MISSOULA – “Good luck to the Montana Grizzlies,” Eddie Vedder offered from the stage at Washington-Grizzly Stadium last Thursday, sometime near the end of Pearl Jam’s bombastic stadium show.
The point, of course, is not to need luck, particularly not when you’re one of the very best teams in the FCS, a year removed from an appearance in the national title game, and particularly not when you’re opening the season as a 13.5-point favorite at home against a Missouri State team that went 4-7 last year.
But still, a shoutout from a worldwide rock star probably sounds pretty good no matter the context – and as it turned out, Eddie knew what he was talking about.
Nine days after Pearl Jam left the stage, the Griz – Missoula’s truest rock stars – brought the noise back to Washington-Grizzly on Saturday night to cap one of the most rockin’ week-and-a-half stretches in recent Garden City memory.
The Griz also needed that luck – as well as plenty of fortitude, discipline and competitiveness – to leave the stadium with a much-closer-than-expected 29-24 win against a much-better-than-expected Missouri State.
“That was a really great hard-fought win by our guys,” Montana head coach Bobby Hauck said in the postgame press conference. “Sometimes things aren’t always smooth and they don’t go your way. Sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way. Sometimes it’s self-imposed, sometimes it’s the other team, but I was really proud of our team fighting their tails off and getting a great win tonight.”
The Bears, with 6-foot-6 gunslinger Jacob Clark (Minnesota transfer) and relentless running back Jacardia Wright (Kansas State transfer) held the ball for nearly 37 minutes and outgained the Griz 356 to 347 in a game that was just as close as those numbers indicated.
But Montana quarterbacks Keali’i Ah Yat, who played the entire first half, and Logan Fife, who played most of the second, each led three scoring drives for the Griz. Wide receivers Aaron Fontes and Drew Deck and kicker Ty Morrison bounced back from crucial first-half mistakes to make big plays down the stretch before Montana’s running game and defense sealed a sloppy win.
With wide receiver Junior Bergen, tight end Cole Grossman and linebacker Riley Wilson – all three All-Americans – out, Montana started slowly, and the Grizzlies’ mistakes loomed large over the first half. Deck, who replaced Bergen as the punt returner, muffed his first opportunity, giving the ball back to Missouri State near midfield and leading to the game’s first score, a 7-yard touchdown run by Wright.
Morrison, a junior transfer from College of the Canyons, missed his first-ever kick for the Griz, cannoning the extra point off the left upright after Eli Gillman’s 37-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.
Fontes, a household name by now as Montana’s third receiver behind Bergen and Keelan White, had three egregious drops in a row, helping turn a potential touchdown drive into a 35-yard field goal by Morrison and also contributing to a punt on the Grizzlies’ next possession.
Despite that, Montana led 12-10 at halftime when Morrison arrowed in a 22-yard field goal on the final play of the first half.
Ah Yat, making his first start in the stadium where his father Brian became a Griz legend in the mid-1990s, finished the half – and the game – 9 of 19 for 90 yards, while also showing off some playmaking with his legs.
With the Griz expected to play two quarterbacks, the Fresno State transfer Fife took the stage on Montana’s second possession in the second half with the Griz down 17-12 after Missouri State’s Jaylen Becks ripped off a 32-yard score on the Bears’ first possession after halftime.
After one fruitless drive, his second possession produced the play of the game. On fourth and 1 from the Missouri State 34, Fife lasered a pass straight across the field to Xavier Harris, who skipped past a tackle and tiptoed down the left sideline for a 34-yard score and a 19-17 Montana lead.
“We lined up quick. It’s an RPO look and they didn’t get lined up to it, so we had them outnumbered,” Hauck said. “So instead of handing it off, we flipped it out there. They had a guy running out that got there late. We got it blocked on the edge. Then (Harris) had a chance, and he took advantage of it.”
Harris, a converted running back playing his first game at wide receiver, finished with three catches for a team-high 69 yards.
That drive started with Deck’s 19-yard punt return, one of two returns of over 10 yards he had in the second half.
“Catching punts is not an easy thing either,” Hauck said. “Drew came back and had the competitiveness and the fortitude to come back and do that, and he had two great returns.”
The Griz stopped Missouri State’s next drive on fourth down, and on the first play of Montana’s ensuing possession, Fife found Fontes up the seam for 33 yards, jumpstarting a drive that ended with a 2-yard touchdown run by Gillman. Despite the early drops, Fontes finished with a team-high five catches for 68 yards for Montana.
“Aaron couldn’t hang on to it in the first half,” Hauck said. “He rallied back. He’s a competitive dude, he’s a really good player and that was certainly good to see.”
Missouri State answered with a long scoring drive to cut Montana’s lead to 26-24 with 4:53 left, but the Grizzlies’ run game and defense combined to clinch the game.
First, Gillman ripped off 29 yards across four straight carries which, combined with a personal foul on Missouri State, put the Griz in range for a 38-yard field goal try with just under two minutes to play.
Morrison, who’d been perfect after his early miss, smashed the kick through for three huge points. In his Griz debut, Morrison finished 3 for 3 on field goals, as well as averaging over 45 yards per punt and pinning the Bears inside the 20 twice.
With Missouri State still only needing a touchdown to win, Montana’s defense took over. Hayden Harris on second down and Andres Lehrmann on third down broke through to drop Clark for sacks, and Vai Kaho chased him down outside the pocket on fourth down, not even letting him get a desperation heave away.
After not sacking Clark once in the first half, the Griz finished with four total sacks, including 2.5 by Harris.
“I thought the coverage did a really good job of giving us the ability to go after them, and I thought Andres (Lehrmann), Vai (Kaho), all the guys up front, Pat Hayden did a really good job and the outcome was what we wanted,” Harris said.
Fife matched Ah Yat exactly with 90 passing yards as, for the second straight season, it appears as though the Griz intend to play two quarterbacks early in the year.
“They both did a nice job,” Hauck said. “The administrative stuff, I thought they handled it really well. … Obviously we’ll watch the film and critique it harshly and continue to work to get better.”
Gillman, last year’s Jerry Rice Award winner as the top freshman in the FCS, ran for 89 yards and two scores on 15 carries.
The Griz play at North Dakota next week in Grand Forks.
Photos by Brooks Nuanez – Skyline Sports. All Rights Reserved.
