Wofford upsets Grizzlies

Dan Carpenter's last-second field goal attempt sails wide left

MISSOULA - Mighty Dan struck wide left.

The 2007 University of Montana football team will not go undefeated. The winners of 10 straight Big Sky Conference titles will not win the national championship. Kalispell's Lex Hilliard will not become the Grizzlies' all-time rushing king.

Little 'ol Wofford College of Spartanburg, S.C., made sure of those things on Saturday.

The Terriers scored a touchdown with 32 seconds left and UM kicker Dan Carpenter's last-second 47-yard field goal attempt sailed wide left by about 4 yards to give Wofford a 23-22 upset victory in the frigid confines of Washington-Grizzly Stadium in the first round of the FCS playoffs.

The second-ranked Grizzlies ended their season at 11-1. Wofford (9-3) advanced to the quarterfinals.

"We've been mowing through folks for two years, week in and week out, so it's disappointing to end it," UM coach Bobby Hauck said. "But that's the FCS playoffs. That's the way it works."

It was just the second UM loss in its last 25 games. It was the fourth home playoff loss in Griz history; three have come under Hauck's helm.

THE GRIZZLIES and Terriers exchanged leads three times in the final 8 minutes.

Trailing 16-10 after Carpenter hit his third field goal, Wofford quarterback Josh Collier completed his third straight pass (which was also his third completion of the game) for a 6-yard touchdown to cap a nine-play, 81-yard drive that took 5 minutes, 3 seconds. The extra point put the game at 17-16.

Just 1:47 later, Hilliard scored his 52nd career touchdown on a 1-yard run to put the Griz back on top, 22-17. Cole Bergquist's 2-point conversion pass sailed too high on a wide receiver screen.

Then the Terriers put together a 12-play, 69-yard drive - spanning 5:22 - with fullback Michael

Hobbs capping it with a 6-yard run untouched up the middle as the Griz D respected the perimeter and Wofford's triple-option threat too much. The 2-point conversion pass failed to put the game at its final margin.

But the game was far from over.

Great Falls' Rob Schulte returned the ensuing kickoff 26 yards to the 50-yard line. With 26 seconds left, Bergquist's first two passes went incomplete. With 17 seconds left, Bergquist found Eric Allen for a 9-yard gain in the slot on a slant. The Griz called their second timeout with 10 seconds left. On fourth-and-1, Bergquist hit Marc Mariani up the visiting sideline for an 11-yard gain. UM's final timeout stopped the clock with 4 seconds left. It set up Carpenter - FCS's best-ever kicker, looking into the North End Zone Crazies.

The FCS career field goal leader and career scoring leader had hit 11 of 14 attempts from beyond 40 yards this season.

"He just pulled it a little bit," Hauck said. "The snap was good. The hold was good. He got his foot on it pretty good. It had plenty of distance. It's just one of those things."

Griz Nation may be hard pressed to remember the three games the kicker from Helena won for UM during its undefeated regular season. It also may be hard pressed to recall his FCS record 75 career field goals and FCS record 413 career points.

"Their kicker is the best I've seen," Wofford coach Mike Ayers said. "We've watched every film and he is one of those guys I felt had ice water running through his veins."

THE LOSS shouldn't be pinned on Carpenter's shoulders.

UM's average starting field position was its own 45-yard line. Its worst starting field position was the 39-yard line.

On top of that, the Griz defense forced three turnovers, which the offense converted into zero points.

Sure, the defense gave up 333 yards rushing and 386 total yards. But Wofford's triple-option attack out of the shotgun with a zone-read look has its merit.

"We felt coming in that we'd have an advantage with our offense because it's an oddball offense," Ayers said. "The conference that Montana plays in, they've seen the zone-gun stuff. It's becoming fashionable. But what they haven't seen is a triple option out of the zone gun with a three-back concept."

Wofford halfback Kevious Johnson carried the ball 20 times for 145 yards. Hobbs and Dane Romero had 67 and 57 yards, respectively, with a touchdown apiece. Collier, the quarterback, had 54 yards on 13 carries.

"It was a lot different than anything we saw in the Big Sky," UM defensive tackle Kelly Kain said. "Nobody was even close. Even the running teams we played in the playoffs, like McNeese, nothing is like that. It's a tough deal to do in one week to figure where your fits are and stuff like that when you haven't seen it in four years."

THE GRIZ offense scored points on five of its 10 drives. Besides the final one, each of its non-scoring drives had at least one big negative play: A sack, a holding penalty, another sack, another holding penalty and another sack.

"It wasn't a mistake-marred game, but there were certain plays in the game that could've got us over," Hauck said. "With their style of offense, if we could've been up a couple scores in the fourth, it would have been really hard on them. But as the game wore down, it turned into a dog fight."

The Grizzlies held the time of possession advantage going into the fourth quarter. But Wofford had the ball for 10:40 seconds in the final frame to finish with a 5-minute edge.

Bergquist completed 18 of 30 passes for 211 yards and one touchdown. He was sacked four times. Eric Allen caught seven passes for 90 yards. Mike Ferriter had four grabs for 36 yards.

HILLIARD RUSHED for 119 yards on 29 carries for a 4.1 yards-per-carry average.

"Basically, they gang-tackled well all game," Hilliard said. "They came up and filled the holes well and didn't allow me to get too free. It was kind of tough."

His longest run of the game was 19 yards.

"When we were getting it blocked, he did a really nice job," Hauck said. "He had some really good runs."

Hilliard finished his senior season with 1,132 yards and 16 touchdowns. He finished his career with 4,018 yards and 52 touchdowns. He was 52 yards short of Yohance Humphery's career yardage mark at UM.

"I'm kind of disappointed in retrospect that he couldn't play at Idaho State," Hauck said. "He'd have the rushing record, I think. We felt like we could run the ball at Idaho State and we did. He'd have had a nice game down there. That's not to take anything away from what he did today. He had a good game. He ran hard. He was physical. He was fun to watch."

WOFFORD 23, MONTANA 22

Wofford 3 7 0 13 - 23

Montana 3 10 0 9 - 22

First Quarter

Mont-FG Carpenter 25, 5:51.

Wof-FG Mugan 31, 1:27.

Second Quarter

Mont-FG Carpenter 37, 14:45.

Wof-Romero 3 run (Mugan kick), 10:07.

Mont-Beaudin 9 pass from Bergquist (Carpenter kick), :24.

Fourth Quarter

Mont-FG Carpenter 24, 12:59.

Wof-Strickland 6 pass from Collier (Mugan kick), 7:47.

Mont-Hilliard 1 run (pass failed), 6:00.

Wof-Hobbs 6 run (pass failed), :32.

A-19,761.

Wof Mont

First downs 22 18

Rushes-yards 60-333 38-114

Passing 53 211

Comp-Att-Int 4-7-2 18-30-0

Return Yards 0 16

Punts-Avg. 1-39.0 3-43.7

Fumbles-Lost 1-1 0-0

Penalties-Yards 3-15 4-40

Time of Possession 32:32 27:28

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING-Wofford, K.Johnson 20-145, Hobbs 15-67, Romero 5-57, Collier 13-54, Marshall 4-9, A.Young 1-2, Joslin 2-(minus 1). Montana, Hilliard 29-119, Johnson 1-9, Bergquist 8-(minus 14).

PASSING-Wofford, Collier 4-7-2-53. Montana, Bergquist 18-30-0-211.

RECEIVING-Wofford, Strickland 2-40, Joslin 1-8, F.Allen 1-5. Montana, Allen 7-90, Ferriter 4-36, Beaudin 3-35, Mariani 2-38, Hilliard 2-12.