SPORTS

Grizzlies make big plays late to provide dramatic win

Scott Mansch
smansch@greatfallstribune.com

MISSOULA Much of the pregame hype surrounded the coaching debut of new Montana mentor Bob Stitt.

His quarterback stole the show.

Junior quarterback Brady Gustafson passed for 434 yards and three touchdowns and unheralded halfback Joey Counts ran for 1-yard TD in the closing seconds as the Grizzlies upset four-time defending national champion North Dakota State’s Bison 38-35 Saturday afternoon.

Jamaal Jones and Ellis Henderson combined for 15 catches, 252 receiving yards and two scores and Dan Sullivan booted three field goals as the Grizzlies opened their season with a dramatic victory before a record crowd of 26,472 at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

“It was a great college football game,” said NDSU coach Chris Klieman, whose Bison were 15-1 a year ago, including a 22-10 victory over Mick Delaney’s Griz in Fargo. “They made one more play than we did, but it was a great game and my hat’s off to coach Stitt. I congratulate him on his first win at Montana. It was well-deserved.”

Montana trailed much of the day, by as many as eight points in the first half. But the Grizzlies kept the Bison within range thanks to a big-play offense that included Gustafson’s TD tosses to Jones (7 yards), Henderson (62) and senior Ben Roberts (38).

Roberts, the former superstar athlete at Missoula Sentinel who has been playing baseball at Washington State, played in his first college game and made his first college catch one to remember: a leaping grab between two defenders in the end zone that brought UM within 21-19 midway through the second half.

Roberts tacked on a game-tying 2-point conversion reception.

Henderson’s touchdown was no less spectacular. The senior, who missed most of last season with a serious illness, beat an all-out Bison blitz that left single coverage in the secondary. Gustafson threw an accurate strike that tied the score at 28 in the third quarter.

“They’re all ballers,” said Gustafson, who displayed considerable poise while operating Stitt’s no-huddle offense. “They all played a heckuva game. I certainly missed some throws but they didn’t change anything about how they ran their routes. They stuck with it and made some great plays. You saw today that I’m not a very strong runner. So get it in their hands and let them do the damage.”

The Bison at times in the opening half looked unstoppable behind sensational quarterback Cole Wentz. He ran for a pair of first-half touchdowns and displayed great accuracy in the pocket. But the 6-foot-6, 235-pound Wentz was not the same player in the second half, having suffered an apparent slight injury.

So NDSU went largely to its power running game, an attack that racked up 229 yards on the day thanks to halfbacks King Frazier and Chase Morlock. Frazier’s 7-yard run up the middle with 10:37 to play provided NDSU with a 35-28 edge.

Wentz, who rushed for 75 yards and two scores in the first half and appeared to be the best player on the field, had a bit of a hitch in his giddy-up that prevented him from scrambling down the stretch.

“It’s not an excuse, but I don’t think it helped that Carson wasn’t 100 percent,” Klieman said. “It took away our quarterback run game, which was so successful in the first half … Carson just couldn’t get the edge so we tried to stay inside.”

Even so, the Bison were in great shape midway through the fourth quarter when linebacker Nick DeLuca sacked Gustafson and forced a fumble. The Bison led 35-28 at the time and had the ball in UM territory.

A turnover ended that drive.

“Credit Montana’s crowd. I thought they took us out of some things,” Klieman said. “They had a tremendous crowd. I thought it was two really excellent football teams. It was a playoff atmosphere-type game.”

After recovering a fumbled exchange between Wentz and a receiver, who was running a fly sweep right out of Stitt’s playbook, the Grizzlies regained the momentum and drove for a field goal that made it 35-31 with 2:47 to play.

Montana didn’t try an onside kick, instead relying on its defense. And the unit responded by producing a 3-and-out. The Grizzlies got the ball back at their own 20 with 99 seconds to play.

“It was pretty crazy how calm I was and all the players. Man, they were so focused,” Stitt said. “We talked about it for weeks and weeks, about staying focused … We just played a really, really solid game.”

The winning drive featured a 16-yard completion to Jamaal Jones on 3rd-and-10, a pass interference call that receiver Roberts drew on 3rd-and-6, and a 31-yard completion to freshman wideout Reese Carlson on 4th-and-10.

That gave the Griz a first down at the NDSU 13 with 21 seconds left. On the next play Gustafson connected with Henderson on a square-in route for 12 yards to the 1, setting up the final frantic seconds.

The Bison defense held for a few plays and with six seconds left the Grizzlies had one last chance. Stitt installed his jumbo formation with big defensive lineman Jamal Wilson and linebacker Jeremiah Kose in front of Counts, a 5-9, 215-pounder who lined up in the eye.

Counts took the handoff and veered left into the end zone as a jubilant Grizzly crowd partied heartily.

“We knew if we could get between 45 and 50 plays in the first half we’d have them gassed and we’d have a chance to win in the fourth quarter,” Stitt said. “We were a little slow offensively in the third quarter and our defense kept us in it.”

Trailing by seven, the Grizzlies appeared on the verge of tying it in the final minutes after driving to a first down at the Bison 2. But the defense held and with 2:47 to play Daniel Sullivan’s third chip-shot field goal narrowed the deficit to 35-31.

“That’s big-time adversity when you’re thinking you’re gonna tie the game up and you gotta kick a field goal,” Stitt said. “Defense comes out and gets a stop and we go down and have a chance to win it on the last play of the game.”

Gustafson finished 30-for-55. He was sacked twice, intercepted once and hit dozens of times. But the former Billings West star proved resilient and productive.

“You’ve got to shoulder the blows and sit in there and try to deliver the ball on time,” Gustafson said. “It was really, really a lot of fun today.”

The Grizzlies threw the ball 57 times among the team’s 92 plays. Stitt’s philosophy is to wear down the defense.

“That’s going to be our goal every game, just run a bunch of plays and give ourselves an opportunity to truly win the fourth quarter,” Gustafson said. “At the end of the game we’ve just got to trust it, that they’re going to be weary and we’re going to be able to move the ball on them.”

The Grizzlies play host to Cal Poly next Saturday night at 7.