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MISSOULA - Josh Swogger passed for 259 yards and four touchdowns and freshman Thomas Brooks-Fletcher galloped for 113 as the Montana Grizzlies blew by McNeese State 31-6 Saturday in the first round of the I-AA football playoffs before a record crowd at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

The Grizzlies will play 10th-ranked Southern Illinois in the quarterfinals next Saturday. The Salukis rallied for a 36-30 win over Tennessee-Martin which was making its first-ever playoff appearance.

The Grizzly defense had its usual strong performance, limiting the Cowboys to 99 yards rushing and 224 total while the UM offensive unit was wracking up 514 yards of total offense behind a solid line performance.

Brooks-Fletcher, making his first start, had his second 100-yards-plus game in three weeks averaging 8.7 yards per carry.

The Grizzly offense, going away from the mostly vertical passing game they've shown all season, used the short passing game to supplement the running attack.

After giving up a 42-yard field goal to McNeese less than five minutes into the first quarter the Grizzlies struck quickly. On the fourth play of UM's first possession Swogger hit freshman tight end Dan Beaudin across the middle. Several broken tackles and 50 yards later Beaudin was in the end zone and the Grizzlies never trailed again.

Following Blake Bercegeay's second field goal for the Cowboys, a 38-yarder, Montana's Dan Carpenter answered with the a 22-yard field goal that capped a 17-play seven-minute drive.

The key drive came shortly thereafter when Montana took over on its own 33 yard line with 1:03 to go in the half. Swogger directed the team down the field and hit Eric Allen from 14 yards out with 13 seconds left in the half give the Grizzlies a 17-6 halftime lead.

McNeese never mounted a serious threat in the second half and hurt itself throughout the contest with bobbled center-quarterback exchanges and illegal procedure calls.

The Grizzlies got the balance of its scoring in the third quarter on touchdown passes of eight and 11 yards from Swogger to Craig Chambers.

Lightning-quick Steven Whitehead of McNeese led all receivers with six catches for 66 yards. Ryan Bagley had five catches for 59 yards and Chambers four for 43 for Montana.

Chris Thomas topped Cowboys rushers with 56 yards on 10 carries.

Montana limited itself to just six penalties for 52 yards while McNeese had 11 for 76 yards.

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