Not only was Montana State's
16-13 loss to Northern Colorado on Saturday the Bears' first-ever Big Sky Conference win, after joining the league two years ago ...
Not only did the Bears kick their first three field goals of the year en route to their stunner over the Bobcats, a team ranked as high as No. 11 just two weeks ago and No. 19 headed into the game ...
But the loss also left MSU at 3-2 in conference play, handed in-state rival Montana a two-game lead in the Big Sky race and struck a serious blow to the Cats' dwindling postseason aspirations.
“You could hear a pin drop in that locker room,” said Montana State quarterback Jack Rolovich to the Bozeman Chronicle, after a collection of miscues and gaffes by Montana State dealt 1-8 UNC a winning hand. “It's very disappointing. There's no positive way to look at it.”
The Bobcats committed five turnovers, were flagged for 10 penalties, missed three field goal chances and dropped a handful of passes.
“We needed to get ahead and get some momentum,” said coach Rob Ash. “but we could never make that happen. ... If we get ahead by 10 or 14 points in the first half, I don't think the game ends up being very close. We should have outscored them, but that's just the way this game turns out sometimes.”
As it was, the slow-paced game appeared ear-marked for overtime when Jesse Anderson's blocked punt set up MSU's five-play, 33-yard touchdown drive that tied it 13-all with 47 seconds left to play.
Following Demetrius Crawford's
9-yard touchdown reception from Rolovich, the Bears spent two of their three remaining timeouts attempting to ice Cats kicker Eric Fisher on the extra point.
It seemed even UNC was conceding to extra time.
But Cory Fauver's 51-yard kickoff return left the Bears at the Bobcats' 46 and quarterback Dominic Breazeale put his team into field-goal range with a 26-yard pass to Ryan Chesla.
Northern Colorado kicker Zak Bigelow did the rest, booming the year's most improbable game-winning field goal - a 37-yarder with four seconds remaining - that sent the (announced) crowd of 3,033 into a frenzy.
For sophomore Bigelow, it was his first successful kick since graduating from Dakota Ridge High School in Littleton, Colo., in 2005. Up until Saturday, he'd missed a pair of tries this season and one attempt in 2006.
The boot sent Bears players and students into a celebration at one end of the field, while according to the Chronicle, a tractor carted a pair of injured Bobcats off the turf at the other end.
On an otherwise dreary day, Rolovich threw for a career-high 346 yards, finishing 28-of-47 with the touchdown to Crawford and three interceptions.
“We might have overlooked these guys,” Rolovich said. “We've got Northern Arizona (next Saturday at home), Portland State and Montana coming, and just didn't even think about (Northern Colorado). It's hard not to do that.”
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