It was rough on the Griz defense, on the officials and certainly on Montana senior running back Lex Hilliard, who before Montana quarterback Cole Bergquist knelt on the ball to run out the clock, had to take a knee a couple times himself.
“Oh, man,” Hilliard said after carrying 32 times for 146 yards, including six runs in the final 4:42 that sealed the Grizzlies' 13th straight Big Sky Conference victory. “I don't care what Coach Hauck says, that elevation gets to you. You don't really think too much of it and then it kind of hits you. And when it hits you, it hits you hard.”
That was after NAU, seemingly dead after a pair of third-quarter, 80-yard Montana scoring drives, took advantage of a short field for an Alex Henderson scoring run that cut the lead to five.
Northern Arizona kicked off, UM took over on its 20 and handed the ball to Hilliard three times, threw a 19-yard pass to Mike Ferriter, then gave it back to Hilliard two more times.
After Bergquist bootlegged for 6 yards, Hilliard took a toss and rumbled 12 yards down to NAU's 11-yard line. Igono tripped him up to save the TD, but the game was over.
“He ran really hard tonight,” said NAU coach Jerome Souers, the former UM assistant (1986-97) who is still winless against the Griz in 10 tries. “They had a good mix of inside-outside run game. Some of the things we were doing, trying to adjust to their inside game, opened up the outside a little bit for them.
“And he made some great second efforts that a good back does. That's the thing that was tough, particularly on that last drive. We couldn't get them to second-and-long.”
That the Lumberjacks were still in there was a testament to their fire in face of some pretty big bungles. Twice they fumbled the ball away inside UM's 27, the latter when Biermann stripped the ball from Henderson and recovered at the 13 to preserve that 21-9 lead.
Three other trips down close ended in Robbie Dehaze field goals. Just before halftime NAU reached the 4-yard line on a 40-yard screen play to Alex Watson and a 19-yard run by quarterback Lance Kriesien. But a spike play, then a third-down sack by Biermann - the game's only sack - set up Dehaze's second 3-pointer.
That left the score 7-6, Griz, at halftime.
That pattern continued after Montana took the third-quarter kickoff and kept the ball for 12 plays, the last a 7-yard dart from Bergquist - who threw for 202 yards and two touchdowns - to Eric Allen.
Northern Arizona appeared to be answering when Henderson took a handoff around left end for 72 yards. But Montana corner Chris Clark saved the TD, knocking Henderson down at the 8. Then an apparent TD run by Kriesien was waved off by a holding penalty. Eventually Dehaze hit from 24 yards out to make it 14-9, at the 9:53 mark.
Montana marched again. Bergquist's 38-yard pass to Ryan Bagley, who had a short TD catch in the second quarter, set up six straight runs by Hilliard. He rumbled in from 5 yards out for his 47th career touchdown at the 5:53 mark.
All that was left was NAU's final surge, set up when Hilliard - thanks to either NAU getting used to the “power” play or a bad spot - was stopped for no gain on fourth-and-1 (Igono again).
Another shaky spot that gave Watson a first down on a second-and-20 screen, plus a personal foul penalty on the Griz that was called after Watson had fumbled, helped set up Henderson's TD.
It wasn't enough on a day when NAU gained 446 yards, with Kriesien throwing for 228 and running for 63.
“We didn't have great answers for Lance,” said Hauck. “He was terrific.”
“I think at times there were things that were there and we took advantage,” said Souers, whose club was penalized nine times for 134 yards. “There's a number of things that occur. But we'll continue to battle and get better. It's just a very disappointing loss for us. We needed to play real well to win the game and we didn't play well enough.”
Watson caught 11 passes for 131 yards. Henderson, a sophomore, ran for 126 yards - only to see Hilliard gain 44 on the Grizzlies final clock-killing drive.
“We just dug deep at the end,” said Hilliard. “They knew mostly what was coming. We were lined up in point-two (two tight ends) personnel and we just kind of hammered away at them, just tried to execute plays over and over again.”
“He feels good, finally,” Hauck said of his tailback, who missed last season after Achilles surgery and was slowed some this year by injuries. “At halftime I pulled him aside and told him we were going to ride him like a borrowed mule. I said, ‘We're going to go until you can't go anymore and then we're going to give you a drink and make you go some more.'
“That's what we did. And he went and carried us, along with his big buddies up front.”
Montana 0 7 14 0 - 21
N. Arizona 0 6 3 7 - 16
Second Quarter
UM-Bagley 3 pass from Bergquist (Carpenter kick), 9:16.
NAU-FG Dehaze 42, 3:28.
NAU-FG Dehaze 24, :02.
Third Quarter
UM-Allen 7 pass from Bergquist (Carpenter kick), 10:59.
NAU-FG Dehaze 24, 9:53.
UM-Hilliard 5 run (Carpenter kick), 5:53.
Fourth Quarter
NAU-Henderson 8 run (Dehaze kick), 4:42.
A-8,364.
Mont NAz
First downs 19 23
Rushes-yards 51-212 39-218
Passing 202 268
Comp-Att-Int 14-25-0 18-34-0
Return Yards 2 18
Punts-Avg. 7-51.3 6-50.2
Fumbles-Lost 1-0 4-2
Penalties-Yards 6-72 9-134
Time of Possession 32:20 27:40
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING-Montana, Hilliard 32-146, Bergquist 10-42, Brooks-Fletcher 4-19, Ferriter 1-6, Coleman 2-3, Team 2-(-4). N. Arizona, Henderson 16-126, Kriesien 17-63, Sayles 3-16, Scott 3-13.
PASSING-Montana, Bergquist 14-24-0-202, Selle 0-1-0-0. N. Arizona, Kriesien18-34-0-228.
RECEIVING-Montana, Bagley 7-98, Ferriter 6-97, Allen 1-7. N. Arizona, Watson 11-131, Fitzpatrick 5-55, Henderson 1-21, Rauschert 1-21.
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