Payback time for Griz

By ANDREW HINKELMAN

The Daily Inter Lake

The Montana Grizzlies get a shot at redeeming one of their two Big Sky defeats from a year ago today when they entertain Idaho State for homecoming.

Last season the Bengals upset Montana 43-40 in double overtime, the same score and scenario by which Western Illinois would later end the Grizzlies' season in the playoffs.

And just for fun, Idaho State's only win so far this season came in double overtime.

This year, the No. 7 Griz are heavy favorites, and it should be a fun afternoon at Washington Grizzly Stadium as ISU comes in with a dreadful defense that Montana can exploit.

The Bengals also feature a potent offense (though not as impotent as the defense), and it could turn into a high-flying shooting match.

"Idaho State has a very explosive offense," UM coach Bobby Hauck said in the Grizzlies' weekly media release. "(Mark) Heatherington is a good quarterback, and he has four big, talented receivers to throw the ball to.

"Their freshman running back had a nice game last week and we need to contain him and their running game as well."

Last week against Montana State, the Bengals amassed 462 yards on offense, but failed to score touchdowns on four red zone possessions.

Defensive results like that are familiar to the Griz, who gave up over 500 yards two weeks ago to Northern Colorado, but still won easily after holding inside the red zone.

"We need to continue to mix it up on defense and try to put pressure on the quarterback," Hauck said. "Hopefully they won't know where we are coming from, or when we are coming. That's the key to good pass defense."

Montana is starting to build some momentum having come off its most balanced offensive effort of the season last week against Weber State.

"I thought we improved last week," Hauck said. "I thought it was our best team effort so far this season. That improvement needs to continue this week."

Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. The game can be seen locally on KAJ-TV, cable channel 8, air 18.

Standings

Conference All Games

W L PF PA W L PF PA

N. Arizona 2 0 81 27 2 2 101 72

E. Washington 1 0 47 22 2 2 120 109

Montana St. 1 0 17 13 2 2 64 79

Montana 0 0 0 0 3 1 124 100

Portland St. 0 0 0 0 2 1 90 41

Sacramento St. 0 1 0 26 1 3 53 160

Weber St. 0 1 27 55 0 4 87 152

Idaho St. 0 2 35 64 1 4 125 179

Last Saturday

Montana St. 17, Idaho St. 13

N. Arizona 26, Sacramento St. 0

Montana at Weber St., 8 p.m.

E. Washington at Portland St., 9 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 9

1 p.m. - Idaho St. at Montana

1:30 .m. - Weber St. at Montana St.

3 p.m. - N. Arizona at E. Washington

7 p.m. - Portland St. at Sacramento St.