Grizzlies annihilate UNC
Hilliard breaks school rushing TD record
MISSOULA - There wasn't much for Griz Nation to complain about Saturday.
The University of Montana football team annihilated the University of Northern Colorado 52-7 in Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
Kalispell's Lex Hilliard ran for 116 yards and two touchdowns to become Montana's career rushing touchdown king with 43. Junior quarterback Cole Bergquist set career highs in completions, yards and touchdown passes. The Griz rolled up 623 yards of offense and came within three yards at the end of the game of tying the program's single-game record of 33 first downs.
Montana remained undefeated at 7-0 and Northern Colorado remained winless in its last 16 games.
The nation's third-ranked Griz are now 4-0 in Big Sky Conference games with Northern Arizona University in their sights for next Saturday.
"We had a lot of fun out there today," UM coach Bobby Hauck said. "Our major point of emphasis this weekend was to go out and have some fun. Ignore anybody who doesn't like the way we're doing things and go have fun and enjoy each other, and that's what we did."
The team responded by scoring early, and often.
Senior defensive tackle Kelly Kain thwarted UNC's opening drive by batting down a pass and junior defensive tackle Craig Mettler snatched it for an interception and returned it 32 yards to the UNC 15-yard line. Two plays later, Bergquist hit receiver Mike Ferriter of Helena on a beautiful fade pass over his outside shoulder for a 15-yard touchdown.
The Grizzlies' next two drives ended in turnovers, as they totaled five fumbles (losing two) and an interception in the game.
After the Bears intercepted Bergquist near the end of the first quarter and returned it 73 yards to the UM 8-yard line, the North End Zone Crazies got the Bears to false start and then forced them to call a timeout before UM's All-American defensive end Kroy Biermann of Hardin registered the first of his three sacks. Then he blocked UNC's 33-yard field goal attempt.
From there, the Griz scored on their next three drives before halftime.
Senior receiver Ryan Bagley of Great Falls caught another beautiful fade pass from Bergquist for a 12-yard touchdown. Sophomore receiver Marc Mariani of Havre made the most spectacular one-handed catch in recent memory in the back of the end zone for a 27-yard touchdown. Then Hilliard tied Yohance Humphery (1998-2001) with 42 career rushing touchdowns with a 1-yard run with 1 minute, 36 seconds left before halftime.
In the third quarter, Dan Carpenter hit a 50-yard field goal and Bagley caught his second touchdown pass to give the home team a 38-0 lead.
Then in the fourth, Hilliard broke through the middle and cut outside en route to a 39-yard touchdown to break the TD record. The run also pushed him over the 100-yard mark.
"The O-line had a great push on that one," Hilliard said. "There was a little gap in there and I kind of hit the gas and Ty Palmer made a block out there and I just ran around him and off to the races we went.
"Sure, the records will come. But we don't really look at that. We just try to focus on winning.
"I watched Yohance and he's a great back - a tremendous back. I just thought I'd try to be as good as him. I thought I would give it my best shot. That's all you can really do."
Hilliard now has 602 yards rushing on the season and 3,458 in his career. He needs 612 more yards to become UM's all-time rushing leader.
But it wasn't just Hilliard who had a big day.
Bergquist completed 26 of 35 passes for 292 yards and four touchdowns. He also rushed for 50 yards. Bagley had 10 catches for 110 yards and two touchdowns. Safety Shann Schillinger of Baker had a team-high seven tackles. And Biermann had six tackles, including the three sacks, plus a forced fumbled on top of the blocked field goal - and he didn't play much in the second half. He surpassed Mike Murphy (2003-06) as No. 3 on the school's all-time sack leaders list with 28.
"I watched some extra film this week on both tackles and I kind of knew their pass steps," Biermann said. "I just told myself I was going to come out fast and come out strong. I didn't know how much playing time I was going to get today, so I wanted to come out fast."
UNC coach Scott Downing said Biermann presented a lot of problems for his team.
"He's a very talented young man," Downing said. "The fact is when you're in a third-and-9, an obvious passing situation, he can crank it up and turn it loose. When you have a guy out there that's a big-time guy, our tackles are no different than anyone else and you're going to get a motion penalty or a false start because we're trying to jump the gun a little to set back a little farther."
The Griz defense held the Bears to just 10 first downs and 228 yards of total offense.
But the story of the day was the Griz offense getting on track after some sub-standard performances.
"Our offensive coaches really had our team prepared," Hauck said. "It was a great job of executing the plan by the kids. We didn't have a lot of good answers for their max blitz stuff. We had the option and the throwing game. Our receivers did a good job of going up and getting the ball. (Bergquist) did a good job of getting us into the right play, probably the best he's done this season. And the option got us some big third-down conversions. That was big for us."
The Griz were 11-for-16 in converting on third down and 2-for-2 in converting on fourth down.
"It was fairly obvious we played the No. 3 team in the country," Downing said. "They were a very good football team today."