Griz hold off Lumberjacks NAU
The Daily Inter Lake
In day ruled by special teams and defense, Montana's offense drives to Big Sky win
MISSOULA - The University of Montana finally had some good I-AA competition Saturday.
The showdown with Northern Arizona University in Washington-Grizzly Stadium played out to a defensive struggle and special teams battle with the third-ranked Grizzlies coming out on top, 24-21.
The victory keeps the Griz unbeaten in the Big Sky Conference at 4-0. They are 5-1 overall and will climb in the national rankings after top-ranked New Hampshire was knocked off by James Madison.
The Griz got out to a 24-10 lead near the end of the third quarter when Tim Parks blocked a NAU punt on the goal line. But the Lumberjacks scored twice in the beginning of the fourth quarter on the strengths of good field position, which was a result of an amazing punting game, and a Quinton Jackson fumbled kickoff return to cut their deficit to three points with 10 minutes, 11 seconds left in the game.
But Griz punter Dan Carpenter returned the favor of field position by pinning the 'Jacks inside their own 10-yard line and they could only get out to their 13 before punting back with 6:16 left in the game.
Then the Griz put together a non-scoring, game-winning drive.
It spanned 12 plays, which was by far the longest drive of the game by either team. It started on the UM 33-yard line and didn't end until 1:11 showed on the clock. It exhausted the Lumberjacks' timeouts and left them 89 yards from pay dirt. And it was nearly all the running of senior Brady Green, who ate up 48 yards on nine carries
"We kind of rode the outside zone play that last series," Green said. "Cody (Balogh) and Colin Dow were doing an unbelievable job of blocking out there. I wasn't getting touched for six, seven yards. They were just dominating. We just kept going to it, kept going to it, and it seemed to work."
The drive - which ended on a fourth-and-4 play from the NAU 11-yard line - had its share of nail-biting plays, including a fourth-and-1 from the UM 42-yard line.
"There was no thought to it," UM coach Bobby Hauck said. "You play to win."
The play was given to senior quarterback Josh Swogger on an keeper up the middle. He was stopped behind the line of scrimmage, collected himself and bounced to the outside for a gain of 5 yards.
"I was just kind of standing there, stuck behind a wall of linemen, and I was like, 'Man, there's got to be something open to the outside,'" Swogger said.
Swogger carried the ball twice in the drive for 9 yards and completed one pass for 4 yards.
NAU coach Jerome Souers said the drive was made possible because of injuries to some of his defensive linemen.
"We lost a couple of D linemen and we lost some gaps," he said. "They (the Griz) did a nice job of executing and breached us and got some critical first downs that kept the clock moving and ate up most of that six minutes."
The NAU offense got off five plays in the final 1:11, but gained only 16 yards. Montana defensive tackle Kyle Ryan pressured Jason Murrietta and Quinton Jackson broke up NAU's final fourth-down pass to end the game.
"It's a difficult loss for us," Souers said. "We came in prepared with an up-tempo style of game and there were times when we had it going. But Montana's defense did a nice job of staying disciplined and minimizing some of our big-play ability."
The Griz defense held Murrietta, who came into the game as the nation's seventh-best quarterback and averaging 231 yards passing per game, to just 93 yards on 16 of 32 passing. His longest completion was just 13 yards.
"It was mostly my fault," Murrietta said. "I came out a little slow. My balls were sailing on me. I wasn't making the right reads. I just didn't play very well."
Souers explained how the Grizzlies defense took his quarterback out of the game.
"Their (Griz defensive) secondary played very disciplined," Souers said. "And their pass rush was disciplined. It kept the lanes. There wasn't much room for (Murrietta) to run. Normally, Jason will break contain and step through the pocket."
Ryan and weakside linebacker Tyler Joyce led the way for the Grizzlies on defense with eight tackles apiece. Ryan had two tackles for losses and the Griz tallied 2 1/2 sacks.
The Griz held NAU to just 98 yards rushing after the Lumberjacks had 74 yards rushing at the half.
Green finished with 70 yards rushing and Reggie Bradshaw had 28 to pace the Griz on offense. Swogger had a tough day against the NAU double-flex defense, completing just 10 of 22 passes (46 percent) for 138 yards and a touchdown. He was sacked five times.
"There was a lot of stuff open, we missed a few times in the first half when we had a chance to get some big plays," Swogger said. "There were times when I threw behind receivers or threw over their heads. It seemed like we were so close to getting it together on offense. Then in the second half we just didn't really get it going. It didn't seem like we were in a rhythm."
Montana 24,
N. Arizona 21
N. Arizona 0 10 0 11 - 21
Montana 7 10 7 0 - 24
First Quarter
Mont-Allen 25 pass from Swogger (Carpenter kick), 7:19.
Second Quarter
NAz-Moore 9 pass from Murrietta (Dehaze kick), 10:58.
Mont-Green 10 run (Carpenter kick), 8:49.
NAz-FG Dehaze 40, 5:36.
Mont-FG Carpenter 43, :29.
Third Quarter
Mont-Bradshaw 4 run (Carpenter kick), 2:00.
Fourth Quarter
NAz-FG Dehaze 46, 10:54.
NAz-Henderson 9 run (Moore pass from Murrietta), 10:11.
A-23,626.
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NAz Mont
First downs 12 13
Rushes-yards 33-98 40-107
Passing 93 138
Comp-Att-Int 16-32-0 10-22-0
Return Yards 24 36
Punts-Avg. 9-46.0 9-45.3
Fumbles-Lost 3-1 1-1
Penalties-Yards 7-51 6-68
Time of Possession 32:02 27:58
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INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING-N. Arizona, Henderson 21-114, Mahone 1-1, Watson 1-0, Team 1-(minus 4), Murrietta 9-(minus 13). Montana, Green 17-70, Bradshaw 10-28, Swogger 12-6, Bagley 1-3.
PASSING-N. Arizona, Murrietta 16-32-0-93. Montana, Swogger 10-22-0-138.
RECEIVING-N. Arizona, Watson 5-23, Mahone 4-31, Moore 2-19, Fitzpatrick 2-15, Henderson 2-13, Sayles 1-(minus 8). Montana, Bagley 4-53, Ferriter 2-24, Chambers 1-39, Allen 1-25, Klaboe 1-4, Schulte 1-(minus 7).
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