Griz roll past No. 8 Idaho in late-night clash
(Montana Sports Information) With the Stein on the line, No. 4 Montana jumped out to an early lead over No. 8 Idaho and never looked back, putting up over 400 yards of offense and allowing the Vandals to score just six first half points in a dominant 41-30 win that wasn't as close as the score would indicate.
The Little Brown Stein, one of the oldest trophies in the FCS, will remain in Missoula for a third-straight year as Montana improved to 4-0 on the season and 1-0 in Big Sky play while sending Idaho back to Moscow at 2-3 and 0-1.
In a playoff-like atmosphere that was nationally televised on ESPN 2, the UM faithful packed Washington-Grizzly Stadium with 27,025 fans to see the win – the second largest crowd in program history. It kept up Montana's trend of sold-out shows this season, with now four of the top 16 highest attended games occurring this season.
With its second ranked win of the season, Montana has now won 13 of the last 16 meetings in the series that dates to 1903 and has still only lost to the Vandals once this century with wins in nine of the last ten matchups.
Paced by a game-high 164 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns from Michael Wortham, 142 more rushing yards and another pair of TDs from Eli Gillman, and 17 of 23 passing for 223 yards and a score by Keali'i Ah Yat, Montana's offense continued to hum with its third 40-plus point game of the year.
In a strong overall defensive performance, Montana forced five Vandal three-and-outs on their first eight drives of the game and jumped on a fumble with just over seven minutes to play to ice the win for the Griz.
"This was a really complete win for us over a team who was ranked in the top 10. I thought going into the game we might be able to do this to them. I'm excited about where our team is right now," said head coach Bobby Hauck.
"They couldn't handle us in the kicking game, the defense was special for three quarters, and we beat them up physically. I thought we had great balance tonight offensively and I thought the guys did a good job moving the chains and making plays when they had to."
With a career-high 27 carries for 142 yards, Gillman posed his third 100-plus yard rushing game this season and the 11th of his career, with the Griz at 11-0 when he crosses the century mark. His campaign for Big Sky Offensive Player of the Year is now in full swing, with the junior now sitting at 542 yards and eight TDs on the year and 7.6 yards per rush.
Ah Yat continued his steady emergence as one of the top passers in the FCS throwing just six incomplete passes in a 223-yard day with six chunk plays of 16-plus yards to cross the 1,000-yard barrier this season, now with 1,086 passing yards in for games.
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