Griz break Weber curse to stay unbeaten

Saturday, November 1

Ogden, Utah

1 PM

Montana

9-0 , 5-0

Weber State

3-6 , 1-4

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Montana

Weber State

11/1/2025 5:46:00 PM | Football

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana Grizzlies got the Ogden monkey off their back in a big way on Saturday, riding a strong first half to a 38-17 win over the Weber State Wildcats to stay undefeated at 9-0 on the season and 5-0 in Big Sky Conference play.

On the day after Halloween, Montana got past the Stewart Stadium house of horrors to snap a three-game losing streak to the Wildcats and earn their first victory in Ogden in over a decade, and just their second since 2006. Third-ranked Montana stays unbeaten with its second-straight road win.

The Griz came firing out of the gate, scoring 31 of their 38 points in the first half with three touchdowns in the first quarter alone. With a big lead at the break, they endured a second-half slowdown offensively to finish the game with just a single score in the final 30 minutes.

Nevertheless, Montana put up 522 yards of total offense in the win and held the Wildcat rushing attack to just 114 yards on the ground to make the home team one dimensional in the Grizzly win.

"Winning is hard, losing is easy. All you have to do is give in. Our guys came and took this game. We started fast. It's never academic, but our guys were not going to give in enough to let Weber get back into it," said head coach Bobby Hauck.

"I told them it's a sign of a championship team when you're up by three touchdowns at halftime and the head coach is just ripping you. It was good. When you look at what's going on around FCS football right now, be advised. Good teams can get beat."

Quarterback Keali'i Ah Yat was again a difference maker in the win, throwing for 296 yards and two touchdowns while completing nearly 56 percent of his passes. It was another step forward in the sophomore's progression as Montana's go-to starter with a turnover-free game. He's now thrown just three interceptions to 15 touchdown passes in the last seven games.

Blake Bohannon had a breakout game at receiver as Ah Yat's favorite target, logging a career high 131 yards and a touchdown on just three catches with 78 YAC yards. The Grizzly QBs shared the wealth with nine players catching a pass to put up 329 yards in the air overall.

Eli Gillman crossed the 100-yard barrier for the first time in three games and the fifth time this season with a game-high 122 rushing yards on 12 hard-earned carries with one touchdown run.

He continued to move up the Montana record books, becoming one of just four players in UM history to rush for more than 3,000 career yards, finishing the day with 3,102. With three regular season games left to play he's also on the cusp of his second 1,000 yard season, needing just 35 more to hit the milestone in his junior campaign.

"I thought the offense did a really good job, obviously, early. Everything was working in the first quarter, and we got out to a 28-3 lead, and we kind of pulled it in a little bit. We did a chance to play everybody. Sometimes that's invaluable. Everybody gets coached hard. That'll be a great film for our down-the-line guys where they didn't execute as well as the starters," said Hauck.

I just think it was great on offense. Our quarterback was good, as usual. Our running game was terrific early on When they started ganging up on us a bit at the end, we weren't finding as much, but it was a pretty good offensive performance. Over 500 yards of offense, 38 points on the board."

Defensively Montana logged two turnovers, an interception and a fumble on WSU's first play of the game that jumpstarted the Grizzly scoring. Clay Oven led UM in tackles with six, but seven other Grizzlies logged four-plus tackles, with Hayden Schwartz logging the only sack of the day.

After giving up just 10 points in the first half, the Griz clamped down in the second as the Wildcats managed just one score in the final two quarters and were held scoreless in the fourth.

"They had just a little over 100 yards rushing and couldn't run the ball on us. They got some of their yards at the end with the young kids in, but when they can't run it successfully, they're going to have a hard time beating the Grizzlies," said Hauck.

"I was hot at halftime that their field goal drive and their touchdown drive in the first half were because we couldn't stay onside, and that really had me fired up. But we settled in. We played well. We gave up seven in the second half, but wanted a second half shutout. We didn't get it, but, again, everybody played. We have a bunch in that second group that hasn't played a lot of college football and we're going to keep bringing them along."

It was defense creating offense for the Griz to start the first quarter. After winning the coin toss and electing to defer, Diezel Wilkinson forced a Wildcat fumble on the first play from scrimmage that was recovered by Micah Harper to set the Grizzly offense up with primo field position inside the WSU 35.

Two plays later Brooks Davis sped around the right end on a reverse and sprinted 12 yards to the endzone to put the Grizzlies up 7-0 after less than two minutes of play.

After the defense held a 14-play Wildcat drive to a field goal, the Grizzly offense wasted no time getting back on the board. Ah Yat showed off his arm and connected with Blake Bohannon on a 62-yard post route on the third play of the drive to put UM up 14-3 halfway through the period. Surprisingly, it was Bohannon's first touchdown catch of the season.

Another stop for the Grizzly defense set up another scoring drive for the offense on the ensuing sequence. This time Montana kept it on the ground, with Gillman and Rocker marching UM 64 yards on seven plays, with Ah Yat waltzing into the endzone from two yards out to cap the drive and put the Griz up 21-3 as time expired on the first period of play.

Montana built on the lead on its next drive when the Griz moved the ball 84 yards on just four plays. Davis broke-off most of those yards in one play when Ah Yat found him wide open along the right sideline for a 61-yard completion that put the Griz back into the Wildcat red zone.

Gillman found the endzone for the first time on the day one play later, breaking through a hole in the right B gap and dashing 14 yards to the endzone to put UM up 28-3 early in the second quarter.

Weber State found the endzone for the first time on the ensuing drive, marching down the field on a long 16 play, 77-yard possession, capped by an 11-yard scamper by Jayleen Record that cut into the Grizzly lead 28-10.

Bohannon put UM right back into the red zone with a shoestring grab that he turned into a 60-yard gain, but a Ty Morrison field goal would sail wide-right from 30 yards out and Montana would be fruitless for the first time in the game.

The Griz capped a frenetic first half with Morrison making-good on his first missed field goal, slotting one from 33-yards out as time expired on the first half to send Montana into the locker room up 31-10. UM held the ball for just nine minutes in the first half, yet managed 366 yards of total offense, with Ah Yat completing nearly 70 percent of his passes for 265 yards through the air.

Montana's defense picked up another stop early in the fourth quarter when Harper broke up a Dijon Jennings pass at the line to gain to turn Weber State over on downs around midfield, giving WSU a turnover on each of their opening half drives in the game.

Then it was the Wildcat defense that came up with a stop, however, as the Griz were stuffed on consecutive plays with two yards to gain and it was UM's turn to give it up on downs.

Evan Shafer got UM back on the board at the start or the fourth quarter when Ah Yat rolled out and fired a bullet to his tight end from nine yards out for his second-straight game with a touchdown. The score put the Griz up 38-17 after going scoreless in the third quarter, and that's where it would stay as Hauck and the UM staff rolled in every sub on the trip.

Montana now returns home to face Eastern Washington in Missoula on Nov. 8, with kickoff set for 1 p.m.