Watch Fritz Blitz“I don't know if it was that drive,” began UM quarterback Cole Bergquist, after Montana's 45-10 Big Sky Conference win over NAU. “Or the three drives after that. It was probably one of them.”
Bergquist threw three touchdown passes Saturday as the sixth-ranked Grizzlies moved into second place in the Big Sky Conference with a 4-1 mark. Chase Reynolds ran for 157 yards and three more scores as UM vanquished what was the Football Championship Subdivision's best run defense.
Those set Montana up for 24 points worth of short fields.
“I think I speak on behalf of everybody in our program when I say how disappointed we are in our performance today,” said NAU coach Jerome Souers, whose record against UM dropped to 0-11. “We credit our opponent; Coach (Bobby) Hauck and his staff had their team prepared very well, and they out-executed us, outplayed us.”
Safety Colt Anderson had two interceptions for the Grizzlies, taking one 80 yards to NAU's 10-yard line and setting up a chip-shot field goal by Brody McKnight. That put the Montana up 31-0.
Anderson also dove in front of Lumberjack receiver Ed Berry for a pick at 3:48 of the first quarter. The ball, tipped by both players, fell in his lap at the NAU 32; five plays later Bergquist threw his first TD pass, covering 11 yards to a diving Marc Mariani.
It was 14-0, and after Lumberjack quarterback Lance Kriesien and running back Deonte Williams goofed up a handoff and Austin Mullins recovered for UM, Reynolds scored on the next play from 37 yards out.
Two snaps after that, disaster struck NAU again. Griz defensive end Mike Stadnyk laid out Williams on a run up the middle, popping the ball loose.
“He took a hell of a shot,” said Souers of Williams, who lay motionless on the field for several moments. “It was really a nice defensive hit, a great defensive play. We had a guy running loose at the line of scrimmage, so Deonte took a hell of a shot, jarred the ball loose.”
Tyler Corwin recovered for Montana at the NAU 39. Bergquist and the offense capitalized on a 9-yard scoring pass to Mike Ferriter, and the lead was 28-0 at 11:49 of the second quarter.
The 19th-ranked Lumberjacks were done. Bergquist threw for 186 yards, including a 40-yard strike that Mariani hauled in over NAU's overplaying - and interfering - K.J. Gerard early in the fourth quarter. That set up a 5-yard TD pass to Ferriter that made it 45-3.
Reynolds gained more yards than NAU allowed all season. NAU was allowing 18.8 rushing yards per game; Reynolds gained 32 on the opening drive.
“I think dominant is the right word,” Hauck said. “What makes this game more special is they're a really good football team. They play the way you're supposed to play. When you beat a team like that the way we were able to today, it makes it a pretty special victory.”
The Griz stayed within shouting distance of first-place Weber State, which topped Portland State 31-21 Saturday, by winning every phase of the game.
They blocked a punt in the first quarter. Their defense was gashed a couple times by Williams, who returned in the second half and scored from 11 yards out with 7:23 left, but kept Kriesien in check.
“He had negative-1 yard rushing and 80 yards passing,” noted Mullins, who wrestled the ball away from the 240-pound QB on his fumble recovery. “I think we really did our job today.
“We got a lot of good push today on their line. That really hurts, especially with a zone running team like they are.”
When the gap grew to 28-0, Souers inserted sophomore Michael Herrick at QB and had Kriesien lining up at receiver.
“Things were there that we weren't getting to,” Souers said. “We forced too many errors, and Michael came in and made some of the same mistakes.”
The Lumberjacks lost the ball on downs on their next possession, got the ball back when Stephen Nwogbe stripped the ball from Bergquist, but then saw Herrick throw a deep pass into coverage on the next play.
“I looked backside to see if anything was coming across my face, and Shann (Schillinger) was all over his guy,” said Anderson. “The quarterback tried to fit it in there and I just undercut the post, and got lucky.”
Anderson picked the ball in stride and headed toward the Grizzlies' sideline. A host of blockers were in front, and a lane opened up, but Anderson fell at NAU's 10.
“I tried scoring, but I didn't,” he said, smiling. “I think I tripped.”
Bergquist wasn't complaining. The fumble, a rare mistake, had been instantly erased.
“I didn't get a chance to brush it off before the ball was back in our hands,” said the quarterback. “That was nice.”
It was a nice day all around.
“We're improving week in and week out,” said Hauck. “We're playing our best football right now, I think. By design we try to gear ourselves to hopefully play our best football in November.”
The Griz are at Portland State this Saturday.
Bottom line
Montana 45, Northern Arizona 10
Crowd: 24,003.
Conditions: 41 degrees, overcast.
Elapsed time of game: 2:50.
Records: UM is 8-1, 4-1 in the Big Sky Conference. NAU is 6-3 and 4-2.
Up next: The sixth-ranked Grizzlies are at Portland State next Saturday, for a 2:05 p.m. (MST) kickoff. Northern Arizona hosts Montana State.
Key stat: The Griz rumbled for 223 rushing yards against the nation's leading rush defense.
Key moment: With 14:45 left in the second quarter - one play after Austin Mullins recovered an NAU fumble - Chase Reynolds scores from 37 yards out to put the Grizzlies up 21-0 .
Quotable: “It's not how we expected it, but I think we knew we were capable of it, especially after the last two games. It was great. Things were really going right for us in the first half.”
- Griz QB Cole Bergquist
N. Arizona 0 0 3 7 - 10
Montana 14 17 7 7 - 45
First quarter
UM - Chase Reynolds 6 run (Brody McKnight kick), 8:37.
Drive: 13 plays, 6:23 time of possession.
Key plays: Reynolds runs 14 yards on third-and-1 to take UM past midfield, then hauls in a 21-yard pass down to NAU's 12.
UM - Marc Mariani 11 pass from Cole Bergquist (McKnight kick), 1:12.
Drive: 5 plays, 32 yards, 2:36 time of possession.
Key plays: UM safety Colt Anderson makes a tip-drill interception of a pass intended for Ed Berry; a pass interference flag on NAU sets the Griz up first-and-goal at the 6.
Second quarter
UM - Reynolds 37 run (McKnight kick), 14:45.
Drive: 1 play, 37 yards, :10 time of possession.
Key play: A fumbled exchange between NAU's Lance Kriesien and Deonte Williams is recovered by Griz defensive tackle Austin Mullins.
UM - Mike Ferriter 9 pass from Bergquist (McKnight kick, 11:49.
Drive: 6 plays, 39 yards, time of possession 2:26.
Key plays: Montana's Mike Stadnyk pops the ball from NAU's Williams and linebacker Tyler Corwin recovers; Bergquist hits Ferriter for 14 yards on third-and-8.
UM - FG McKnight 21, 5:25.
Drive: 4 plays, 6 yards, 0:56 time of possession.
Key plays: One play after Bergquist fumbled the ball away, Anderson picks off a Michael Herrick pass and returns in 80 yards, down to the NAU 10-yard line.
Third quarter
NAU - FG Robbie Dehaze 24, 10:05.
Drive: 11 plays, 71 yards, 4:50 time of possession.
Key plays: Williams breaks off a 40-yard run down to UM's 23; Griz corner Andrew Swink knocks away a third-down pass meant for Davieum Chapman.
UM - Reynolds 67 run (McKnight kick), 9:07.
Drive: 2 plays, 74 yards, :50 time of possession.
Fourth quarter
UM - Ferriter 5 pass from Bergquist, 13:10.
Drive: 6 plays, 64 yards, 2:11 time of possession.
Key play: Bergquist hits Mariani for 40 yards to set the Griz up first-and-goal.
NAU - Williams 11 run (Dehaze kick), 7:32.
Drive: 5 plays, 35 yards, 2:11 time of possession.
Key plays: Ken Wood nubs a rugby-style punt 13 yards; Kriesien completes passes of 11 yards to Berry and 8 yards to Skyler Moore.
Team stats
NAU UM
First downs 14 18
Rushing 7 10
Passing 6 6
Penalty 1 2
Third down efficiency 4-12 7-14
Fourth down efficiency 0-2 1-2
Total yards 264 436
Plays 61 67
Average gain 4.3 6.5
Rushes-yards 33-151 41-223
Average per carry 4.6 5.4
Yards passing 113 213
Comp-Att-Int 16-28-2 15-26-0
Sacks by-yards lost 5-35 1-9
Return yards 10 81
Punts 2-10 1-1
Interceptions 0-0 2-80
Fumbles 0-0 0-0
Kickoff returns 5-107 2-45
Punting 4-31.8 3-31.3
Penalties-yards 8-76 5-44
NAU individual stats
Rushing
No-yards
Deonte Williams 15-105
Alex Henderson 10-56
Lance Kriesien 7-(-1)
Michael Herrick 1-(-9)
Passing
Comp Att Int Yds
Lance Kriesien 14 22 1 83
Michael Herrick 2 6 1 30
Receiving
No.-yards
Ed Berry 6-70
Conrad Meadows 4-21
Curt Sweeney 2-8
Skyler Moore 2-7
Ryan Rauschert 1-5
Deonte Williams 1-2
Tackles
(Assisted-unassisted-total)
U A T
Cyrus Igono 7 3 10
Adam Wright 1 7 8
Anthony Llanos 1 7 8
K.J. Gerard 2 4 6
Cody Dowd 1 4 5
Kyle Rath 0 5 5
Blayne Anderson 1 3 4
Stevon Thomas 1 3 4
Josh Luck 3 0 3
Matt Steinbach 1 2 3
Mike Battisti 1 2 3
Matt Estrada 1 2 3
Zac McNally 0 3 3
Sacks by-yards lost
Wright 1-6, Gerard 1-5, Dowd 0.5-3, Battisti 1-9, Zac McNally 0.5-3, Stephen Nwogbe 1-9.
Fumbles forced-recovered
Rath 1-0.
Interceptions-return yards
None.
Missed field goals
None.
UM individual stats
Rushing
No-yards
Chase Reynolds 12-157
Andrew Schmidt 8-41
Rob Schulte 5-29
Thomas Brooks-Fletcher 3-9
Brandon Utterback 2-3
Beau Donaldson 1-1
Mike Ferriter 2-1
Cole Bergquist 8-(-18)
Passing
Comp Att Int Yds
Cole Bergquist 14 23 0 186
Andrew Selle 1 3 0 27
Receiving
No.-yards
Mike Ferriter 4-56
Marc Mariani 3-60
Rob Schulte 3-13
Tyler Palmer 2-30
Tony Kazmierczak 1-27
Chase Reynolds 1-21
Thomas Brooks-Fletcher 1-6
Tackles
(Assisted-unassisted-total)
U A T
Tyler Corwin 6 2 8
Mike Stadnyk 4 3 7
Colt Anderson 3 4 7
Shawn Lebsock 0 6 6
Shann Schillinger 3 2 5
Ryan Fetherston 2 3 5
Andrew Swink 3 0 3
Donny Lisowski 2 1 3
Jace Palmer 1 2 3
Erik Stoll 1 2 3
Sacks by-yards lost
Corwin 1-9.
Fumbles forced-recovered
Corwin 1-0, Austin Mullins 1-0.
Interceptions-return yards
Anderson 2-80.
Missed field goals
None.
None.
Time of possession 27:08 32:52
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Allen wrote on Nov 3, 2008 2:33 PM:
9/6/2008 Cal Poly 30-28 (W)
9/13/2008 Southern Utah 46-10 (W)
9/20/2008 UC Davis 29-24 (W)9/27/2008 Central Wash 38-35 (W)
Weber States 1st 5 games
8/28/2008 Western Montana 62-2 (W)
9/6/2008 Hawaii 17-36 (L)
9/13/2008 Dixie State 44-7 (W)
9/20/2008 Sac State 32-27 (W)
9/27/2008 Utah 21-37 (L)
With Weber loosing only to Hawaii (2007 BCS Bowl Game) and Utah (Rated #8 in the country now)and beating Montana. I want ot know how the heck can Montana still be rated above them in the polls. Montana has had a very weak preseason schedule. "