MISSOULA – Neither power outage at Washington-Grizzly Stadium – the metaphorical one in the first half or the literal one in the fourth quarter – stopped the Montana Grizzlies on Saturday.
After an offensive blackout on the field in the first half, the Griz scored four touchdowns on their first four drives of the second, then sat through an unforeseen delay before closing out Portland State for a 28-17 Senior Day win.
With 6:48 remaining in the game and Montana leading by that 28-17 score, the stadium lights and scoreboard at Washington-Grizzly went dark.
“It reminded me of that baseball movie,” Portland State head coach Bruce Barnum said. “The Natural, yeah. I don’t like that actor (Robert Redford), but the movie was alright. And then (the refs) came over, (asked), ‘Do you want to keep playing?’
“I said, ‘You’d better do it quick before it gets dark.’ … It was unique.”
That eventually led to a 15-minute delay before the teams finished the game with the referees keeping the game clock on the field.
Tyson Rostad’s interception on the goal line with just over three minutes to go – Montana’s fifth takeaway of the game – sealed the game for the Griz.
Montana didn’t look likely to be in that position following a punchless first half. With Keali’i Ah Yat at quarterback, the Griz gained just 120 yards in the first 30 minutes and went to halftime trailing 3-0.
It was their first time being shut out in the first half of a game since September 2019 at Oregon.
But with Ah Yat hobbling on an injured right ankle, Logan Fife came in to start the second half for Montana and immediately jump-started the Griz offense with an incandescent start.
His first drive went 72 yards in five plays and ended with Fife himself sneaking the ball over from the 1-yard line to put Montana up 7-3.
Fife tossed the ball up in the air following his touchdown, drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and the ire of head coach Bobby Hauck, who got in his quarterback’s face as he came off the field.
Fife screamed right back at Hauck, forcing assistant coach Justin Green and reserve offensive lineman Austin Buehler to separate the two.
“Well, I was mad at him, first of all,” Hauck said. “And second, nobody’s going to be confused about Logan Fife or Bobby Hauck being fired up about football. He said something to me about, I’m fired up just like you, coach, and that kind of made it alright for me. It’s how it goes sometimes. If you don’t care, you don’t get fired up.”
The fired-up Fife kept dealing.
On the second play of his second drive, he lasered a slant to Sawyer Racanelli, who broke a tackle and raced 81 yards for a touchdown.
This time, Hauck greeted Fife with a hug as he came off the field.
“Me and coach, we’re just competitive guys,” Fife said. “We figured it out, and if anything, that just gave me a little bit more fire to keep going and do what we do.”
Fife’s third drive was a march, as the Griz went 70 yards in 11 plays and capped it with a sneaky 11-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Erik Barker on a fake screen.
And after Montana’s defense recovered a crucial fumble, Fife tossed a 35-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Fontes for a one-play touchdown drive, making it four scores on four drives in just over 15 minutes and putting the Griz up 28-17 with 14:23 to go in the fourth quarter.
Fife finished 9 of 14 for 197 yards for Montana, which had just 120 yards in the first half but finished with 446. Fontes had six grabs for 90 yards, bouncing back from multiple early drops, while Racanelli had four catches for 102 yards.
“We picked up on their tendencies and saw what they were doing in the first half,” Fife said. “Adjusted a couple routes, a couple things in the game plan at halftime, and that was really the key to it. … That kind of allowed us to see those RPOs a little bit better, and find the gaps in their defense and exploit it a little bit.”
Portland State put up 401 yards itself, including 213 on the ground, but an opportunistic Griz defense forced five turnovers to hold the Vikings under 20 points.
Jace Klucewich had two of Montana’s three interceptions. With Portland State trying to extend its early 3-0 lead, he picked off Quincy Craig on a running back pass in the end zone on the Vikings’ second drive.
His second interception, much later in the game, also came right on Montana’s goal line as he picked Dante Chachere to end Portland State’s penultimate drive after 54 yards. Rostad’s game-clinching interception on the next drive meant that all three Griz interceptions came either in the end zone or right on their goal line.
“We were great in between the 20s,” Barnum said. “After that we couldn’t finish, the Griz did something to take it away from us. So, (if we) finish those drives, shit, we’re talking about three scoring opportunities. And maybe I’m up here sitting down and asking for more questions and enjoying myself.”
The Griz also forced and recovered two fumbles, with Hank Nuce’s hit and Jaxon Lee’s recovery stopping another promising PSU drive at the Montana 30 in the first half and Hayden Harris stripping Chachere to set up Fontes’ touchdown in the third quarter.
Klucewich, Lee and Rostad all helped the Montana safety room make up for the loss of senior Ryder Meyer, who was ejected for targeting after a helmet-to-helmet hit on a sliding Chachere. Because the penalty happened in the first half, Meyer is eligible to play from the beginning of the game against Montana State next week.
Ryan Tirrell led Montana with 14 tackles.
Freshman Delon Thompson ran for 117 yards on 22 carries for Portland State. Craig ran for 90 for the Vikings, with both backs averaging over five yards per carry.
Montana (8-3, 5-2) plays at Montana State next week in the latest edition of the fiercest rivalry in the West. Portland State (2-8, 2-5) finishes its season at home against Northern Colorado.
