Weird things happen when the Montana Grizzlies visit Flagstaff, up there in the thin air and sparse pine forests of the Northern Arizona mountains.
Except, as Colter Nuanez pointed out, nothing quite this weird.
An early blocked punt, some unexpected wrinkles on offense and a stagnant Griz attack set the stage for Northern Arizona to record its first win of the season with a 28-14 victory over Montana at the Walkup Skydome on Saturday.
It was Bobby Hauck’s first loss to NAU – home or away – in 12 years coaching the Griz.
“We’re not even close to where we were a year ago. We’re just not as good,” Hauck said after the game, per Frank Gogola of the Missoulian. “We’re not as good as we were a year ago at this time.”

The trouble started early for the Griz. After Braxton Hill intercepted Adam Damante’s pass to stop NAU’s opening drive in Montana territory, the Griz went three-and-out thanks to two procedure penalties and Dustin Reynolds broke through to block Travis Benham’s punt.
Chase Belcher recovered for NAU on the Griz 24-yard line, and Damante hit Hendrix Johnson for a touchdown on the very next play.
After a first down on their next drive, Montana had to punt the ball away again, and Northern Arizona put together a grinding 15-play, 75-yard drive that ended with a 2-yard, fourth-down touchdown run by Devon Starling and a 14-0 lead, the first time Montana has trailed by multiple scores this season.
After yet another punt, Montana finally got on the board thanks to its defense when Trevin Gradney intercepted a Damante pass – his fourth pick in four games – and returned it to the NAU 4-yard line.
Sam Vidlak hit Aaron Fontes for a 4-yard touchdown, but Grant Glasgow hit the upright on the extra point to leave the score at 14-6 – and the Lumberjacks weren’t done in the first half.
Damante➡️Belcher➡️Phillips
— NAU Football (@NAU_Football) September 23, 2023
TOUCHDOWN JACKS!#RaiseTheFlag pic.twitter.com/oAKKrRGhBk
Montana squandered good field position at the 50 after a bad NAU punt when Vidlak fumbled and Nehemiah Magalei fell on it for the ‘Jacks.
The first play after the fumble, Damante swung the ball wide to Belcher, who tossed it behind the Griz defense to a wide-open Marcus Phillips Jr. for a 48-yard touchdown and a 21-6 NAU lead.
Montana’s offense finally put a drive together late in the half, with Vidlak finding Aaron Fontes for 29 yards to convert a third down, Keelan White drawing a pass interference penalty and Xavier Harris ending the drive with a 24-yard touchdown run.
At that point, it surely felt like a callback to last week’s Montana game, when the Griz went in at halftime down a touchdown to a team they were healthy favorites over – D-II Ferris State last week – but eventually got things together for an ugly-but-hey-it-still-counts win.
As he’s now done three times in the first four weeks of the season, Griz safety Ryder Meyer ran in the 2-point conversion out of the swinging gate to get the Griz back on track, down 21-14 at halftime.

This week, though, without the Washington-Grizzly Stadium crowd to buoy them, it wasn’t to be.
Montana drove into NAU territory to open the third quarter, but Alex McLaughlin picked off Vidlak to end the threat and returned it to the 50.
“We failed in all three phases of the game tonight,” Hauck said, per Gogola. “Got beat in our conference opener. We’ve got to go home and lock it down and we got to get some things right. That was not a good enough performance for a conference game by us.”
As they did after the blocked punt and the fumble in the first half, the Lumberjacks once again took advantage of a Montana mistake with a 50-yard touchdown drive that Keyonta Lenier capped with a 4-yard touchdown run.
That ended the scoring for the day. Down 28-14 midway through the third quarter, Montana had five more drives to try to get back in the game, but managed no points, a stretch that included back-to-back punts before the Griz turned the ball over on downs three straight times, including on a fourth-and-1 from the NAU 27.
On their final real drive, Vidlak converted a fourth-and-17 with a 21-yard throw to Junior Bergen, only to immediately get sacked for 10 yards on the next play, lose 13 more yards on third down, and throw incomplete on the resulting fourth and 33 with under two minutes to go.
It was Northern Arizona’s third Big Sky conference win in the last two seasons.

Damante completed 23 of 30 passes for 212 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. The true freshman threw for 4,769 yards and 59 touchdowns as a senior at American Leadership Academy in Gilbert, Arizona last year.
“We didn’t expect to see him start,” Hauck said, per Gogola. “It was like playing a different offense than what we’d seen. But that wasn’t the quarterback. That was they just kind of blew it up and did some new stuff and it was effective.”
Damante was 22 of 31 last week against Utah Tech.
Vidlak was 23 of 37 for 210 yards, one touchdown and one interception for Montana. He was sacked five times. White had nine catches for a career-high 92 yards for the Griz, with Meyer and Hill making 12 tackles apiece.
It was Montana’s first loss in a Big Sky opener since 2017 against Eastern Washington in Missoula.
The Griz (3-1, 0-1) host Idaho State next week.