Season over for Griz

Baylark accounts for 245 yards, Griz get just 67 second-half yards

The Daily Inter Lake

MISSOULA - The legends of Dave Dickenson, Johnny Edwards, Vince Huntsberger and Blaine McElmurry will live on a little stronger in Griz Nation.

The 2006 second-ranked University of Montana football season is over.

The third-ranked University of Massachusetts came into Washington-Grizzly Stadium Friday night under the ESPN lights and did what no team could. The Minutemen defense scored a safety in the third quarter and turned their ensuing possession into a field goal to outscored the Grizzlies, 5-0, in the second half and rally from a 17-14 halftime deficit for a 19-17 I-AA semifinal victory.

UMass will play the winner of the Appalachian State-Youngstown State semifinal next week in Chattanooga, Tenn., for the national championship.

The loss for Montana ended a 12-game winning streak.

UMass senior running back Steve Baylark ran for 169 yards and two touchdowns and had a career-high five catches for another 76 yards to total 245 yards from scrimmage. All told, the Minutemen held the ball for 39 minutes, 14 seconds compared to Montana's 20:46 time of possession. Add in the yards from backup running back Tim Washington and fullback Matt Lawrence and UMass amassed 226 yards rushing.

"They came in and did what nobody else has been able to do - they ran on us," UM coach Bobby Hauck said. "UMass came in here and played one of their best games of the season on the offensive side of the ball. They did a nice job of controlling a game. We only had the ball nine minutes in the second half and coming off a 17-point second quarter, we just couldn't get our hands on the ball in the second half.

"Even though they only scored five points in the second half, they controlled the game. Had we been able to execute a clock drive or been able to score at all and won, all it would have been was an escape."

Even though the Grizzlies' defense couldn't stop the run, backup strongside linebacker Muckie Foreman scored a defensive touchdown off a 58-yard interception return and the unit still gave the offense a shot at a game-winning drive after UMass kicker Chris Koepplin's 46-yard field goal with 47 seconds left in the game was partially blocked.

But quarterback Josh Swogger threw an interception on the first play of the drive to end the game. The pass ended up nowhere near a receiver, between Craig Chambers (shallow) and Rob Schulte (deep) 31 yards downfield.

"It was a read route," Swogger said. "I was going for Schulte and I thought he was going to pull up and come back to the ball. But the read was, if he thought he could beat his man deep to go deep. And he went deep."

After driving 89 yards in 2:14 to end the first half with a Brady Green 1-yard touchdown and 17 points in the second quarter, the Griz offense gained just 67 yards in the second half. The nine minutes of possession on offense combined with the inability to stop Baylark had a lot to do with it, but UMass made a critical halftime adjustment. And it was an adjustment that got the game-changing safety.

"We made one critical adjustment with the safeties," UMass coach Don Brown said. "We took a man-free safety and snuck him in. They were sliding that big offensive line and we had a hard time penetrating their wall. We just took our man-free blitzes away from the side of the slide."

With 1:26 left in the third quarter, the Grizzlies had the ball on their own 10-yard line and Swogger dropped back to pass on a third-and-8. Pressure came from his right. He slipped out of a tackle near the end zone. He nearly danced out of another. But then senior defensive back Domenique Milton hit him from the backside and popped the ball loose. The ball bounced a couple of times and then went out of the end zone for a safety.

"That was the man-free scenario that helped us pop the ball out for the safety," Brown said. "(Milton) got the slide and came in and went underneath the end and pop the ball out."

The safety cut UMass' deficit to 17-16.

The ensuing free kick and return gave the Minutemen the ball on their own 39-yard line and seven plays later, Koepplin hit the eventual game-winning, line-drive 43-yard field goal.

MASSACHUSETTS 19, MONTANA 17

Massachusetts 7 7 2 3 - 19

Montana 0 17 0 0 - 17

First Quarter

Mass-Baylark 35 run (Koepplin kick), 12:10.

Second Quarter

Mont-FG Carpenter 23, 14:57.

Mont-Foreman 58 interception return (Carpenter kick), 11:54.

Mass-Baylark 5 run (Koepplin kick), 8:33.

Mont-Green 1 run (Carpenter kick), :10.

Third Quarter

Mass-Safety, ball fumbled out of end zone, 1:26.

Fourth Quarter

Mass-FG Koepplin 43, 13:25.

A-23,454.

Mass Mont

First downs 23 12

Rushes-yards 45-226 23-83

Passing 234 167

Comp-Att-Int 21-33-2 15-31-2

Return Yards 15 96

Punts-Avg. 5-42.4 6-41.3

Fumbles-Lost 2-0 2-1

Penalties-Yards 12-85 1-8

Time of Possession 39:14 20:46

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING-Massachusetts, Baylark 29-169, Washington 10-50, Lawrence 3-13, Team 1-(minus 2), Coen 2-(minus 4). Montana, Brooks-Fletcher 16-74, Bradshaw 1-3, Green 2-3, Swogger 4-3.

PASSING-Massachusetts, Coen 21-33-2-234. Montana, Swogger 15-31-2-167.

RECEIVING-Massachusetts, Moore 6-51, Baylark 5-76, London 4-45, Listorti 2-12, Lawrence 1-20, Washington 1-15, Rancher 1-11, Omar 1-4. Montana, Schulte 6-57, Allen 3-36, Bagley 2-26, Beaudin 2-16, Chambers 1-29, Pfahler 1-3.