Montana holds off Idaho State

POCATELLO, Idaho — The Montana Grizzlies’ 14th straight win over Idaho State didn’t come easy Saturday.

Quarterback Lucas Johnson ran for one touchdown and threw for another, and Mitch Roberts hit Cole Grossman with a 28-yard scoring pass in the Grizzlies’ 28-20 win at Holt Arena.

Grossman’s TD off the option pass — it was a great throw and an even better catch in tight coverage — put the Griz up comfortably, 28-6 at 6:50 of the third quarter.

Things got less comfortable after Johnson lost a fumble at the Idaho State 1-yard line with 8:43 left in the game. It was a touchback, and the Bengals scored two touchdowns in the final 5:01.

"I told our team that we didn't play our best game today, certainly, but a sign of a great football team is that they can not play their best and still win," Montana coach Bobby Hauck said. “Teams that aren't great teams don't win when they don't play well, and we found a way to win. It probably wasn't as close as the score, but the score is what counts."

With Marcus Knight gaining 109 yards on 14 carries, the Grizzlies (5-0, 2-0 in the Big Sky Conference) piled up 246 rushing yards. At the end of the third quarter the visitors had a 356-196 bulge in yardage.

The Bengals (0-5, 0-2 in league) tightened that up quite a bit in the final 15 minutes.

Sagan Gronauer found Christian Fredrickson with a 26-yard strike to cap an 80-yard drive after Johnson’s fumble.

Following the Griz giving the ball up on downs — Kris Brown, in for Johnson, overthrew an open receiver on fourth down — Gronauer capped a 71-yard drive with a 1-yard scoring plunge with 56 seconds left.

The Bengals then tried a pooch kick, with 56 seconds left, instead of onside. Drew Deck recovered for Montana, which knelt out the clock on the win.

Idaho State struck first, getting a 22-yard Ian Hershey field goal after Charles Ike intercepted a Johnson pass in the first quarter.

The Grizzlies didn’t get on the board until early in the second quarter, when Johnson capped a 67-yard drive with a 9-yard scramble for the score.

The Bengals answered with another field goal, and the score stayed 7-6 until Knight — making his first start since his All-America 2019 campaign — scored from 2-yards out with 2:52 left in the half. The drive was set up by Tyler Flink’s interception and 25-yard return of a Gronauer pass.

With 2:14 left the Griz got the ball back (after a 67-yard Hershey punt) and drove it 86 yards to go up 21-6. Johnson was 6 of 8 passing on the drive, including a scrambling, 24-yard pass to Keelan White for the score.

That halftime score held up. Johnson was 18 of 30 passing for 168 yards. Nick Ostmo ran 14 times for 84 yards. Malik Flowers had a team-high five catches for 39 yards.

On defense Patrick O’Connell and Levi Janacaro — the latter started for injured linebacker Braxton Hill — had 10 tackles each. Alex Gubner had 1.5 sacks, sharing one with O’Connell, who also forced a fumble that ISU recovered.

Patrick Rohrbach averaged 53.6 yards on five punts.

Gronauer, who began the season as the No. 3 QB, was 23 of 44 passing for 260 yards for the Bengals, who travel to Montana State this week. Speedy receiver Xavier Guillory had seven catches for 86 yards. Fredrickson had three for 66.

“Not good enough, but certainly good enough to get a win and I'm fired up to be 5-0 and 2-0," said Hauck, whose team has a bye ahead of a home game against Idaho on Oct. 15. "When you're down six starters, don't play well and still go on the road and win, that's good stuff.

“We will go recruit next week and then we will be getting ready for the Idaho Vandals in Missoula."