The Montana Grizzlies have a winning streak for the first time in 2024 thanks to a shutout streak reminiscent of the recent past.
The Griz will enter the heart of November riding a three-game winning streak thanks to a newfound defense that’s forcing turnovers, playing with renewed confidence and, most importantly, keeping opponents off the scoreboard.
Montana did not allow a point from the 9:58 mark of the third quarter in an October 12 homecoming win over Northern and the 6:11 mark of the fourth quarter Saturday at Cal Poly. That streak of scoreless defense helped Montana beat surging NAU 31-20 before taking its bye.
Last week, the Griz forced three turnovers on the way to a 24-0 win at Northern Colorado. Saturday in San Luis Obispo, several Montana defensive backs were getting their first real playing time of the season the final 10 minutes of the game after the Griz built a 35-0 lead.
The Mustangs snapped Montana’s scoreless streak at 124 minutes. Still, Montana moved to 4-1 in Big Sky Conference play, 7-2 overall with the meat of its season approaching swiftly following Saturday’s 42-7 victory.
“Everybody showed up and did their 1/11th again,” Montana senior linebacker Ryan Tirrell told Scripps Sports after the game. “Everyone was in position to make plays and we played team football for the second week in a row.”
Last season, Montana rode a veteran, high-motor defense to a 10-game winning streak, a Big Sky title and a national championship game appearance. But UM gave up 104 points the first two weeks of this conference season, splitting with Eastern Washington (52-49 win) and Weber State (55-48 home loss). That was particularly starting considering the Griz gave up just 116 points in Big Sky play all year last year.
The Weber loss combined with a 27-24 loss a suddenly failing North Dakota team (UND lost 35-31 to Indiana State on Saturday) put Montana’s backs against the wall. Last year’s deep playoff run was keyed in part by Montana playing nine of its 15 games at home, including playoff wins over Delaware, Furman and North Dakota State.
The other key to that unbelievable run was the heroic, unforgettable play of Junior Bergen. And that theme reemerged Saturday after Bergen’s looked less than 100 percent for most of his senior year. He entered the game with two total touchdowns this season after battling a groin issue for most of the first few months of the year.
On Saturday, his 84-yard punt return for a touchdown helped break the game wide open. At the time of the score, UM led 14-0 late in the third quarter and had been leaning on its defense while its run game struggled to get rolling.
Leading up to the game, Montana head coach Bobby Hauck said Cal Poly’s strength was on its defensive front, particularly its defensive line. He specifically highlighted senior tackle Ethan Rodriguez and junior defensive end Elijah Ponder as standouts. While those two didn’t compile any statistics of note other than a Rodriguez sack in the third quarter, those two plus the rest of the Mustangs’ defensive front held UM to 68 yards rushing and just 2.1 yards per carry.
Logan Fife and Keali’I Ah Yat split quarterback duties for the Griz, and together totaled 268 passing yards and a pair of scores, split roughly down the middle with 137 and 131 yards, respectively. Xavier Harris caught the first of those TD passes on return to his home state of California, and Keelan White had a one-handed highlight reel grab for a second quarter score for the other.
Yet UM managed just 16 first towns and 336 total yards. But Montana once again took advantage of three forced turnovers. Chrishon Gordon, a transfer defensive back from Fresno State this past off-season , snared his first interception as a Griz. Defensive end/edge linebacker Garrett Hustedt also snared his first career pick, which came on the next CP possession following Bergen’s punt return TD.
Three plays after Hustedt’s takeaway, Eli Gillman scored his 14th touchdown of the year to put the Griz up 28-0 with 13 seconds left in the third quarter.
UM senior safety Jaxon Lee forced a fumble that Trevin Gradney recovered to help keep the home team largely off the scoreboard. Lee and Tirrell led the Griz with nine tackles each, while Riley Wilson had another big day with four stops, two of which were TFLs and one of which was a sack, along with a pass breakup and two quarterback hurries.
It was part of a season-high 11 TFL performance for the Griz defense, the most since the opening game of the year when UM put up 10 against Missouri State. The four sacks were the second-most for UM all season too. Montana allowed Cal Poly to go just 5-for-17 on third down and 1-for-4 on fourth down
“We put in great effort and we pride ourselves on effort,” Tirrell said when asked about the turnovers. “When we get after the quarterback and we wreak some havoc on them, we can make plays.”
Two plays into the fourth quarter, Gordon dove for his first career interception. Fife then engineered a drive on the back of three sturdy carries from Nick Ostmo down to the Poly 7-yard line. Fife rushed up the middle and dove for the line, but the ball was fumbled. Grizzly freshman offensive lineman Lucas Freitas recovered it in the endzone for another Grizzly score to make it 35-0.
The Mustangs broke Montana’s scoreless streak at 125 minutes of football late in the fourth quarter when Richie Watts found Jake Woods for a 14-yard touchdown pass, set-up by a pass interference penalty from Prince Ford that put the home team in the red zone.
Montana rolled in the third-string lineup. Stevie Rocker Jr. broke loose for a 34-yard scamper that set up a one-yard touchdown run two plays later that brought the final margin.
Montana now turns its attention to UC Davis. The Aggies come to Missoula unbeaten in league play at 5-0 and 8-1 overall on the year.
“Keeping momentum is really important,” Tirrell said. “We have to stick together and know if we play as a unit and everybody does their jobs, we can be special.”
