Cat-Griz Report: Cats, Griz pile up the points in wins

BOZEMAN - If the Montana State Bobcats and Montana Grizzlies want to make the Brawl of the Wild an FCS playoff game, they both have to win out. And they accomplished the first step in that mission Saturday.

In Bozeman, Isaiah Ifanse rushed for 227 yards and three touchdowns as Montana State powered past visiting Cal Poly Saturday at Bobcat Stadium, 49-42.

In front of a crowd of 16,747 at chilly Bobcat Stadium, MSU opened the scoring on a shuffle pass from Travis Jonsen to Logan Jones. Moments later, Ifanse got in the end zone for the first time on a 74-yard sprint. Jonsen, who lined up at wide receiver on the play, contributed a key down-field block to ensure Ifanse would not be touched. By the end of the first quarter, Ifanse had 122 yards, on his way to 161 at halftime.

Joe Protheroe, who totaled 215 yards on 36 carries for Cal Poly scored after Ifanse, but Troy Andersen answered with a 51-yard run, reaching the end zone untouched thanks to another key block by Jonsen. After Protheroe cut the lead to 21-14, Jonsen himself scampered in from 3 yards out to give the Bobcats (5-4 overall, 3-3 Big Sky) a 28-14 halftime lead.

The second half was more of the same. Back-to-back scores by Ifanse (the first covering 29 yards, the second 28 yards) stretched the lead to 42-14 as the Mustangs (3-6, 2-4) lost two fumbles in the third quarter, the first recovered by MSU's Dante Sparaco and the second by Kyle Finch.

Ifanse's output easily surpassed the MSU freshman record of 192 yards set by Aaron Mason back in 2006 at Northern Arizona. Ifanse reached his total on 22 carries.

"Bad dude, man. He is. I love that kid," Jeff Choate, the Bobcats' third-year coach, said following the victory. "He's going to be something special and we're fortunate to have him. I think there's a bright future for that young man on this team."

Khaleel Jenkins found Malcolm Davis for a touchdown to make it 42-21 after three quarters. In the fourth quarter, Jenkins, who ran for a season-high 138 yards on 30 carries, found the end zone. Andersen, who missed time with a lower leg injury in the third quarter, came back with a 49-yard scoring run to push the score to 49-28. Andersen finished the day with 104 yards on just seven carries, in addition to completing seven of 10 passes for 54 yards.

Two late touchdowns by Jenkins accounted for the final score. Overall, Cal Poly rushed for 369 yards (461 overall) while the Bobcats totaled 430 on the ground and 507 overall. The Bobcats averaged 8.9 yards per play.

Defensively, the Bobcats were led by Brayden Konkol's 14 tackles while Grant Collins added 10 of his own.

"You better maximize your possessions against this team," Choate said. "Clearly, we had a very difficult time stopping them on the run. Their option game was as advertised. I thought they operated at a very high level.

"We gave up some explosive plays, which is uncharacteristic for us. Even when we were up two scores and three scores, I'm thinking, 'Thank God.' I didn't want to get into a score-for-score game with these guys because I don't know if we're going to get the ball back the way they eat clock up."

The Bobcats improved to 5-4 overall and 3-3 in the Big Sky. MSU closes out the home schedule this Saturday when the Cats host 2-8 Northern Colorado.

Grizzlies 57, Southern Utah 14

CEDAR CITY, Utah - Nothing like a 43-point road win over the defending Big Sky Conference co-champions to not only end a three-game losing streak but mostly erase it from memory. That's how good Montana was Saturday.

The Grizzlies scored on their first three possessions of the game to build an early lead and on three of their first four possessions of the second half to blow it open as Montana defeated Southern Utah 57-14 at Eccles Coliseum in Cedar City.

Dalton Sneed threw five touchdowns, Jeremy Calhoun ran for 99 yards plus a score and the Grizzlies totaled 635 yards of offense and 33 first downs on their way to their most lopsided road win since 1999.

"It was fun to see us play four quarters instead of two or three. That's been a point of emphasis not just this week but the last 10 months. We went after them pretty good," said coach Bobby Hauck, whose team led UC Davis 21-3 at the half last weekend before giving up 46 second-half points in a 49-21 loss.

There would be no such storyline this Saturday. After Southern Utah pulled to within 30-14 at the half, Sneed threw three third-quarter touchdowns - two to Samuel Akem, who now has six in the last three games - to put the game out of reach as the Griz defense didn't allow a second-half point.

"It was fun to have a dominating and total and complete victory," said Hauck. "We saw signs of it the first half last week, when it was like it was supposed to be. Our guys, they're getting it. We're a young team getting better."

Calhoun looked like a man among boys every time he got into space, which was often, and Keenan Curran had six catches for 91 yards and a pair of touchdowns. His first touchdown catch, a 21-yard strike from Sneed, made it 20-0 less than 10 minutes into the game. His second came over the middle, when he held on despite getting roughed up by a pair of defenders after making the catch in the end zone. That made it 44-14.

"Our seniors are tremendous guys for a lot of reasons, but the reason I love this group the most is they bought in totally and completely the first day we got to Montana in December," said Hauck. "They give us everything they've got every day, and I love them for it."

One of the few missteps on the day happened on the very first offensive play of the game, when Jerry Louie-McGee dropped a pass he catches 99 out of 100 times. And probably blindfolded. He more than made up for it the next 59-plus minutes. Louie-McGee scored the game's first touchdown, a 14-yard pass from Sneed, and he wouldn't stop tormenting SUU until he'd recorded 171 all-purpose yards: 87 receiving, 48 in punt returns and 36 rushing.

And that doesn't include the 90-yard punt return for a touchdown he had late in the third quarter that was called back because of a holding penalty.

Calhoun put Montana up 13-0 with a nine-yard scoring run midway through the first quarter, and Curran made it 20-0 less than two minutes later, after Josh Buss intercepted a pass that Reggie Tilleman batted his direction at the line of scrimmage.

Tim Semenza, with a 22-yard field goal, and Adam Eastwood, with a one-yard run, put Montana up 30-7 in the second quarter.

Southern Utah pulled within 30-14 late in the first half, and when Montana failed to score right before the break - Sneed's 14-yard scoring run was called back by a holding penalty, Semenza's 31-yard field goal attempt was wide left - the Thunderbirds maybe had their first break. And maybe a pulse. They were going to receive the second-half kickoff in what was, in theory, still a two-possession game.

Any hope was dashed the first play of the second half, when Josh Sandry intercepted Tyler Skidmore. Three plays later, Sneed found Akem for a 16-yard touchdown and the rout was on. Southern Utah didn't record a first down in the third quarter and had less than 100 yards of offense in the second half.

"(Our defense) played hard. They're fierce. We're good tacklers. They played the way it's supposed to be played," said Hauck, whose team didn't have a single turnover Saturday after giving it away a dozen times in its losses to Portland State, North Dakota and UC Davis. Kind of magic how that happens. It was terrific by our guys. Our team is evolving in the right direction. We're certainly not there yet, but we can feel pretty good about ourselves after that effort today."

After Akem's two touchdown catches in the third quarter and Curran's second of the game, Alijah Lee finished off the scoring with a fourth-quarter touchdown run of nine yards.

It was Montana's highest scoring output in 23 games, since laying 62 on Idaho State back in 2016.

The Griz are 5-4 overall and 3-3 in the Big Sky. They travel to Idaho this Saturday for the long-awaited revival of the battle for the Little Brown Stein. The Brawl of the Wild is also not just two weeks away.

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