Griz surrender lead to UND in second half slumber
(Montana Sports Information) It was a tale of two halves in North Dakota on Saturday night as the Fighting Hawks used a big comeback in the second half to upset Montana 27-24.
The 23rd ranked North Dakota team scored 20 unanswered points in the second half for the win.
Montana dominated the opening period, taking a 24-7 lead into the halftime break, but were stymied in the second half offensively. North Dakota's own ground game picked up momentum and proved unstoppable.
“They did a good job, but that wasn’t good enough by us,” head coach Bobby Hauck said. “We had the game in hand, in control. I thought we were in the right frame of mind coming out of halftime and they got a big stop and then we just didn’t execute and get some first downs.”
The Grizzlies couldn’t get the offense going and got only four opportunities in the second half. They went three-and-out their first three drives of the half while North Dakota had three scoring drives that lasted at least five minutes each.
Montana scored 21 points in the first quarter behind a hot start from quarterback Keali’I Ah Yat and running back Eli Gillman. They totaled 195 yards in the first 15 minutes, but couldn’t recreate the success the rest of the way.
Ah Yat ended the game 20-of-28 for 145 yards and a touchdown. Gillman had 86 yards on eight carries while Nick Ostmo had 45 yards on eight carries. Xavier Harris had five catches for 56 yards and touchdown.
“It was a wild game, good job by North Dakota coming back and getting us,” Hauck said. “I really think the enemy is us and that starts with me, certainly. We can’t go through them like that in the first half and then come out and not be able to get a first down in the second half, that’s ridiculous.”
The Fighting Hawks opened the second half with the two consecutive scoring drives and Montana started with two straight three-and-outs. North Dakota climbed back to within three points at the end of the third quarter.
North Dakota opened the fourth quarter with the ball and drove inside the Grizzly five, but the Montana defense held up and forced a field goal that tied the game up at 24-24 with just over 11 minutes to play.
North Daktota took their first lead of the game with another field goal with roughly two minutes to play.
“Talk is cheap. We’ve got to play better,” said Hauck. “We played really well the first half. That was a great half of football. The second half was the absolute other half of that coin. We need to challenge ourselves… It’s a shame not to come out of here with a win. I blame the head coach first, and then I’m going to challenge our guys to have a great week.”