Griz squish Hornets

Grizzlies head coach Bobby Hauck hugs wide receiver Keelan White (6) after White's 97-yard touchdown reception in the fourth quarter against Sacramento State at Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 4. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Grizzlies running back Eli Gillman (10) celebrates with Junior Bergen (5) after Gillman's 8-yard touchdown run in the first quarter against Sacramento State at Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 4. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Grizzlies quarterback Clifton McDowell (17) drops back to pass in the third quarter against Sacramento State at Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 4. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Grizzlies running back Nick Ostmo (26) celebrates after a 10-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter against Sacramento State at Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 4. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Montana Grizzlies head coach Bobby Hauck gets doused with Gatorade after a 34-7 win over Sacramento State at Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 4. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Grizzlies wide receiver Keelan White (6) heads to the end zone on a 97-yard touchdown reception in the fourth quarter against Sacramento State at Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 4. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Grizzlies running back Eli Gillman (10) scores a touchdown on a 8-yard run in the first quarter against Sacramento State at Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 4. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Grizzlies quarterback Clifton McDowell (17) hurdles a Sacramento State defender on a first-quarter run at Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 4. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Grizzlies running back Eli Gillman (10) looks for running room in the first quarter against Sacramento State at Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 4. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Grizzlies safety Ryder Meyer (13) celebrates after a stop in the first quarter against Sacramento State at Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 4. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

| November 5, 2023 12:00 AM

MISSOULA — Clifton McDowell got hot, Sacramento State cooled off and the Montana Grizzlies won another big, Big Sky Conference game Saturday, 34-7 over the Hornets.

McDowell’s night included the longest touchdown pass in the Grizzlies’ long history — 97 yards to Keelan White. It was timely, coming with 11:03 left in the game after several fruitless possessions with the lead 21-7.

But the top 10 matchup — the Griz are ranked No. 3 and 4 in the Football Championship Subdivision polls, while the Hornets came in No. 7 — tilted toward the Griz when McDowell led Montana to three touchdowns in the span of eight minutes bridging the first two quarters.

The senior quarterback had completions of 18 and 20 yards on the first drive, which ended with an 8-yard scoring run from Eli Gillman late in the first period.

Junior Bergen got in the act by returning a wobbly Hornet punt 28 yards to give the Griz a short field, then hauling in a 24-yard strike from McDowell to set up first-and-goal.

Nick Ostmo ran in from 9 yards on the next play for the first of his two touchdowns, and the Grizzlies had the lead for good, 14-7, at 13:35 of the second quarter.

Montana forced another punt and McDowell looked really sharp on two passes to Aaron Fontes: The first covered 52 yards; the second was a 9-yard touchdown in the back of the end zone with 8:00 left in the first half.

It was 21-7, and the score stayed that way until that coup de grace: Pinned at the 1-yard line by a windblown, 62-yard punt, McDowell kept the ball for 2 yards, and on second down looked for the home run. The result was a perfect pass up the right sideline to White, who caught in stride at his 33, ran out of one diving tackle attempt and scored.

“You know on the defensive side you always coach them to expect a shot there,” said Grizzlies coach Bobby Hauck, who became the winningest coach in Big Sky history with his 124th victory Saturday. “It’s a good place for a hard count, a good place for a shot play, and certainly taking a shot there turned out great. It’s a lot easier to get 97 in one play than 97 in 15 plays.”

“We had seen that (coverage) earlier in the game,” said White. “And Cliff said next time we saw that look, he was going to pump the out route to Junior because the corner was biting on it.

“He pumped it and went over the top. And it was a great throw.”

The announced crowd of 25,888 let out some pent-up energy and the Hornets wilted. Gilman ended up with 118 rushing yards; Ostmo had 68, including a 10-yard scoring run to complete the scoring with 7:11 left in the game. Montana had 547 yards, 305 on the ground.

McDowell was 11 of 21 passing for 218 yards, with a red zone interception. His TD to White moved Brian Ah Yat’s 93-yard TD pass to Jimmy Farris in 1997 down to No. 2 in Griz history. Ah Yat’s son Keali’i is UM’s No. 2 quarterback. He didn’t play Saturday in chilly Washington-Grizzly Stadium. He wasn’t needed.

Aside from one run-heavy drive on a short field, with Marcus Fulcher capping a 55-yard march with a 1-yard plunge for a 7-0 lead, the Hornets got little going. They left a 44-yard field goal short in the first half, then missed a chip-shot attempt in the third.

“I do think there was a part of the game where it was a stalemate for a while,” Sac State coach Andy Thompson said.. “Obviously having them backed up on the 1-yard line, and they made a nice 90-yard pass play. ... There were some huge explosive plays, and we talked about that this week. We had to limit their explosive plays and we have to try and create some. I haven’t seen the stats but I’d say they made more explosive plays than us.”

Thompson played linebacker for Hauck in 2003, Hauck’s first of his first tenure at UM.

“I wished him luck. He’s helped me out in my career,” Thompson said. “I have only positive feelings towards the University of Montana and coach Hauck. But I’m at Sacramento State now and I give everything I can to my players and school. I’m disappointed that we didn’t play better tonight.”

Hauck was obviously pleased with the outcome, records and all.

“Justin Green was here for the first one, was here for this one,” he said of the coaching wins. “Andy Thompson was here for the first one, here for this one. So was (Hornets’ D-line coach) Kraig Paulson.

“Then there’s obviously my guys, and it was great to share that with them. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to hit that milestone coaching wise, and grateful for the guys that got me into coaching. And grateful for my football team, which is a damned fine football team.”

Montana improved to 8-1, 5-1 in Big Sky games heading into a game at Portland State next week. Sac State fell to 6-3, 3-3..