Bobcats lose at NAU
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. The Walkup Skydome continues to be a house of horrors for the Montana State Bobcats.
Northern Arizona built a four-touchdown lead and withstood a furious late rally to upset the nationally ranked Bobcats 49-41 Saturday night in a Big Sky Conference football game.
Freshman quarterback Case Cookus threw for 244 yards and four touchdowns as the Lumberjacks of coach Jerome Souers improved to 1-1 in Big Sky play and 3-2 overall.
The Bobcats of coach Rob Ash, who entered the game ranked 11th in the Football Championship Subdivision Coaches Poll, fell to 1-1 and 2-2.
The Lumberjacks led 42-14 midway through the second half, the team’s offense moving at will against the Bobcat defense. For much of the game, the NAU defense did its part to stifle the potent Bobcat offense.
“I thought they did a really good job, particularly the first three quarters,” said Souers, who tied former Nevada coach Chris Ault for most all-time wins in Big Sky history (68 in 18 years as head coach). “We made a lot of dumb mistakes in the fourth quarter that if we didn’t have such a lead could have really cost us. Too many mistakes and penalties that really kind of tainted the win.”
Northern Arizona leads the all-time series with MSU 26-22. The Bobcats lost 12 straight at the Walkup Skydome from 1981-2002 and in 2010, when last the teams met in Flagstaff, were beaten 34-7. Montana State has lost 17 of 24 games all-time at the Skydome.
The Lumberjacks traded touchdowns with the Bobcats early. Cookus found Emmanuel Butler for a 2-yard score to give NAU a 21-14 lead. Casey Jahn carried the ball in from a yard out to make it 28-14 right before halftime.
Jahn scored again from 6 yards out, then wideout Alex Holmes threw 10 yards to R.J. Rickert to extend the lead to 42-14. Holmes had 72 yards receiving and scored twice. Cookus threw his fourth touchdown pass to Holmes from 13 yards out.
Montana State junior quarterback Dakota Prukop threw for 399 yards and four touchdowns for the Bobcats. But most of that came after the Cats were down by four scores and seemingly on the wrong end of a blowout.
“We played very dominantly on both offense and defense. It was really a great showing by the kids,” Souers said when asked about his team’s large lead.
Prukop threw touchdown passes to Mitch Griebel, Gunnar Brekke and Justin Paige in a four-minute span of the fourth quarter. The junior QB scrambled left and lofted a pass that Brekke took 85 yards to the house. It was one of the longest TD passes in MSU history.
Prukop, who also passed for 399 yards a week ago in an impressive Montana State victory over Cal Poly, threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to Paige during the frantic rally. The two also hooked up for a 64-yard scoring toss in the first half.
Montana State actually outgained NAU in total yardage, 572-506. Much of the Cat production, though, came when the game was pretty much out of reach.
The Bobcats return to Bozeman to take on Sacramento State next Saturday afternoon.