Bobcats rout William & Mary, 55-7

BOZEMAN — The Touchdown Tommy Mellott Show got started a little late Friday but was worth the wait for Bobcat fans, who saw Mellott lead Montana State’s 55-7 pummeling of William & Mary in an FCS quarterfinal.

A Bobcat Stadium crowd of 14,367 braved 17-degree weather and an 8:15 p.m. kickoff, and watched Mellott run for three touchdowns and throw for a fourth. Running back Isiaiah Ifanse added 162 yards and two touchdowns on just 11 carries as MSU (12-1) advanced to a semifinal game against South Dakota State.

It will be a rematch of last year’s semifinal, which MSU won 31-17 in Bozeman. The game will kick off at 2 p.m. Mountain in Brookings, S.D.

Mellott spearheaded an offense that, after punting on its first two possessions, piled up 473 yards, 328 of it on the ground. Montana State's defense forced William & Mary to punt 10 times and the Bobcats' punt return squad had 143 yards, including a 79-yard touchdown return by Taco Dowler.

That made it 55-0 at 5:03 of the third quarter, but the game was over long before that.

“I thought defensively we set the tone right from the get-go,” MSU coach Brent Vigen said. “Offensively it took us a while to get going, but hats off to our guys. We got a huge lead and played a bunch of guys. That doesn’t typically happen this time of year.”

Mellott scored the game's first touchdown on the final play of the first quarter, skirting the left end and racing 22 yards down the sideline to make it 10-0. After holding the Tribe to a three-and-out, Ifanse raced 68 yards untouched to the end zone to make it 17-0.

Ifanse, who missed the entire regular season with an injury, had 153 yards in the first half. The long TD made him the all-time leading rusher in Montana State history, pushing him past Ryan Johnson.

“The O-line just opened up like the sea and I just took it,” said Ifanse, who now has 3,714 career yards. “It’s very special. We weren’t guaranteed to have another game here. To do it in the last home game of the year, and just thinking about the beginning of the year, and rehabbing through surgery, makes it more special.”

Mellott added an 8-yard scoring run and Blake Glessner kicked a pair of first-half field goals — including a 50-yarder — in the second quarter to push the gap to 27-0.

Then Marqui Johnson took the kickoff to start the second half and raced 87 yards before slipping on the frozen turf at the William & Mary 9. Ifanse bullied his way into the end zone on the next snap to make it 34-0 just 20 seconds into the third quarter.

Mellott scored from a yard out, then hit Clevan Thomas with a 17-yard scoring strike before the quarter was seven minutes old.

William & Mary (11-2) avoided being shut out with a 10-play, 84-yard drive capped by a 2-yard run by Bronson Yoder with 3:11 left.

“I’m disappointed in the way we played,” Tribe coach Mike London said. “Montana State is a very good football team. I see why they were last year’s runners up. Complete football team.

“We talked about explosive plays; they had a few. They got up on us, and we couldn’t quite get it going as much as we needed to in our run game, which had been dominant for us.”

Yoder finished with 122 yards on 26 carries to lead the Tribe, who finished with 135 yards on the ground. Darius Wilson was 7 of 18 passing for 62 yards with an interception.

It will be the third straight trip to the FCS semifinals for the Bobcats — and for senior linebacker Callahan O’Reilly, who had one of MSU’s three sacks on Friday.

“Eight-fifteen game, cold as hell, and that stadium was rocking,” said O’Reilly, who had a team-high seven tackles. “That was pretty awesome. That is pretty high up on the list.”