CHENEY, Washington — The renewal of a rivalry had several distinctly important matchups that would almost certainly determine the outcome in a crucial Big Sky Conference showdown.
Led by a stellar group of seniors who had never won at the Inferno and who had never defeated Eastern Washington, Montana State won in basically every pivotal angle of the football game here on a chilly afternoon on Saturday in front of a largely split crowd of 6,981.
The No. 4 Bobcats controlled the ball and the line of scrimmage, riding Isaiah Ifanse into the sunset on the Palouse with a bruising running game that allowed No. 5 Eastern Washington to possess the ball for just over 23 minutes.
When Eastern’s high-flying, FCS-leading offensive attack had the ball, many wondered how a Bobcat secondary featuring a collection of players navigating their first seasons playing cornerback would hold up. And those players rose to the occasion as well.
Ifanse rushed for 217 yards on 32 carries behind an offensive line missing All-Big Sky senior offensive guard Taylor Tuiasosopo (violation of team rules) and made big plays in clutch situations throughout the game. The Bobcat defense held Eastern Washington to 31 points below its single-game scoring average and to nearly half its normal number of total yards.
Senior inside linebacker Troy Andersen used his diverse skill set and peerless sideline to sideline speed to help keep All-American quarterback Eric Barriere and the EWU offense at bay.
And Montana State made all the plays it needed to come up with one of the wins of the season in the Big Sky Conference.
MSU came to Cheney and posted a 23-20 victory over Eastern Washington, marking the first time Montana State has won here since 2011. It also marks the second straight home loss for an EWU squad team that won seven in a row to reach No. 2 in the country before that.
“Love this team, love this program and as a senior, it’s great to be going out like this,” MSU senior offensive tackle Lewis Kidd said. “(Eastern Washington) is a team that has always been good, always one of the top teams in the nation, the conference and we said we wanted to send this group of seniors out by getting wins againt these big teams. We are ecstatic about winning this one.”
The victory is Montana State’s eighth in a row. The Bobcats are now 6-0 in Big Sky Conference play and atop the Big Sky standings with a regular-season home finale against Idaho next week and another rivalry showdown, this one against No. 11 Montana, looming.
“A huge win for our program and this team, it was going to take an effort that we need to really play well,” Montana State head coach Brent Vigen said. “Whether we entirely played well or not, we played well enough and the guys believe in each other. I certainly think we were the more physical team and that was one aspect we needed to have come true.
“We were minus-2 in the takeaway margin but I know this: we possessed the ball on offense and kept them off the field and we stood up against as explosive an offense as you will see at this level.”
The loss means EWU has lost two in a row at home for the first time since 2015. The Eagles all of a sudden have to rally after sitting in the Big Sky’s conference title driver’s seat. Eastern plays at UC Davis next week. The Aggies moved to 8-1 this season with a 40-24 victory at Northern Arizona on Saturday.
“It ain’t over. Chin up and we can take some punches,” EWU senior linebacker Ty Graham said. “We will probably see them down the road and I’m excited about it. This season is far from over. We have the best player in the country (Barriere) and anything can happen.”
Saturday, a driven and focused group of Bobcats took control of the game almost instantly. And despite several key mistakes — from a failed fourth-down try three yards from the end-zone to a missed chip shot field goal to a Matt McKay fumbled handoff exchange — the visitors never flinched.
McKay, a former transfer from NC State, was deliberate in operating an offense that huddled between every single play and possessed the ball for more than 36 minutes while gaining 544 yards of offense and earning 26 first downs.
“Not everything went our way; we had some tough penalties, some mistakes and we were shooting ourselves in the foot there in certain situations but no matter what, we came back on the sideline and washed it all away and went out there and got it done.”
McKay’s 56-yard rushing touchdown on a designed read-option on the third play of the game gave MSU an early lead. It also sparked a day that saw the Bobcats rush for 291 yards on 48 carries, averaging 6.1 yards per carry, a crucial factor of keeping Barriere on the sideline.
“I was almost floating, three plays in, that was crazy but we knew that was going to happen, we knew we were going to come out and give our best and that was the beginning of a great, all-around team win,” Kidd said when asked about McKay’s touchdown jaunt.”
The Eagles struck back, scoring a pair of touchdowns over the next nine-plus minutes against a Bobcat defense that came into the game allowing a shade more than 10 points per game. MSU had given up eight touchdowns total in eight games.
But Freddy Roberson’s 19-yard touchdown catch on a sweet inside slant play capped a 75-yard drive to almost even the margin — EWU missed the ensuing 2-point conversion — and Talolo Limu-Jones’ 18-yard touchdown catch on a professional-level back-shoulder throw from Barriere gave Eastern two touchdowns in less than a quarter.
“We knew they were going to make some plays but there was no panic,” Vigen said. “We didn’t need to reinvent ourselves. We just needed to play our game and defensively, we did that today.”
Eastern gained 33 yards over the next 32 minutes. EWU had the ball for just 6:32 in the second quarter and just 2:42 in the third quarter. The Eagles had four first downs between their second touchdown and the end of the third quarter.
“That was a lot of fun to come to their place and to come out with a win for the first time in a long time, everyone was super pumped up,” MSU junior safety Ty Okada said.
“We knew it would be a dog fight and we wanted to turn it into a physical game. They want to play basketball on a football field and we wanted to turn it into a physical game because that’s advantage us.”
Following Limu-Jones’ touchdown catch, Montana State ran 12 plays and found themselves with a chip shot field goal on a drive aided by an EWU unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
Blake Glessner, a true freshman who entered the game with 15 made field goals in 18 tries and a spot on the Jerry Rice Award watch list as the top freshman in the FCS, missed the short field goal.
But the Bobcat defense forced a punt on the next EWU possess thanks to several great plays in space by Andersen (15 tackles) and his fellow inside linebacker Callahan O’Reilly (13 tackles).
Montana State took the lead for good on the ensuing possession after EWU’s first, last and only punt of the second quarter.
McKay, who struggled in wins over Weber State and Idaho State, continued his hot start, throwing a nice deep ball to well-covered MSU senior Lance McCutcheon. The Bozeman native ripped the ball out of the air, threw the EWU defensive back to the ground and raced 67 yards for Montana State’s longest receiving touchdown of the season. That score put Montana State up 14-13 with 9:32 left in the second quarter.
“Oh my gosh, every time the ball is in the air, I’m half the time engaged with a guy and I always look and I never understand how our receivers can go make these ridiculous plays,” Kidd said with a grin. “Lance is a monster, like D.K. Metcalf out there, throwing dudes around, spinning, showing his strength. That’s a testament to how hard he’s worked his butt off and how far he’s come. He’s having a great senior year.”
The lead would extend to 16-13 as Eastern Washington was called for holding in the end-zone, resulting in a safety with three minutes before halftime.
In the second half, Montana State’s offense continued to dominate the line of scrimmage and control the clock, while the defense came up with a consistent string of big plays.
The Bobcats basically played keep away in the third quarter before a few of Montana State’s stars came up clutch once again. After Brode Grebe’s second sack of the game forced a punt, McKay hit McCutcheon up the Bobcat sideline for a 52-yard gain, part of a day that saw the MSU senior catch five passes for 150 yards.
On the very next play, Ifanse ripped off a 43-yard touchdown run as part of his epic day. The 217-yard effort is Ifanse’s third 200-yard game and the 15th time over 100 yards in his decorated career. Only Ryan Johnson (17) and Cody Kirk (16) have more trips over the century mark in single games in Bobcat history.
“We have a special guy in No. 22 (Ifanse),” Kidd said. “We have a lot of weapons on offense and Isaiah is one of them. He’s an awesome back and he makes us right a lot of times.”
The performance also puts Ifanse over 1,000 yards this season, making him the sixth Bobcat ball carrier to surpass the hallowed mark twice in his career.
“We felt that physical aspect was one we would have to win and a unit as an o-line, it’s a group that has to play together and I’m guessing from a run perspective, we did a pretty good job of that,” Vigen said, referring to Joey McElroy making his first start as a Bobcat in place of Tuiasosopo.
“And Isaiah, he’s a hard guy to bring down. For him to be on that other side of 30 with his carries, that was what it took today.”
Ifanse’s touchdown gave MSU its first commanding lead, 23-13, with 11:43 to play. But EWU would not go away.
O’Reilly and senior defensive tackle Chase Benson to give MSU the ball at midfield on what looked like the final nail in EWU’s coffin tackled Barriere for a loss on a fourth down scramble.
But McKay botched the exchange on the very next play, allowing EWU to take over 45 yards away from pay dirt. A total of 95 seconds later, Dennis Merritt plunged into the end-zone from a yard out, giving him 14 rushing touchdowns this season and cutting MSU’s lead to 23-20 with 7:37 left.
The Bobcats force a 3-and-out on EWU’s only other possession of the fourth quarter and ground the clock away as Ifanse rushed eight times for 75 yards in the fourth quarter alone.
Barriere came into the game as the only quarterback in college football with more than 3,000 yards passing or 30 passing touchdowns this year. Montana State limited the Walter Payton Award front-runner to 214 yards passing (220 below his season average) and two touchdowns.
“I’ll take great defense over great offense any day,” Vigen said.
Montana State’s Big Sky title march continues next week with the rival Vandals in town According to MSU sports information, the Bobcats will have 18 players celebrating their final regular-season home game. Idaho beat Southern Utah 42-20 on Saturday.
“Everyone wants to say championships are won in December but they are won in November, they are won as you play better and get better and you come out on the right side of games you are really tested,” Vigen said. “No matter how November played out, where we play, who we play, we can’t control that. But we are here now. We have to find a way this week, next week, moving forward to keep getting better. That will ultimately propel us into whatever we do down the road.”
