Griz swat Hornets, Hauck makes history

Saturday, November 4

Missoula, Mont.

6 PM

Montana

8-1 , 5-1

Sacramento State

6-3 , 3-3

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Sacramento St.

Montana

11/4/2023 10:49:00 PM | Football

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

Head coach Bobby Hauck has won a lot of football games in his career as the head coach of Montana Grizzly football, including some iconic playoff games and epic rivalry battles. Saturday night's 34-7 domination of No. 7 Sacramento State may not be at the very top the list, but it's very near the pinnacle of his now record 124 wins.

With the victory, Hauck became the Big Sky Conference's all-time winningest coach at 124-35, passing Northern Arizona's Jerome Sauers.

"I'm appreciative of that milestone," Hauck said. "There have been so many great coaches and teams in this league and to be able to be at the top of that heap and to be a part of so many good football teams is just special."

The Grizzlies allowed the first score of the game but put on a masterclass following, scoring the final 34 points to remain undefeated at home on the year. It avenged an overtime loss from last season to the Hornets, snapped a three-game losing streak against them, and keeps Montana in the driver's seat in the chase for the Big Sky Championship.

Montana proved superior in every phase of the game, outgaining Sacramento State 547-268 in the game with a balanced offense and a defense that held the Hornets to just 25 percent on third down. A Sacramento State offense that averages 32 points per game was held to just seven.

They have now won five straight games to improve to 8-1 on the year and 5-1 in Big Sky play.

Gallery: (11-4-2023) FB: Montana vs Sacramento State

The Grizzly defense held Sacramento State without a point on its final 10 drives. The Hornets have averaged over six yards per play and 433 yards per game this year, but held to just 268 total yards on Saturday with only 3.9 yards per play.

Montana, meanwhile, had a season-high 547 total yards in yet another balanced effort. They ran the ball for 305 yards and threw for another 242, averaging 7.6 yards per play. They had a couple of big quarters with 152 yards in the second and 212 yards in the final quarter to put it away.

The rushing attack could not be stopped. The Grizzlies carried the ball 50 times for a season-high 305 yards. It's the most rushing yards in a game since Montana had 337 in a 63-7 blowout win over Eastern Washington last November.

Eli Gillman had his second straight 100-yard rushing game with 113 on 16 carries. He added a score. Clifton McDowell played the entire game at quarterback, running 15 times for 83 yards. Nick Ostmo also had 11 carries for 68 yards and two scores.

"I think the fact that we wore them down and then, we talked about it at halftime how we had them close to not wanting to play the run as well as they did in the first," Hauck said. "In the second half, but particularly the fourth quarter, we made them not want to tackle anymore."

McDowell also threw for 218 yards and two scores and caught a 24-yard pass from Junior Bergen. His favorite receiver on the day was Aaron Fontes, who hauled in six catches for 88 yards and a score.

The biggest play of the game belonged to Keelan White, however, as the receiver caught a school record 97-yard touchdown pass. It broke the previous record of 93 yards from Brian Ah Yat to Jimmy Farris in 1997.

👀 @_Cliff10 to @K_Whitey_12 for 97 YARDS is the longest touchdown in program history! 🤯👏#GoGriz pic.twitter.com/IRQnLpKftA
— Montana Griz Football (@MontanaGrizFB) November 5, 2023

The Grizzly defense held the Hornets to 119 passing yards and a 38 percent completion rate through the air. They gave up just 149 rushing yards. They were able to convert just four third downs as Montana dialed up plenty of pressure and played well across the field.

Braxton Hill led the team with nine tackles, two of which were solo. The Anaconda native added a quarterback hurry. Tyler Flink had seven total tackles, six of them solo, while Ryder Meyer and Ryan Tirrell each had six stops.

Alex Gubner had the lone sack for the Grizzly defense, as they finished the night with 64 total tackles and three for loss.

All in all, it was a complete team effort, from the lines to the skill positions to the kicking game, where Montana downed two punts inside the 20 and Bergen had a 28-return on the other end.

"Rushing for 305 you can probably just say OK great, the O-line is playing well. When we can lean on them, and then we're hitting passes, it's going to be hard to stop us. And then playing behind that defense with the kicking game being what it is, we could just be a really good football team when this is all said and done."

Montana went three-and-out on the opening drive of the game. The Hornets moved into Grizzly territory with a 19-yard run, but would miss a 44-yard field goal to keep the game scoreless.

The ground game got Sacramento State into the end zone on the next drive. They ran it five straight times, punching it in from one-yard out to go ahead 7-0 midway through the first.

The first big play of the day for Montana's offense came on a connection from McDowell to Fontes to move 18 yards and into Hornets territory. Then on a 3rd-and-long, McDowell tossed a screen pass left to Gillman for a 20-yard gain to set Montana up in the red zone.

Gillman then finished the drive on the ground, carrying Sacramento State defenders the final five yards on an eight-yard rush that found pay dirt. It's the ninth touchdown of the year for Gillman.

Sacramento State's offense swapped quarterbacks and attempted to beat the Griz through the air on the next drive, but were turned away and forced to punt. After taking advantage of the right side of the line on the opening drive, an adjustment from Montana would limit their rushing attack the rest of the way.

"It was an excellent performance. We gave them good field position coming out of the gate in their first two drives and only gave up seven," Hauck said. "We had some gap control problems with their inside zone on one of our calls, we had to get out of that and got it shored up."

The low punt took a large bounce and gave Junior Bergen plenty of time to handle it with a head of steam. He took the return 33 yards to set Montana back up inside Sacramento State territory.

Once there, the Grizzlies pulled out a trick play to set up a score. McDowell handed to Ostmo on a jet sweep, and he pitched it back to Bergen on a reverse. The running back then found a wide-open McDowell, who slipped out to the right after the initial handoff, for a 24-yard completion.

Ostmo took it nine yards on the next play for his first touchdown since the Ferris State on Sept. 16. He now has two of his four scores in the alternate black uniforms this year.

The defense forced its first three-and-out of the game on the next Hornet drive to put the ball back in the Grizzlies' hands at their own 23-yard line.

Fontes had another huge grab on the drive, hauling a pass in over the middle of the field and flying past the Sacramento State defense for a 52-yard gain that put Montana on the doorstep.

The duo connected for the fifth time from nine yards out for a touchdown to put Montana ahead 21-7. Fontes had five grabs for 86 yards after the score, and McDowell had a 9-for-13 start with 119 yards and a score.

There were no points down the stretch, but plenty of drama and excitement. Bergen was tackled out of bounds on a punt return at the Grizzly bench, and the two teams both started extracurricular activities. Both teams were given unsportsmanlike penalties to every player on the roster, meaning an additional unsportsmanlike would disqualify any player on the roster.

Sacramento State's Jared Gipson slammed his helmet on the final play of the half in frustration, and was ejected from the game as a result.

The Griz led 21-7 at halftime with a 241-115 advantage in total yards. The Grizzlies found plenty of success on third down, converting 50 percent while limiting the Hornets to just one conversion in six attempts.

The teams traded punts to start the second half. Sacramento State generated a 16-play, 77-yard drive on their second possession that came up empty. They made it all the way to the Montana four-yard line, but fumbled on a hand-off to move them back a few yards.

They attempted a 26-yard field goal, but the wind howling out of Hellgate Canyon pushed the ball wide right.

McDowell quickly flipped the field with a 42-yard run down to the Sacramento State 33-yard line. But just like the Hornets' long drive, the Grizzlies weren't able to capitalize. McDowell threw his first interception as a Grizzly to give it back to Sacramento State at the end of the third.

The Hornets threatened to start another drive into Grizzly territory on the following possession, but on a third down Alex Gubner broke through and brought down Kaiden Bennett for the first sack of the game by the Griz defense.

The Hornets punted and got an assist from the wind to down the ball at the one-yard line. McDowell went under center and used a quarterback sneak to clear a few yards of space. And then, history.

McDowell dropped back to pass and found Keelan White streaking down the sideline. He dropped the ball over White's shoulder. He caught it at the 31, broke a tackle from behind, and sprinted for 70 more yards.

The 97-yard touchdown pass was the longest play from scrimmage in Montana history.

"Brent (Pease) does a great job and he had an outstanding plan. He had a lot of stuff for them, and we got to a lot of it early in the game and having 21 at halftime was good. Comforting to think we were probably going to get more in the second half," Hauck said. "They handled some of the base stuff well early in the game but then we got them out of sorts when we made them defend 53-yards wide with the deep ball as well. We got after them."

The Griz forced a punt and Eli Gillman broke a 32-yard run to get them in Hornets territory again. They kept it on the ground with Gillman tacking on 14 more yards and then Ostmo scoring from 10 yards out to put Montana ahead 34-7 with seven minutes to play.

The Hornets would fail to score again as the Grizzlies ran out the clock with 115 rushing yards in the final quarter. Montana ended the game with over 35 minutes of possession compared to just 24:19 for Sacramento State.

"The fourth quarter went fast, and it's fun to dominate – we were ranked third and they were ranked seventh in the national polls – and that didn't look like three versus seven. And I think they are a really good football team."

The top 10 win will certainly look good on the resume for the Grizzlies, who now set their sights on Portland State. The Grizzlies and Vikings will meet in Hillsboro, Ore. next Saturday before Montana returns home for the Brawl of the Wild on Nov. 18.

The Grizzlies are off to their best start to a season since 2009, and are looking to keep up with the pace that team set on their way to a Big Sky title and National Championship appearance.

"This was a big game. They are all big here at Montana, try losing one, but this was a huge game in terms of the trajectory of the season and what we can accomplish," Hauck said. "The way we are storming into November, which is big-man month, I'm excited about it and very excited for our team."