Big Sky notes: Another special victory for Griz

MISSOULA — How special can special teams be? Let the Montana Grizzlies count the ways.

Garrett Graves, sophomore out of Eureka, returned the third-quarter pooched kickoff 27 yards to set his team up at the 48; that led to a field goal that gave the Grizzlies the lead for good in a 57-41 FCS playoff win over Eastern Washington Saturday.

Junior Bergen’s 37-yard return of a line-drive punt set up an 8-yard touchdown run by Xavier Harris for a 37-28 Griz lead in the same quarter.

Then Graves jump-started a scoring drive after Eastern closed to 30-28, taking the ensuing kickoff 33 yards to the 40. Cam Humphrey quickly found Sammy Akem with a 44-yard touchdown pass to push the Grizzlies’ lead back to two scores.

Let’s not forget Ryan Tirrell’s block of an Eastern punt midway through the second quarter. It came with Eastern’s tempo offense threatening to build on a 21-13 lead; twice early in the drive Montana (10-2) had to weather targeting reviews on hits by safeties Gavin Robertson and Robby Hauck.

Neither call stuck, and then Tirrell — first cousin to Robby — swooped in for the block. That led to a Bergen 5-yard scoring run, part of a 37-7 Grizzlies run that built a 50-27 lead.

Montana coach Bobby Hauck, who doubles as special teams coach (and is Tirrell’s uncle), said the block came while Eastern altered their punt formation. The Griz played it safe for a couple series, but when the Eagles sent in Nick Kokich a third time Tirrell got the block.

He also got credit for a 25-yard return, which is how far downfield Levi Janacaro recovered the ball.

“They put in a new punt protection this week, so we went after it,” Hauck said. “Then they went back to their normal protection for the rest of the game.”

“I feel like even though they kind of had some momentum — I don’t remember the score was at that point — it definitely started switching toward us,” linebacker Marcus Welnel said.

Numbers lie

Eastern put up some stats, namely quarterback Eric Barriere, who was 47-for-80 for 530 yards and five touchdowns. The Eagles netted 608 yards, to 393 for Montana.

But add in kick and punt returns and the total is closer: Eastern fair-caught every Griz kickoff save one, and totaled 28 yards. Montana piled up 207, and consistently had great field position.

“We’ve won the kicking game in a big way in all games except one this year,” Bobby Hauck said. “We controlled field position in a big way. That’s why the yardage is all skewed — we had a lot of short fields.”

Bergen notably muffed the first punt he settled under, but recovered it. He was replaced by Robby Hauck the next time EWU punted, then returned.

“Went back to him because we had nobody else,” Bobby Hauck said. “Glad we did.”

“Muffed punt that we touched but didn’t get early,” Eastern coach Aaron Best offered. “It might have been a different story.

“We didn’t put our defense in very good situations throughout the game. Special teams were a little bit our Achilles heel today.”

Legends follow legends

Barriere’s 80 attempts broke the Big Sky Conference single-game record set by one Dave Dickenson in 1995; the Montana legend raised the No. 37 flag at Washington-Grizzly Stadium Friday.

Dickenson threw 72 times against Idaho; completing 43 for 558 yards. The Vandals won that game 55-43.

Eastern led 21-10 — notably the same score Montana led in the Eastern’s second possession of the second quarter through the third, the Eagles gained 137 yards on eight drives. They had just 34 yards in the third quarter.

“We didn’t play very well on defense the first quarter and two minutes, and then it was back to business as usual,” said Bobby Hauck.

Of Barriere he said, “He’s a good kid and good player. He beat us in October (34-28, in Cheney) and a lot of it was due to good plays by him, really more than anything else. We had to make sure he couldn’t do it (again).”

Meanwhile UM’s Akem, playing his first FCS playoff game, hauled in TD passes covering 44 and 30 yards to run his career total to 29, tying Marc Mariani’s school record.

“Like I tell you guys all the time, I had no idea I was going to do things like this when I came to Montana,” said Akem, who had a leg injury and missed Montana’s 2019 postseason. “I just came to play football. It’s awesome to look up and see my name next to somebody who’s so great.”

“Both quality dudes,” Hauck said. “It’s fun to see those records fall. That’s why they’re there.”

Marathon men

The game lasted 3 hours, 52 minutes. Just 10 penalties were enforced, but a series of reviews had the neutral officiating crew putting the “conference” in Ohio Valley Conference.

Hauck bemoaned the delays.

“Kind of goofs up the momentum, when they stop the game for five minutes every time there’s a good hit,” he said. But the delays also brought Eastern’s high-tempo to a halt. It took until the game was out of reach before Barriere and Co. found their stride again.

One penalty that was enforced: A false start that turned a fourth-and-1 into a fourth-and-6. That was after the targeting reviews, and Eastern had planned to go for it on fourth down. Then Tirrell made his block.

Best gave credit to the Griz, and their faithful.

“They played the role of rabid fans, which they should,” he said. “About two-thirds of our team hadn’t played in it before, and I felt they held up well for the better part of two and a half quarters.”

QUICK KICKS: The Griz averaged 6.2 yards per offensive snap, the Eagles 5.6. … Robby Hauck led UM with 11 tackles. Next was linebacker Jace Lewis, who had nine stops and a fumble recovery of that pitch Barriere sent over EWU lineman Colin Dries’ head. … Glacier product Patrick O’Connell had eight tackles, one for a 19-yard loss, and forced a fumble. … Fellow Glacier grad Henry Nuce had one tackle. … Graves had three stops. … The Big Sky noted that Griz corner Justin Ford’s nine interceptions are the most since Weber State’s Scott Shields had 10 in 1996. The league record is 11 by UM’s Karl Stein in 1969. … Kevin Macias, a senior, is 21-for-25 on field goals with 18 straight makes. That .840 percentage is better than Brandon Purdy’s .824 (28-for-34) built from 2016-19.