Gillman paces Griz to win over Wildcats

Saturday, September 6

Missoula, Mont.

6 PM

Montana

1-0 , 0-0

Central Washington

1-1 , 0-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Central Wash.

Montana

Photo by: Montana Photography

9/7/2025 12:22:00 AM | Football

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

A career high day for Eli Gillman, some electric special teams, and a pair of opportune takeaways helped the Montana Grizzlies dispatch an up-for-it Central Washington, with UM pulling away in the second half to beat the Wildcats 42-17.

Montana put up nearly 600 yards of balanced offense and the defense pitched a shutout in the second stanza as the Griz moved to 1-0 to start the season. Central Washington dropped its first game of the year, falling to 1-1 on a warm Saturday evening in Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

"It's great to be 1-0 so congratulations to our guys. They did a good job, and they fought it out. I thought central played a really good game. They're a good team. Chris Fisk does a really good job over there," said head coach Bobby Hauck.

"In the end we were just too much for them. I thought our guys were terrific in terms of effort level. I thought the tackling was great, I thought the intensity was good, I thought we finished runs, I thought we broke tackles, I thought we did a lot of good things."

While there were offensive highlights all over the stat sheet, Gillman was the undisputed star of the show for the Griz, breaking free for a 55-yard touchdown run on his first touch of the game and eventually setting a new personal best with 198 yards rushing on 15 carries and three scores.

Michael Wortham was also a triple threat in the rushing, receiving and return games, totaling 240 all-purpose yards punctuated third quarter touchdown catch that saw him slice and dice the defense for a 76-yard strike to total 120 receiving yards.

Sophomore quarterback Keali'i Ah Yat made his seventh career start after winning the QB1 job at the end of fall camp and had a career-high day as well, throwing for 250 yards on 14 completions, with 10 different receivers catching a pass.

"I thought he (Ah Yat) played his best game yet and I think the best is yet to come. I thought it was terrific. He was calm, focused, knew what he was doing, didn't get rattled when things didn't go his way on a couple of things. Even to the point where he made a couple mistakes and was unfazed by it. He made some plays with his feet and did all the things good quarterbacks do," said Hauck.

Defensively, Montana held CWU QB Kennedy McGill to just 39 yards rushing and forced him into two key interceptions. The defending Lone Star Conference Offensive Player of the Week was one of the top five players in all of college football in yards per carry in 2024 at 7.44 per tote but managed just three against the Griz.

Montana also picked-off McGill in the endzone twice – one on a deflected ball from cornerback Keyon Loud that popped up for Billings native Kade Boyd's first career pick in the second quarter. The second was hauled in by UM newcomer Michah Harper partway through the third quarter to keep 14 points off the board for the visitors.

Montana shot itself in the foot several times in the first half to keep the chains moving for the visitors, suffering five penalties for 55 yards in the first two quarters as CWU put up 17 first half points and 225 total yards. The Griz clamped down in the second half, however, allowing just 67 rush yards and 37 passing while keeping the penalties to a minimum to score 21 unanswered points.

"We just kept playing hard. I think we shored up the edge of our defense a little bit against the stretch play. They did a really good job with the quarterback run game. He led the nation in yards per carry a year ago for a reason. That makes hit hard to shut that off. I thought they did a nice job up front picking up some line charge variation, and we just got off a bit better in the second half," Hauck added.

With the nearly 200-yard day, Gillman bumped his way up Montana's all-time rushing lists, bringing his career total yards to 2,335 to pass Hall of Famer Rocky Klever and move into sixth place in program history. His three scores also tie him with another hall of famer in Marc Mariani with 33 career total touchdowns.

"Eli had a great game – one of those iconic games of his. He's a special player when he has the ball in his hands," said Ah Yat in the post-game press conference.

Gillman started the scoring on the first rush of the game for the Griz, breaking through the C gap and outpacing the remaining defenders in the second and third level for a 54-yard strike just a minute and 10 seconds after kickoff.

After a field goal from the Wildcats, senior tailback Stevie Rocker Jr. got in on the ground attack. He picked up a big fourth and one conversation that broke loose for 25 yards to extend a drive that he'd later cap with a five-yard burst up the middle for his third career rushing TD that put the Griz up 14-3.

Rocker would finish the day with a career-high 72 yards on five attempts, leading al players in the game with an average of 14.4 yards per carry.

CWU would come storming back in the second quarter, however, scoring two unanswered TDs to take a brief 17-14 lead with just under four minutes to play in the opening half.

The Griz retook the lead soon after though when Ah Yat slipped out of a tackle and found a wide-open Drew Deck for a 50-yard touchdown strike – the first of the senior from Kalispell's career – that put UM up 21-17 at the break.

Montana then put the foot on the gas in the second half, scoring 21 unanswered points to pull away from the visitors.

Wortham, an All-America transfer from Eastern Washington, scored his first points as a Grizzly on a 76-yard connection from Ah Yat to extend the lead to 28-17.

Gillman capped the scoring for Montana with rushing touchdowns of 11 yards and 1 yard to cement the victory.

Montana earned the win over CWU in front of 26,309 fans, a top ten all-time crowd at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

UP NEXT: Montana returns home for ranked showdown next Saturday as the No. 20 North Dakota Fighting Hawks come to town at 1-1 after nearly upsetting Kansas State in a 35-38 loss to start the season and blasting Portland State 50-20 at home in week two.

The Griz will be looking for revenge on the Fighting Hawks after UM fell 24-27 in Grand Forks last season after holding a two-touchdown lead in the first half.