It’s been six years, yet the nightmares of the Alerus Center continue to haunt the Montana Grizzlies.
In Montana’s last trip to the venue during North Dakota’s final season playing football in the Big Sky Conference, the Griz committed four egregious turnovers and got bulldozed by the Fighting Hawks. UND was up 34-0 at halftime before limping back to Missoula with a 4-3 record following the 41-14 loss.
On Saturday evening in the first evening game at the Alerus Center in a decade, the Grizzlies looked like they were exercising those demons and then some. Freshman quarterback Keali’i Ah Yat looked surgical and the Griz offensive looked both creative and explosive as UM built a quick 14-0 lead less than nine minutes into the game.
Xavier Harris caught a 37-yard touchdown on Montana’s opening possession and Eli Gilman ripped off a 63-yard touchdown less than five minutes later, affirming each player’s standout performances last week were no fluke.
And Ah Yat looked poised, confident and veteran in helping push the UM lead to 24-7 at halftime. Entering the halftime locker room, Ah Yat had completed 16 of his 21 pass attempts for 136 yards and a touchdown. The Griz averaged 6.4 yards per rush and out-gained North Dakota 271-136 overall.
In the second half, the Alerus Center demons returned for the Griz. North Dakota completely flipped the script and completely controlled the second 30 minutes. Montana managed to run just 17 plays and mustered just one second half first down as North Dakota scored 20 unanswered points to win going away, 27-24.
“They did a good job, but that wasn’t good enough by us,” head coach Bobby Hauck said. “We had the game in hand, in control, I thought we were in the right frame of mind coming out of halftime and they got a big stop and then we just didn’t execute and get some first downs.”
Veteran UND head coach Bubba Schweigert has long favored a tough-minded, methodical style in which the Fighting Hawks control the clock. That was the exact formula in the second half for UND. Disciplined drives combined with the defensive adjustments that caused the Grizzlies to not be able to move the ball whatsoever after intermission spelled doom for the visitors.
North Dakota started the second half with a grinding 10-play, 75-yard drive capped by Gavin Ziebarth’s two-yard touchdown plunge.
The Griz went 3-and-out in its next possession. Then UND marched 58 yards in five plays, capped by quarterback Simon Romfo’s 19-yard rushing score. The Griz then went 3-and-out, ensuring the Griz would not get the ball back again in the third quarter.
North Dakota bled the last 6:25 of the third quarter and the first 3:48 of the fourth quarter with a grinding, 16-play, 67-yard drive that ate up more than eight total minutes and finished with a 19-yard C.J. Elrichs field goal to tie the game.
For the third straight offensive possession – and this time with sophomore Logan Fife in the game – Montana ran three plays before punting.
UND took over with 10 minutes to go. The hosts did not give the ball back to the Griz until the clock read 2:16. That drive totaled 14 plays, 43 yards and ate up 7:44, resulting in a 40-yard field goal to give UND the lead for good.
“They ran the ball successfully. It seemed like they just had the ball and grinded it out and kept going down and getting field goals and getting ahead of us,” Hauck said. “I’m really disappointed because we looked like I wanted us to in the first half and the second half we didn’t. I’m just really upset about losing that game.”
Montana got one more chance but by that point, Ah Yat and the Griz offense couldn’t re-find its rhythm. Ah Yat gave the Griz faithful a glimmer of hope — and showed off his athleticism yet again — with a 32-yard scamper into Fighting Hawks’ territory.
But an incomplete pass, a sack by UND’s Wyatt Pedigo, and an ill-advised inside tunnel screen attempt to Harris that resulted in a three-yard loss helped set up an almost impossible scenario to tie the game.
Morrison — a junior college transfer who’s Montana’s starting kicker and punter and was the Big Sky Conference Special Teams Player of the Week last week he did each so well — lined up for a 54-yard field goal to tie the game. The kick had enough distance but missed far wide right.
With 39 seconds left, the North Dakota sideline exploded in jubilation. And after Romfo took a knee, the 23rd-ranked Fighting Hawks had a signature victory in signature Schweigert fashion against the No. 4-ranked Grizzlies, a team that finished as the national runner-up last season.
“It was a wild game, good job by North Dakota coming back and getting us,” Hauck said.
“But you know, I really think the enemy is us and that starts with me, certainly. We can’t go through them like that in the first half and then come out and not be able to get a first down in the second half, that’s ridiculous.”
Montana managed just one first down — Ah Yat’s final drive scramble — and gained just 34 yards in the second half, including negative-8 in the third quarter. Ah Yat completed just four passes after halftime and Gilman had just three carries.
Last season, an embarrassing road loss proved to be the turning point for the Griz. But that 28-14 loss at Northern Arizona came a month into the season, not the second week. And not on the heels of a rather uninspiring 29-24 win over Missouri State.
Montana will look to get back on track on Saturday against Moorehead State in Missoula.
