Ostmo, Griz overpower Cal Poly
MISSOULA — October is over and the Montana Grizzlies came to play.
The Griz wouldn’t necessarily make that connection, but Saturday was a welcome tonic: Nick Ostmo ran for a career-high 221 yards and two touchdowns as Montana crushed Cal Poly 57-0 at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
Quarterback Lucas Johnson returned to the lineup and threw for three touchdowns and ran for another — in three quarters — as the Grizzlies (6-3 overall, 3-3 in the Big Sky Conference) snapped a three-game losing streak.
“We were fired up for this morning’s walk-through, and through all week of practice,” Montana coach Bobby Hauck said. “But we’ve had excellent prep every week. They don’t know any different. They prepare their tails off and I kind of admire them because we’d lost three in a row. To prepare like that coming off some really, really difficult circumstances? I admire them.”
The losses came to probable FCS playoff teams: Idaho, Sacramento State and Weber State.
Cal Poly came in without a league win, and the Mustangs had the dual issues of playing a victory-starved Griz team in some heavy snow squalls. They fell to 1-8, 0-6.
It was over early.
Johnson set the tone with a 24-yard scramble on Montana’s first offensive
snap. Five plays later he hit Keelan White for 36 yards, setting up his own 1-yard scoring run.
After Johnson scrambled left and found Xavier Harris, who turned a short pass into a 20-yard TD reception, the Griz led 31-0 at 4:26 of the second quarter.
By then the yard lines were obscured by snow, Beau Baldwin’s Mustangs were out of it and Ostmo was on his way to the sixth-best single-game performance in school history.
It had Hauck recalling Chase Reynolds’ 193-yard performance against Appalachian State in the 2009 FCS semifinals. Linebacker Braxton Hill was at that one.
“I’ve been wanting to play in a game like that since I was 10 watching the App State playoff game,” said Hill, who had a team-high seven tackles. “The defense, we were looking at the weather and hoping it was going to snow like that. I mean, it was a dream come true out there. We were flying around.”
In the third quarter Montana tacked on a 22-yard touchdown pass from Johnson to Ryan Simpson, then a 22-yard scoring burst from Ostmo.
That made it 44-0, and early in the fourth quarter Isaiah Childs took a handoff 43 yards for another touchdown.
It was the first snow game for Johnson, a San Diego State transfer who also played at Georgia Tech.
“I thought it was cool; I had a lot of fun,” said the QB, who was sharp (262 yards) after missing last week’s game with a head injury. “I’m Montana-tough now, so I wore no sleeves and I was proud of myself. It was a really cool experience.”
A substandard home crowd — the official attendance was 25,658, but far fewer showed up — had dwindled by then. Those that stuck it out saw Ostmo get Montana’s first 200-yard rushing day since quarterback Dalton Sneed did it in 2018. The last running back to do it was Jordan Canada in 2014.
Those who stayed for the fourth quarter saw a 1-yard punt by Cal Poly’s Thomas Lee, after a low snap. It was that kind of night.
That set up Childs’ second TD run, covering one yard, with 10:11 left in the game.
Eventually it all ended, and Montana had a single-record for first downs (37, breaking the old mark of 35 in 1999), and the second-most yards in history (695; the record is 717).
Next up Eastern Washington, Saturday at 1 p.m. at Washington-Grizzly Stadium. The Griz need to stack wins to keep the postseason in range. A healthy Johnson would help.
“I felt good to be out with my guys again,” said the senior, who was 17 of 29 passing, including a 15-yard TD to Mitch Roberts. “Sometimes you go through speed bumps, but this team’s all about bouncing back from adversity. That’s what we showed today.”
QUICK KICKS: Montana, down standout linebacker Patrick O’Connell, still held Cal Poly to 192 yards of offense and 12 first downs. … Drew Deck had one catch for 15 yards Saturday and fellow Glacier product Henry Nuce had one tackle. … The fourth Glacier High product, Griz punter Patrick Rohrbach, did not see the field.