Griz clobber McNeese State

Career days for Swogger, Brooks-Fletcher and defense dominates again

The Daily Inter Lake

MISSOULA - Take a football team from the South and put them into the snowy, cold confines of Washington-Grizzly Stadium against the 2006 Grizzlies and what do you get?

A blowout.

The University of Montana opened the NCAA I-AA playoffs Saturday with a 31-6 first-round victory over McNeese State of Lake Charles, La. The Grizzlies will host Southern Illinois, which rallied to beat University of Tennessee-Martin 36-30, Saturday in the quarterfinals.

While Friday night was cold and snowy in western Montana, playing conditions were great Saturday with snow piled along, and sun shining into, Hoyt Field. Even the Cowboys said the weather wasn't a factor. But they did say Washington-Grizzly Stadium and its first-round playoff record attendance of 20,077 was one.

"This was the biggest crowd I've ever seen," McNeese State wide receiver Steven Whitehead said. "It's the closest thing to a D-I school. The fans were great. The fans were loud. They were quiet when they were on offense and loud when they were on defense. It had a great deal of affect on our line."

The crowd helped to keep the Cowboys' offense out of synch and the Grizzlies' defense teed off. McNeese State had just 99 yards rushing and 125 yards passing while committing eight false starts or offsides penalties and two fumbled snaps. Ironically, the Cowboys committed no turnovers.

"The thing I was really impressed with was how physical their secondary was," McNeese State coach Matt Viator said. "Even their corners are really good tacklers. Their front guys get a lot of publicity and they should, but this is the best secondary we've played against all year - other than South Florida - no question."

Junior defensive end Kroy Biermann of Hardin led the way for the Griz on defense. He had 10 tackles, including 1 1/2 sacks. His pile-drive sack of MSU quarterback Derrick Fourroux in the fourth quarter may have broken Fourroux's wrist, Viator said. Sophomore strong safety Colt Anderson and junior middle linebacker Kyle Ryan of Billings were second on the team with seven tackles apiece.

"I'm not sure if they were the most-speedy bunch we've played, but I can definitely say they were the most physical," Whitehead said. "They outhustle any team we've played by a tremendous amount."

ON OFFENSE, the Grizzlies looked sharp. So sharp, in fact, they accounted for 514 yards. The offensive line of Cody Balogh, Colin Dow, Jeff Marshall, Eric Michael, Brent Russum and Terran Hillesland paved the way for 230 rushing yards and quarterback Josh Swogger threw for a career-high 259 yards and four touchdowns.

It was the third time this season the Griz went for more than 500 yards.

"That was a pretty dominating effort in all three facets of the game," UM coach Bobby Hauck said. "It's probably as complete a game as we've played. If not the best, it's certainly one of them."

Redshirt freshman running back Thomas Brooks-Fletcher got his first-career start for the Grizzlies and ran for a career-high 113 yards on just 13 carries. That's 8.7 yards per carry. Senior Brady Green had one more carry than Brooks-Fletcher, but gained only 56 yards. Junior Reggie Bradshaw got the carries on UM's final drive of the game and tallied 36 yards on five totes (7.2 ypc).

The 230 rushing yards was the third-highest total this season for the Griz.

"We came into this game saying we were going to run the ball," Balogh said. "We were going to establish the run and everything else was going to open up. It's a credit to the whole O-line in general because everybody did the right thing."

Ryan Bagley led the receivers with five catches for 59 yards, but it was Craig Chambers and Eric Allen who hauled in touchdowns. Chambers had four catches for 43 yards and two touchdowns.

They both came in the third quarter and proved to be the nails in the coffin after the Griz led just 17-6 at half. Chambers' first touchdown came off an 8-yard fade route. The second one was an 11 yarder where he was standing still, wide open in the back of the end zone.

"Actually, that was probably suppose to end up in Bagley's hands," Chambers said. "But Josh (Swogger) rolled out and the corner and safety went with (Bagley) and I was just waiting in the back of the end zone. I didn't really do much. That's probably the hardest catch I've made all year because I was so open."

Allen had three grabs for 42 yards and a touchdown. He capped a seven-play, 67-yard drive in one minute, three seconds in the Grizzlies' two-minute drill before halftime with a 14-yard diving touchdown. He caught the ball at the 4-yard line and made a move to score.

"I dropped back and to the left and the corner was taking away the main route," Swogger said. "I was taking a bit longer so I just … I saw E.A. standing their at the first-down marker so threw it to him. He made a nice move inside and jumped into the end zone."

Allen's score gave the Griz some breathing room after having just a 14-6 lead because the Cowboys' offense held the ball for most of the first half.

But the Grizzlies offense was so untracked that even the tight ends got into it for the Griz.

Trailing 3-0 after McNeese State's 10-play drive to open the game, redshirt freshman tight end Dan Beaudin of Noxon caught about a 10-yard pass while dragging across the middle, broke a couple of tackles and busted out for a 50-yard touchdown. True freshman tight end Steven Pfahler of Frenchtown had his best game, too. He had two catches for 13 yards and was open in the back of the end zone on the Grizzlies' third drive of the game, but Swogger overthrew him.

"Our 12 package (one back, two tight ends) was something we liked against their defense," Hauck said. "Whether they stayed in a two-deep shell or rolled down an eight-man front, we felt getting a fullback into the game and getting an extra guy at the point of attack was pretty beneficial to us. Their defensive ends were really talented and you can help with protection a little bit. We ran the ball right at 93 (McNeese's Buck Buchanan Award candidate Bryan Smith) because he's such a dynamic pass rusher. We wanted to make sure that we made him play the run some, which would slow down the pass rush to a degree. If nothing else, we wore them down a little bit. Our front did a pretty good job."

MONTANA 31, MCNEESE ST. 6

McNeese St. 3 3 0 0 - 6

Montana 7 10 7 7 - 31

First Quarter

McN-FG Bercegeay 42, 10:11.

Mont-Beaudin 50 pass from Swogger (Carpenter kick), 7:54.

Second Quarter

McN-FG Bercegeay 38, 10:24.

Mont-FG Carpenter 22, 3:09.

Mont-Allen 14 pass from Swogger (Carpenter kick), :13.

Third Quarter

Mont-Chambers 8 pass from Swogger (Carpenter kick), 9:32.

Fourth Quarter

Mont-Chambers 11 pass from Swogger (Carpenter kick), 1:37.

A-20,077.

McN Mont

First downs 14 25

Rushes-yards 32-99 38-230

Passing 125 284

Comp-Att-Int 13-22-0 21-30-1

Return Yards 13 58

Punts-Avg. 6-47.2 1-40.0

Fumbles-Lost 3-0 0-0

Penalties-Yards 11-76 6-52

Time of Possession 30:30 29:30

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING-McNeese St., C.Thomas 10-56, Whitehead 2-18, Bush 2-14, Pendland 3-7, Fourroux 8-7, Miller 1-2, Team 2-0, Fontenot 4-(minus 5). Montana, Brooks-Fletcher 13-113, Green 14-56, Bradshaw 5-36, Bergquist 3-15, B.Utterback 1-8, Swogger 2-2.

PASSING-McNeese St., Fourroux 12-20-0-116, Fontenot 1-2-0-9. Montana, Swogger 18-26-1-259, Bergquist 3-4-0-25.

RECEIVING-McNeese St., Whitehead 6-66, Lawrence 3-26, C.Franklin 2-19, Link 1-11, Bush 1-3. Montana, Bagley 5-59, Chambers 4-43, Allen 3-42, Green 2-42, Klaboe 2-26, Pfahler 2-13, Beaudin 1-50, Troxel 1-9, Ferriter 1-0.