Griz ride big second half to win over Portland State
(UM Sports information) The full moon was on Friday, but the weirdness carried over to Saturday in Missoula as the Montana Grizzlies overcame a first half shut-out and a second-half power outage at Washington-Grizzly Stadium to come away with a 28-17 win over Portland State.
In a scrappy matchup charged with senior day emotions and family feuds on both sidelines, Montana came alive for 21 points in the third quarter with a balanced attack on offense led by Logan Fife at quarterback. The defense stepped-up too, taking a season-high five turnovers to help the Griz improve to 8-3 on the season and 5-2 in conference play.
Montana’s eighth win of the year all but guarantee’s UM a place in the postseason as well, punching the Grizzlies’ ticket to the playoffs for an FCS record 28th time. Portland State, meanwhile, falls to 2-8 (2-5 BSC) as the Vikings work though the most difficult schedule in FCS football.
The Griz re-ignited its run game that was held quiet over the last two games for 199 rushing yards, 134 of which came from Eli Gillman, who crossed the century mark for the first time since September. Fife, who entered the game for the injured Keali’i Ah Yat, accounting for all four Grizzly touchdowns with 197 yards and three scores through the air and another on the ground.
Led by Frenchtown’s Jace Klucewich with two, the defense clamped down when it mattered most in the red zone, as UM picked-off three passes as Portland State was driving to try and erase UM’s third quarter lead.
The Grizzlies iced the game late in the fourth as dusk settled in Missoula after the power outage forced the lights out in the stadium and time to be kept by the officials, just when time management mattered most.
“It was wild. It was just a crazy game. I thought our guys managed to bleed the clock at the end of it with just the referee’s hand signals, but the power outage was hard on everybody, and I thought our guys handled it well. The clock is such a factor in that point in the game and it wasn’t working. So, it was just wild,” said head coach Bobby Hauck.
“It was an interesting game. The first half was really good by our defense, but we couldn’t sustain anything on offense. Couldn’t get it going. We had eight first downs at halftime but not many consecutive ones, and certain things hurt us to shut us out, but it was nice to get 28 in the second half.”
The Griz started slowly on offense in the first half as the Vikings chewed up the clock for nearly 10 more minutes of possession and their defense allowed the Griz to get off just 28 plays. Montana’s defense held firm, however, and allowed just three points from the visitors on the first drive followed by a pair of punts and a pair of turnovers to give PSU a 3-0 lead at the break.
Fife and Montana flipped the script in the second half, however, getting the passing game going with 21 points on over 160 yards through the air in the third quarter alone, and added another score on a 35-yard bomb from Fife to Aaron Fontes to put the game away in the fourth. Fife finished the day going 9-for 14 passing for 197 yards and touchdown passes to Fontes, Sawyer Racanelli, and Erik Barker.
“I thought a couple things (were different in the second half). One, we were better on first down. They blitzed, not every down but a high percentage and we started handling their pressure, we started getting our protections targeted, guys were staying square, and we started hitting some passes. We knew with that structure they were going to put more pressure on their corners than the corners could bear, and we just had to get to it,” said Hauck.
“(Fife) He did a good job coming off the bench. He had expected to play, and he came in and looked like he had prepared to do that, so that’s a credit to him. I was pleased for him to be able to do that, and then guys started making plays. Guys were hanging onto the ball and there was a lot of good targeting in protection as well as in the run game.”
The Grizzly defense also neutralized dynamic Viking quarterback Dante Chachere, one of the overall leading rushers in the Big Sky, to just six total yards on the ground. Montana made him pay in the passing game as well, limiting him to 139 yards in the air and forcing him into throwing two of UM’s three interceptions.
“The takeaways were big. He (Chachere) is such a good runner, it creates some space on the back end. That’s just the nature of it. He fits it in there and the windows aren’t as big he struggles a little bit and that’s certainly what happened,” said Hauck.