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Cats pummel Aggies; Griz rally falls short

Cat-Griz Report

BOZEMAN (AP) - DeNarius McGhee completed 10 of 13 passes for 153 yards and two touchdowns in the first half leading No. 5 Montana State to a 34-17 win over UC Davis Saturday.

Cody Kirk went over the 3,000 yard mark for career rushing and scored twice for the Bobcats (6-2, 4-0 Big Sky). He finished with 119 yards on 20 carries.

McGhee finished the day 15 of 20 for 230 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

"DeNarius McGhee is a tremendous young man and a winner," UC Davis head coach Ron Gould said. "He'll definitely get my vote for offensive player of the year. As good as he is on the field he's ten times that as a person."

After Brady Stuart's 29-yard field goal put UC Davis (3-2, 3-6) on the board in the second quarter, Gabe Manzanares capped off the Aggies' following drive with a 9-yard touchdown run to make it 14-10 with 1:57 to play in the half.

MSU wasted no time answering, however, as it drove 70 yards, keyed by a 45-yard pass from McGhee to running back Shawn Johnson. Kirk rolled in from the three with just :42 to play in the half, propelling MSU to a 21-10 halftime lead.

"That was huge," MSU head coach Rob Ash said of the touchdown to end the half. "Johnson is a tough matchup for people with his speed as a true running back."

Johnson also had a 47-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter as he piled up 172 all-purpose yards - 92 receiving, 23 rushing and 57 on returns - in the first half.

Jon Ellis scored for MSU late in the third quarter on a reverse from 12 yards out and Kirk added his second midway through the fourth quarter.

MSU defensive end Brad Daly added two sacks to his FCS-leading total and now has 12. He also leads the FCS with 17 tackles for loss.

"It's fun playing with Brad," Preston Gale, who holds down the other defensive end spot for MSU, said. "He looks like he's done and he's down, but it's like someone shoots him with an arrow and he starts coming off the edge again."

Manazares totaled 179 yards rushing on 27 carries for the Aggies. Quarterback Randy Wright finished the game 23 of 33 for 159 yards and one touchdown.

The Bobcats, winners of four straight, go back on the road this Saturday, traveling to Northern Colorado.

E. Washington 42, Griz 37

MISSOULA AP) - Vernon Adams went into Saturday's game against Montana with the goal of getting the ball to his playmakers. And boy did the Eastern Washington quarterback ever deliver.

Adams threw six touchdown passes to lead the No. 3 Eagles to a wild 42-37 win over the No. 10 Grizzlies in a Big Sky Conference showdown at a sold out Wahsington-Grizzly Stadium, where EWU won for the first time in eight years.

"It's all about executing and getting my playmakers the ball," Adams said. "They were putting pressure on us and I took some hits. But I got them the ball."

Adams threw for 457 yards while tying his own school record for touchdown passes in a game.

"He's got guts to take a few shots and guts to stand in there and make those plays," Eastern Washington coach Beau Baldwin said of his quarterback.

Eastern Washington (6-2, 4-0 Big Sky) jumped out to a 28-17 halftime lead on Adams' passes of 19 and 34 yards to Cooper Kupp, 4 yards to Ashton Clark and 86 yards to Shaquille Hill.

Montana (6-2, 3-2) got first half touchdowns on a 24-yard Jordan Canada run and a 42-yard pass from Jordan Johnson to Ellis Henderson.

Adams continued his hot hand in the second half with a 52-yard scoring toss to Clark and a 9-yard touchdown pass to Mario Brown to put the Eagles up 42-17 at the end of the third quarter.

Montana nearly pulled off a second straight four-quarter miracle, trimming the Eastern Washington lead to 42-31 on touchdown passes of 7 and 48 yards from Johnson to Henderson, the second coming with 7:36 to play.

The Grizzlies cut the Eagles lead to 42-37 on a 6-yard Johnson toss to Jordan Harper with 1:44 left in the game. Johnson was tackled a yard short of the end zone on the two-point conversion attempt.

Eastern Washington ran out the clock after Montana's onside kick attempt was recovered by Kupp at the Montana 49-yard line.

"None of us signed up to quit," said Montana coach Mick Delaney, "We were going to fight until the damn thing went down to zero."

Kupp finished with 11 receptions for 182 yards and Hill had three catches for 112.

Johnson threw for 349 yards, 147 to Henderson on eight receptions. Jamal Jones also had a big day for the Griz, who rolled up nearly 500 yards of offense themselves. However, costly penalties, including an illegal hands to the face which nullified a Cam Warren TD late in the third quarter, hurt UM's chances. An early Travon Van Fumble led to EWU's second score of the day after UM had wnet up 10-7, while the Griz failed to capitalize on two Adams' interceptions, including Bo Tulley's pick during the fourth-quarter rally, in which the Griz failed to score points after Ben Worst missed a field goal try that would have cut the deficit to 10 points with just over 8 minutes to go.

"This game had a lot of ebbs and flows in the second half," Baldwin said. "I give a lot of respect to Montana on how hard they fight. But our Eastern Washington guys fought to the end and got the win.

"We're going to fight until there's no fight left in us," Delaney said. "That was evident today. I'm as proud of these guys and our coaches as I was last week in that come-from-behind win.

"They're the same guys. They fought the same way and things just didn't work out for us."

The Griz return to the road this Saturday, visiting Sacramento State.

Note: Havre Daily News sports editor George Ferguson contributed to this story.

 

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