Griz chew Texas St., 31-13

By Bruce Sayler - 11/30/2008

ap photo Montana's Chase Reynolds runs for 14 of his 233 yards in the third quarter against Texas State during the NCAA college football first round playoff game at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula on Saturday. Montana won 31-13.

MISSOULA — Colt Anderson forced a fumble at an important moment, Chase Reynolds trampled opponents for 233 yards and the offensive line got most of the

credit.

Deservingly.

Southwestern Montanans had a good day Saturday as they played for the Montana Grizzlies in their 31-13 win over Texas State in the first round of the NCAA FCS playoffs. It was a victory that pushed now 12-1 and fourth-ranked UM to the quarterfinals of the playoffs and with a home date next Saturday.

It wasn't so hot at the start. Fog and rain greeted both teams at kickoff on the Washington-Grizzly Stadium SprinTurf. Temperatures were in the 30s and the fog skirted the bottom of the M on Mount Sentinel, seeming to be raising the curtain on the university's icon.

And Montana fell behind 10-0 as Alex Ireland kicked a 47-yard field goal and a 26-year-old baseball pitcher-turned-football thrower, Bradley George, fired a touchdown strike of 16 yards to Cameron Luke.

So, most of the Bobcats' stars, Texas version, had checked into the game with heroics so early. Meanwhile, the Grizzlies

floundered with dropped snaps, dropped passes and tangled feet. Even a punt was shanked short and, literally, into the eastside seats. The Grizzlies didn't look like they were the favorites. Well, not until just before halftime.

"We knew we had a good

gameplan and we didn't lose

confidence," senior quarterback Cole Bergquist said, adding that playcalling wasn't changed to

compensate for the injury to top receiver Marc Mariani.

Mariani, hurt last week near the end of the Griz's win over the Montana State Bobcats, didn't start Saturday, He was in the game, however, by the second series and wound up again the team's leading pass-catcher, four for 49 yards and a TD.

Montana scored 16 seconds before halftime on a 14-yard Bergquist-to-Mariani pass and trailed 10-7 at intermission. But they had the momentum, the Anderson-bolstered strong defense, the Reynolds-focused GroundHauck offense and a

blasting crew of an offensive line that included Dillon product Chris Dyk at right tackle.

"Our offensive line opens huge holes no matter who we're playng," credited Reynolds, the sophomore running back from Drummond who gained his 233 yards, third-best single game running effort in Grizzly history, on 38 carries.

The rest of the

UM ground attack totaled 66 yards on

14 attempts.

"We practice

playing against the best defense in the conference every day," Reynolds said. "Our coaches emphasize ‘keep your feet

pounding.'"

The hard running helped Reynolds break tackles, but he even cited the line's help in doing such.

"Profile tackling," he said,

talking about defenders trying to grab him from the side by an arm or the waist. "That has a lot to do with our offensive linemen and getting pieces of guys, getting them sideways."

Head coach Bobby Hauck

seconded the emotion.

"We tell our O-line sometimes we're going to put it on their backs and they're going to have to carry us," Hauck said.The coach also talked a bit about Reynolds

becoming a running back. He was signed out of Class C Drummond without the UM coaches really

having a specific idea for him. His good play in several areas then compounded the issue. Reynolds two-touchdown performance Saturday brought his season

rushing total to 1,228 yards and

his TD total to 17 for the season, tying Griz greats Yohance Humphrey and Lex Hilliard for the UM record. It was brought up that Rey- nolds' gaudy numbers have emerged, though he shared the running back job with two others at the beginning of the season.

"He's a tough kid, a physical back," Hauck said. "But you wouldn't see Chase get 38 carries in September. We had him on a pitch count.

"Chase has good instincts and we like his top speed. We tried him at receiver for awhile because we had depth issues there and he does well with the football. One summer camp, he was our best open-field tackler. He could be a great safety for us."

A great safety for this year's Grizzlies did come from Southwestern Montana, but farther up I-90. Anderson, the former Butte High Bulldog recently named a unanimous All-Big Sky Conference selection, totaled nine tackles in Saturday's game. Four were solos, one was for a 2-yard loss and he also had the forced fumble that Brandon Fisher recovered.

But it was just all in a day's football for him.

"We were just playing our style of football," he said, "keeping our intensity up, flying around and making plays."

Texas State had gained a first-and-goal at the Montana

7-yard line on a pass to Luke from George. The next play was a handoff to Alvin Canady. Anderson shot from an outside angle, looking to have overrun the play. He reached back and pried the ball from Canady's grasp. It bounced to the turf and Fisher, son of Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher, covered it. The threat was ended.

Anderson wasn't so sure he made the play.

"I don't know if I or (Michael) Stadnyk caused it," he said, adding he had spotted that the tight end wasn't an eligible receiver in the formation Texas State had in use, leaving him to relinquish

pass coverage

responsibilities.

"I got up and filled," Anderson said.

He refused to blame a sputtering Griz offense early for Texas State's 10-0

GRIZ ...

jump Anderson said the UM defense contributed to the team's poor start as well.

"There were a couple of miscues by our defenders in the first half," he said. "The defense tries to get it (the ball) back for our offense. When we got down by 10, we took it as a challenge to get the ball back to our offense (so it could score)."

The loss ended the Texas State season at 8-6. The Bobcats were in the playoffs as the Southland Conference champions.

"Their quarterback has the strong arm," Anderson said of George, a Cincinnati Reds prospect and farmhand for five years before going back to school and playing football. "He is able to fit the ball into receivers that other quarterbacks wouldn't.

"There are a lot of good offenses we've played against and Texas State is one of them."

Hauck said persistence was as important as coaching and performance in the Grizzlies' rallying back to win.

"Nobody on our team signs up for 30 minutes," he said. "They sign up for 60 minutes every Saturday."

The commitment includes those who didn't see so much action, including more Southwestern Montanans. Butte freshman cornerback Nick Haynes did some nice blocking on punt returns for Montana and Drummond's Alex Verlanic backed up the star performers in the line. Deer Lodge defensive end Carson Bender sat out with an injury.

"When it was 10-0, no doubt it was looking questionable," Hauck said. "They had the ball and it was looking bleak.

"But we have a lot of knowledgeable guys on our coaching staff. On defense, we hunkered down and stopped them. To score with 16 seconds left in the first half was excellent clock management.

"Cole had had trouble gripping the ball in the first half. It looked like a Pop Warner game. We had trouble hanging onto the ball. We gave them hope and then we choked it out of them."

Brad Wright, Texas State head coach, said the Montana power game and physical strength decided the outcome.

"I guess we need a lot of work in the weight room," he said. "The difference in the game was their ability to line up and run it down our throats. And we're not the only team (Reynolds) has done it to. We've been watching him on film. They're a pretty good football team."

The Bobcats' coach said his teams' costly penalties, primarily late in the game, and inability to cash in scoring chances added to the undoing.

"We had a stop in the third quarter and we got into the red two or three times without scoring," he said. "We sealed our fate with penalties and not being able to put the ball in the end zone."

The Grizzlies will be home next week against the winner of Saturday night's Weber State-at-California Poly first-round game. Montana has played both, losing to Weber State, the Big Sky co-champion, and edging Cal Poly in the season-opener.

"Whoever they send up here next week will have their hands full," Hauck said. "So will we."

Texas St. 10 0 3 0 — 13

Montana 0 7 14 10 —31

First Quarter

TSt. — FG Ireland 47, 10:51.

TSt. —Luke 16 pass from George (Ireland kick), 4:33.

Second Quarter

Mont — Mariani 14 pass from Bergquist (McKnight kick), :16.

Third Quarter

Mont — Bergquist 21 run (McKnight kick), 11:47.

Mont — Reynolds 4 run (McKnight kick), 5:14.

TSt. — FG Ireland 25, 3:22.

Fourth Quarter

Mont — Reynolds 1 run (McKnight kick), 12:50.

Mont — FG McKnight 37, 2:49.

A-19,489.

TSt. Mont

First downs 21 26

Rushes-yards 24-99 52-286

Passing 270 177

Comp-Att-Int 22-36-1 13-23-2

Return Yards 13 16

Punts-Avg. 4-35.3 3-32.0

Fumbles-Lost 2-2 2-0

Penalties-Yards 8-86 6-70

Time of Possession 24:38 35:22

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Texas St., Zwinggi 9-61, Bush 7-26, Rivas 1-13, Toon 1-10,

Canady 3-9, LeBlanc 1-6, George 2-(minus 26). Montana, Reynolds 38-233, Bergquist 10-54, Schmidt 1-4, Team 3-(minus 5).

PASSING — Texas St., George 21-33-1-259, Toon 1-3-0-11. Montana,

Bergquist 13-23-2-177.

RECEIVING — Texas St., Luke 5-75, Rivas 5-56, Canady 3-4, Dillard 2-65, Griggs 2-33, Zwinggi 1-17, Bolden 1-14, Anderson 1-4, Bush 1-3, LeBlanc 1-(minus 1). Montana, Mariani 4-49, Ferriter 3-64, Pfahler 2-36, Beaudin 1-12, Sambrano 1-8, Klaboe 1-7, Schmidt 1-1.