MISSOULA – After a listless first half, a record crowd at Washington-Grizzly Stadium finally got the blackout they were promised as darkness fell in the third quarter, blocking out the mountains in the background and locking Montana, Ferris State and the 26,978 in attendance in a cocoon of sound that gave the Griz just enough momentum to come back for a 17-10 win on Saturday night.
Eli Gillman and Nick Ostmo ran for short touchdowns in the third quarter as Montana, for the second time in three weeks at Washington-Grizzly Stadium, left it until after halftime to pull away from an underdog opponent as the Grizzlies seem determined to test the logical limits of head coach Bobby Hauck’s “they don’t ask how, they ask how many” philosophy.
It was a night of champions. UFC bantamweight title-holder Sean O’Malley, who grew up in Helena, returned to his home state to raise Montana’s No. 37 flag before the game. Ferris State, meanwhile, entered as the back-to-back defending Division II national champions, with a 28-game road winning streak to boot.
The Bulldogs currently have seven players in the NFL – more than any Big Sky Conference team – and entered the game with a 117-17 record since head coach Tony Annese took over in 2011. On Saturday, their defensive line gave Montana fits throughout, outplaying an experienced, pedigreed Griz O-line that’s expected to be one of the best in the FCS.
“When we scheduled them, our guys came and said, ‘We’re having trouble getting this date filled, do you mind if we schedule a Division II team?’” Hauck said. “I said, no, that’s fine, but I should have said don’t schedule the Division II team. They’re really good. I admire the job the coach does, and I’m looking forward to seeing him down the road and sharing some ideas.”
For long stretches, the only way to tell the two teams belonged to different divisions was by looking at the list of names on the rosters, where Ferris State’s 60-some players paled in comparison to Montana’s hundred-plus. It certainly wasn’t apparent on the field, where the Bulldogs from Big Rapids, Michigan, took a 10-3 lead into halftime, holding the Griz to 107 total yards at the break.
Quarterback Sam Vidlak, who started for the Griz for the second time this season after relieving Clifton McDowell last week at Utah Tech, was 4 of 7 in the first half for 42 yards. Montana opened the scoring with a 43-yard field goal by Grant Glasgow (the Kansas transfer also missed a 45-yard try later in the half), but Ferris State got inside Griz territory three times, scoring on an 11-yard pass from Carson Gulker to Xavier Wade and adding a 26-yard field goal by Eddie Jewett as the half expired.
“We’re badasses,” Annese said. “Like, we’re dogs. We fight. Coach (Hauck) talked about our record, and all we do is win, win, win. People ask me all the time, why? I don’t know the answer to that, but I am proud of knowing that they’re going to fight to the bitter end.”
The visitors didn’t let up in the second half, either. In fact, the Bulldogs outgained Montana for the game, 285 to 189. But the Grizzlies, even when being outplayed, always have two trump cards: the Washington-Grizzly crowd, and their special teams. On Saturday, they needed both to wrench the momentum back and escape with a win.
First, Junior Bergen fielded a line-drive punt on a dead sprint at the UM 30 and returned it across midfield to the Ferris State 40. On the next play, Vidlak hit Bergen for 26 more yards – Montana’s longest play of the day. Although it took the Griz six more plays – and two penalties called on Ferris State inside the 10 – to punch it in from there, they eventually did, with Gillman getting in the end zone on his second effort for a 1-yard touchdown to tie the game 10-10.
With Ferris State trying to answer, cornerback Trevin Gradney, lurking in deep coverage, made the Bulldogs’ Mylik Mitchell pay for a high throw with his third interception in three games.
“The last three weeks in a row, he’s made some pretty difficult interceptions,” Hauck said about Gradney. “He’s really developed a great knack for getting the ball. He’s playing well, which was probably a question mark coming into the season, the level of play we’d get at the corner spot. He’s really played great.”
A personal foul and a separate targeting penalty on Ferris State in the aftermath of the play – the Bulldogs ended with 15 penalties for 106 yards – set Montana up at the FSU 27.
Montana couldn’t take advantage, losing 12 yards with a reverse to Aaron Fontes on the first play of the drive, but the field position still set up the Grizzlies’ next momentum-switching special teams play when Travis Benham dropped a punt perfectly into Garrett Graves’ arms on the 1-yard line.
Backed up into the shadow of the south end zone, Ferris State committed two false start penalties on the first three snaps of the drive. On third and 10, Hayden Harris nearly brought down Mitchell in the end zone for a safety, but the lefty signalcaller dove for the goal line like he was going for a touchdown and just barely managed to get the ball back into the field of play.
Still, Ferris State’s Mitchell Middleton, punting from the back of his own end zone, barely got anything on the ensuing punt and Bergen returned the line-drive kick 13 yards to the Bulldogs’ 30.
“We downed it inside the 1, which was a great punt, great coverage effort,” Hauck said. “They quick-counted, they did some things to take the edge off us, but they didn’t get a yard, obviously, and when he had to punt it, he had to one-step it, line-drive it. … June (Bergen) made a really nice play to get his hands on that, and it was pretty well blocked. I think we had first down on the 30, which was big not having to go the length of the field.”
Having played the field-position game to perfection, Montana took advantage as Gillman immediately ripped off a 23-yard run – the Grizzlies’ second-longest play of the day – and Ostmo got to the left pylon on a pitch play a couple plays later for a 3-yard score.
From there, the Montana defense and the Montana crowd combined to see the game out. I’ve written this before, but the Grizzlies’ home-field advantage isn’t intangible. It manifests itself, five yards at a time, with false starts and delay of game penalties every time the opponent gets inside the red zone. On Saturday, the Griz crowd backed Ferris State out of field-goal range on the Bulldogs’ second possession of the game with two false starts in three plays, leading to a turnover on downs. The north end zone forced two more false starts with FSU threatening later in the first half, although those drives still ended with points on Wade’s touchdown and Jewett’s field goal.
“If I make an excuse that we’re only a D-II, that’s the excuse. We’re not used to that kind of crowd noise,” Annese said. “I don’t know if anybody is. I don’t know how people even manage. … Bottom line was, we could hardly hear the quarterback’s cadence, and it cost us.
“It was hard making checks, it was hard getting in the right protections. It was an amazing atmosphere.”
Now, with Montana clinging to a lead, the crowd swung the game once more. On the possession after Ostmo’s touchdown, Ferris State drove the ball down to Montana’s 2-yard line. But the south end zone forced a false start that backed the Bulldogs up to the 7, Nash Fouch sliced through the line to drop the back for a loss of another four yards, and Middleton’s 28-yard field goal try slammed off the upright.
“They are a Division II team, so they don’t play in big venues like this,” Montana defensive tackle Alex Gubner said. “I think it definitely had an effect. I mean, we’ve got the best fans and it’s loud. Every third down, fourth down, any critical down, the fans know and they get loud and it affects offenses.”
After forcing a punt, the Bulldogs had one more shot left. A fumble recovery touchdown by Montana’s Tyler Flink with under two minutes left that would have sealed the game was overturned on review. On the very next play, Mitchell hit CJ Jefferson for 34 yards on fourth and 27 to get all the way to the Montana 21.
With under a minute to go, though, Levi Janacaro broke through for a sack to bring up fourth and 14, and this time there was no magic as Ryder Meyer safely tackled the receiver short of the sticks on fourth down to end it.
Aside from being outgained by nearly 100 yards, Montana averaged just 3.4 yards per play to Ferris State’s 4.1. In fact, there was very little on the field that suggested that the Griz were the better team. But playing at home, they don’t always need to be – and then again, they don’t ask how, they ask how many.
“It took plays from the offense, the defense and the special teams to make it happen and get that W, which is how we play and how we win,” Hauck said. “Ultimately, the object is to win the game. We play to win the game, and we won the game. … It’s always good to be 3-0. You can’t be any better than that.”
Gillman had 78 yards on 19 carries to lead the Griz offense. Braxton Hill – whose No. 35 jersey O’Malley wore – had 15 tackles and two sacks for Montana.
The Griz (3-0) play at Northern Arizona next week to start their Big Sky schedule.
