Griz hold off Eastern, 52-49

CHENEY, Wash. — Montana’s Logan Fife threw for 364 yards and five touchdowns, including a critical fourth-and-goal strike to Jake Olson, and the Grizzlies edged Eastern Washington 52-49 in a wild Big Sky Conference football opener Friday.

Fife, starting in place of Keali’i Ah Yat, completed 30 of 42 passes, none bigger  than his 2-yarder to Olsen that put UM up 52-42 with 2:34 left in the game. 

Eastern, looking to move to 8-0 against the Griz on the red carpet of Roos Field, answered with a 16-yard scoring pass from Kekoa Visperas to Cole Pruett with 52 seconds left. The Eagles then went for the onside kick. 

They recovered one earlier — setting up a 7-yard Visperas run that cut Montana’s led to 38-35 early in the fourth quarter — but this went out of bounds and Montana (4-1 overall,1-0 in the Big Sky) held on. 

Eastern (1-4, 0-1) took leads of 7-3 and 14-7 on TDs running and throwin by Visperas, who threw for 265 yards and four touchdowns. The Grizzlies scored three times in the final 95:56 of the first half, capped by Fife’s 5-yard strike to tight end Erik Barker, to lead 31-21 at the break. 

The Eagles opened the second half with a 48-yard quarterback draw from Erik Barker, but Eli Gillman answered for Montana with a 69-yard scoring burst. 

That made it 38-21 midway through the third quarter; Efton Chism III then caught the second of his three TD passes, covering 6 yards, and then came that successful onside kick. Then things got wild. 

Chism had eight catches for 107 yards for Eastern. 

Junior Bergen had seven catches for 150 yards for Montana; his 50-yard touchdown put UM up 24-14 at 3:13 of the second quarter. Nick Ostmo ran 15 times for 160 yards, including an 8-yard scoring run, and also caught a 6-yard TD that made it 45-35 with 5:11 left in the game. 

Gillman finished with 109 yards on 11 carries.