in a 15-point win over No. 25 Northern Arizona in Flagstaff.
Defending Big Sky champion Southern Utah built a 31-10 halftime lead but needed Jarmaine Doubs’ 98-yard interception return for a touchdown with less than a minute to play to hold on for a 45-31 victory in Cedar City.
Idaho State built a 21-0 first-half lead but needed a pair of interceptions in the final five minutes of the game to hang on for a 42-34 win over Sacramento State in Pocatello.
Weber State built a 32-19 lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter only to see UC Davis tie the game 35-35 with a minute left. True freshman Taylor Hintze hit a 35-yard field goal as time expired to life WSU to its second straight win, 38-35, in Davis.
Cal Poly 42, No. 6 Montana 41 — Montana senior quarterback Brady Gustafson broke Dave Dickenson’s record for completions in a game and redshirt freshman wide receiver Jerry Louie-McGee broke Joe Douglass’ school record and matched an all-time Big Sky mark with 21 catches, but Cal Poly’s passing game proved to be the difference.
The Mustangs, fresh off a 38-31 win over No. 9 South Dakota State, rushed for 274 yards against Montana’s 11-man box, averaging 5.1 yards per carry on 54 carries. CP came into the game rushing for 393 yards per game with its triple option attack. The Griz gave up a long run of 29 yards and allowed three touchdowns on the ground, but senior Dano Graves completed 6-of-10 passes for 157 yards and three long touchdowns to life the hosts to their third straight win.
Louie-McGee caught six passes on the first possession alone. He had 13 catches for 140 yards, including a 61-yard touchdown, before halftime. But Cal Poly’s 21 unanswered points, including a 20-yard scoring run from Graves, along with a 16-yard toss to Kory Fox as the Mustangs built a 28-24 halftime lead.
Jeremy Calhoun’s second of three touchdown runs from two yards out gave UM its first second half, 31-28. Cal Poly fullback Joe Protheroe answered with a career-long 55-yard touchdown reception as the hosts snatched the lead back, 35-31.
Calhoun’s 29-yard burst to begin the fourth quarter gave UM a 38-35 lead and Tim Semenza’s 24-yard field goal extended the Griz advantage to 41-35 with eight minutes left. But Graves hit Kyle Lewis for a 39-yard score with 4:29 left as Cal Poly handed UM its first loss of 2016.
“They are just a good team,” Montana second-year head coach Bob Stitt said of Cal Poly. “It isn’t anything that our guys weren’t ready to play, because they were ready to play, it’s just two good football teams playing and one of them won by one point. They had one more point than we did and I’m proud of the way the team played.”
Gustafson completed a school-record 47 passes in 59 attempts, finishing with 418 yards and two touchdowns, both to Louie-McGee. Louie-McGee totaled 155 yards, averaging 7.4 yards per catch during his record-setting day. Montana totaled 485 yards on 84 plays compared to 431 yards for Cal Poly.
Gustafson’s lone interception came on a tipped pass at the line of scrimmage that gave Cal Poly the ball on the 13-yard line. Lewis scored a touchdown on the next play to spark CP’s 21-point spurt.
On the final drive of the game for Montana, Gustafson broke Dickenson’s record on a 30-yard completion to John Nguyen that brought the Grizzlies up to the Cal Poly 31-yard line. The drive would move no further in three plays, and attempted a 48-yard field goal to take the lead with 1:55 remaining.
Semenza, who was 2-for-2 on field goals with a long of 33 and 5-for-5 on extra points, missed wide right. The Griz stopped Cal Poly on the next drive, but had just one second when they got the ball back. A desperation play failed.
“I’m so proud of how those guys came out and played, we put them in a couple of bad situations in the first half, but I’m proud of the team and how we gave ourselves a chance to win the game,” Stitt said. “We didn’t win the game, but we gave ourselves a chance.”
No. 4 Eastern Washington 50, Northern Arizona 35 — EWU took a 22-21 halftime lead and turned it into a 50-28 avalanche thanks to Gubrud’s bounce back effort and a rushing game that scored five touchdowns.
Gubrud threw for more than 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns in the first two and a half game as a starter for the Eagles. But the sophomore threw two interceptions and got the hook with EWU trailing 24-7 to Northern Iowa last week. Reilly Hennessey came off the bench to throw for 226 yards and three touchdowns to lead EWU to a 34-30 win over the No. 11 Panthers.
Gubrud returned to the starting role and took full command. The sophomore completed 35-of-52 passes for 392 yards and rushed 11 times for 95 yards as he surpassed 450 yards of total offense for the third time this season. Gubrud’s 39-yard touchdown pass to Shaq Hill gave EWU a 12-7 lead in the first quarter. His five-yard touchdown pass to Nic Sblendorio 4:24 into the second half gave EWU a 29-21 advantage. His 21-yard TD run with 8:53 to play gave EWU its largest lead, 50-28.
“From start to finish, we played a lot of great football,” EWU head coach Beau Baldwin said. “They (NAU) are a great team, so we knew it was going to be a battle and it was going to be close. This is a hard place to win. For our players to find that wind and that guts in the second half to win games, that’s because of our work ethic in the off-season. It’s a mental and physical approach, and our players really got after it. Especially in the second half, we were playing great team football.”
EWU’s offense also had its best day on the ground, rushing for 148 yards on 34 carries and scoring five times. Freshman Antoine Custer who sparked Eastern with a kickoff return for a touchdown to start the second half against UND, scored two touchdowns and fellow true freshman Tamarick Pierce scored two more for the Eagles, who moved to 3-1 overall.
NAU sophomore quarterback Case Cookus threw two of this three touchdowns in the second quarter to give NAU its only lead, 21-19, with 2:20 before halftime. Cookus’ 47-yard bomb to William Morehand cut the EWU lead to 36-28 with five minutes left in the third. But Cookus suffered an injury that ended his afternoon, EWU notched two scores in the first half of the fourth quarter and NAU, the preseason Big Sky favorites, fell to 1-3.
“This was a tough loss for us,” NAU head coach Jerome Souers said. “A conference game that starts that way with that much importance and significance is always difficult. Looking back at the game, they created some situations that were tough for us to manage. We came out fired up and ready to play, we just made too many small and mental mistakes that hurt us.”
Portland State tight end Maximo Espitia/ Courtesy of PSU athletics
Southern Utah 45, Portland State 31 — Sparked by a 90-yard touchdown catch by senior Mike Sharp, Southern Utah scored 24 straight points in the final 9:30 of the first half to build a 31-10 lead before Portland State came storming back.
Nate Tago and Alex Kuresa rushed for third-quarter touchdowns to cut the SUU lead to 31-24. Malik Brown’s 87-yard touchdown run with 2:29 in the third put PSU down two scores but PSU kept fighting. Kuresa, who threw for 264 yards and rushed for 133 more, threw his second touchdown, a 34-yard strike to Paris Penn to bring PSU within a score again, 38-31, with 12 minutes left.
Kuresa marched Portland State 81 yards in eight plays and 1:54 to give the Vikings possession on the SUU 4-yard line with 26 seconds to play. But in the face of a blitz, Kuresa threw his fourth interception of the evening, this one to Jermaine Doubs, who sprinted 98 yards for the game-winning touchdown.
The Vikings committed five turnovers in the game, severely hampering their chances for a victory. The Thunderbirds scored four touchdowns of 70 yards or longer.
“Turnovers hurt. You can’t go on the road against a quality football team like that and turn the ball over,” Portland State head coach Bruce Barnum said. “We made those mistakes and we have to clean that up. I liked the fight in the second half. The first half was muddy but I liked what I saw from my team in terms of how they reacted.”
PSU, a nine-win team that earned the only FCS playoff seed among Big Sky teams in 2015, lost its third straight game and dropped to 1-3 on the season, 0-1 in the Big Sky. Southern Utah, the reigning league champion who’s only league loss last season came in Portland, is now 2-1, 1-0.
Southern Utah piled up a 423-80 advantage in total yards in the first half during PSU’s turnover spree. With starting quarterback McCoy Hill on the shelf with a shoulder injury, Southern Utah went to the ground, rushing for 292 yards on 32 carries, averaging 9.1 yards per carry. Brown rushed for 173 on 15, including the long touchdown and Raysean Pringle finished with 118 yards on eight carries, including touchdowns of 71 and 37 yards.
Weber State 38, UC Davis 35 — Weber State blew a three-touchdown lead for the second time in three weeks in its Big Sky opener but a special teams miscue by Davis punt returner Isaiah Olave helped Weber hang on for its second straight win.
Jadrian Clark threw touchdown passes to Darryl Denby and Andrew Vollert and Hintze took a 54-yard field goal to give Weber a 25-10 lead at halftime. Treshawn Garrett’s three-yard touchdown run on the first possession of the third quarter gave Weber State a 32-10 lead.
Hintze hit from 37 yards to take a 35-20 lead with 7:19 left but Josh Kelley’s 91-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and Luke Williams’ 14-yard TD reception from Ben Scott tied the game at 35 with 1:35 left.
Following Davis’ final score, Weber ran six plays for nine yards before punting to the hosts with 36 seconds left. Olave, a junior cornerback, inexplicably touched a rolling punt, WSU senior Tre’von Johnson recovered it and Weber on the Davis 23.
Three plays later, Hintze’s game winner. Clark finished with 251 yards passing and 45 yards rushing. Garrett rushed for 111 yards with Eric Wilkes still on the shelf with an injury.
Two weeks ago, Weber held leads of 21-0 and 42-21 over South Dakota before falling 52-49 in double overtime.
Idaho State 42, Sacramento State 35 — Idaho State scored four touchdowns of 20 yards or more and Nikko Taylor had a key interception return for a touchdown to boost ISU to 2-2.
ISU freshman Michael Dean came off the bench to rush four times for 154 yards. His 91-yard touchdown run with 31 seconds left in the third quarter gave ISU a 35-17 lead and tied an Idaho State school record. His 62-yard TD run gave ISU a 21-0 lead with 7:47 left in the first half.
“Mikey Dean is special,” ISU senior running back Jakori Ford. “Not a lot of players are like him in any conference or Division. He is hungry. To be honest it is no surprise he did what he did. We all know he can do it. I am proud of him that when he got his opportunities he made the most of it.”
Idaho State’s offense did not turn the ball over and tallied 466 yards of total offense. The Bengals had 196 on the ground. Ford carried the ball 22 times for 52 yards and one touchdown. His touchdown was a one-yard run in the second quarter that put ISU on top 14-0. Tight end Josh Cook had a career-high 118 receiving yards on seven receptions. He scored two touchdowns in a single game for the first time in his career. Cook had touchdowns receptions of 21 in the first quarter and 68 with six minutes left in the third.
Tanner Gueller was 26-34 for 270 yards and two touchdowns. Following Cook’s career day, Hagen Graves caught six balls for 60 yards and Ford caught five passes for 35 yards.
“What a great effort on homecoming in front of a really nice crowd,” ISU head coach Mike Kramer said. “To the alumni and everyone who came I hope you enjoyed everything such as the festivities and the show. I hope everybody realized that what they saw today was a pretty solid performance.”
The first of Nate Ketteringham’s two touchdown passes — the sophomore threw for 327 yards and rushed for 87 more, with two rushing TDs — cut the ISU lead to 35-24 with 10:45 let. But Taylor’s four-yard pick-six extended the lead to 18 with 5:25 left. Ketteringham would throw one more touchdown but Sac fell short, dropping its fourth straight game.
