With one Saturday left in the regular season, the Big Sky race came into sharp focus. Montana State took care of business in Greeley and now sits alone in first place at 7-1, with at least a share of the conference title locked up. Behind the Bobcats, the picture got scrambled. Weber State went into Flagstaff and knocked No. 5 Northern Arizona out of a share of first place, leaving the Lumberjacks in a three-way tie for second at 6-2 with the Wildcats and Montana. No. 23 UC Davis kept its playoff life alive with a fourth-quarter comeback in Moscow, a loss that essentially knocks Idaho out of the postseason picture since the Vandals can finish no better than 6-6. And No. 12 Montana held off No. 21 Idaho State 38-30 on Senior Night, a result that basically ends the Bengals’ playoff hopes and sets up a 125th Brawl of the Wild where the Griz can claim a share of the league crown with a win in Bozeman.
UC Davis 28, Idaho 24
UC Davis rallied from a 14-point deficit and scored the go-ahead touchdown with under four minutes to play to stun Idaho 28-24 in the Kibbie Dome, keeping the Aggies’ playoff hopes alive and essentially ending the Vandals’.
After a kickoff that slid four hours into a night game, Idaho came out sizzling in its red, white and blue America 250 uniforms. Joshua Wood found Ryan Jezioro for a 63-yard touchdown on the fourth play of the night, and a 13-play, 91-yard drive ended with Lonyatta Alexander Jr.’s touchdown catch for a 14-0 lead. Samuel Gbatu Jr. got the Aggies on the board before halftime, and an 18-play opening drive of the second half tied it.
Owen Forsman’s 41-yard field goal put Idaho up 17-14, Gbatu’s second score flipped it to 21-17, and Wood answered with a 15-yard option keeper for a 24-21 lead. But on a third-and-long, an errant backward pass on a trick play hit the turf, UC Davis pounced, and a deep ball down the middle put the Aggies back in front. Wood’s final heave was intercepted.
Wood threw for 307 yards and two touchdowns and tied for ninth on Idaho’s single-season rushing touchdown list with 12. Jezioro had six catches for 114 yards. UC Davis (7-4, 5-3) hosts Cal Poly next week. Idaho (5-6, 5-3) saw its four-game win streak end and visits Idaho State.
Weber State 25, Northern Arizona 21
Weber State spoiled Northern Arizona’s bid to stay tied atop the league, going into Flagstaff and upsetting the Lumberjacks 25-21 to snap NAU’s five-game winning streak.
Nate Dahle threw for 229 yards and two touchdowns, and his 25-yard scoring strike to Tate Kjar near the midpoint of the third quarter put the Wildcats ahead 22-17 for good. The ensuing two-point try produced one of the wildest swings of the Big Sky season: Dahle’s scrambling throw across the field was picked off by NAU’s Braylon Singleton, who raced 100 yards for a defensive two-pointer that cut the margin to 22-19.
Weber never gave the lead back. Spencer Ferguson churned out 125 yards on 20 carries to keep the chains moving, and Noah Kjar caught nine passes for 135 yards and a touchdown. NAU’s Ty Pennington threw for 300 yards and a score, but he was intercepted twice, the last one by Porter Small on the Lumberjacks’ final drive to seal the result.
The Wildcats (7-4, 6-2) have now won three of their last four games against nationally ranked opponents and own a 30-29 edge in the all-time series. Weber closes the regular season at home against Utah Tech, while NAU (8-3, 6-2) hosts Northern Colorado. Both now sit one game behind Montana State and need help to grab a share of the title.
Eastern Washington 31, Utah Tech 28
Jaxon Branch hauled in an 11-yard touchdown pass from Nate Bell with 12.4 seconds left, and Eastern Washington survived a furious Utah Tech rally to win 31-28 in the first-ever meeting between the programs at Greater Zion Stadium in St. George.
The Eagles jumped to a 17-0 first-quarter lead, cashing in two Utah Tech fumbles, both recovered by redshirt senior linebacker Myles Mayovsky. Wesley Garrett scored on a 4-yard catch and a 22-yard end-around, and Soren McKee added a 41-yard field goal. Eastern still led 24-14 entering the fourth after Bell found Branch for a 26-yard score.
Then Utah Tech came roaring back. CJ Tiller hit Will Greene for an 80-yard touchdown early in the fourth, and Ace Chatman’s rushing score with about two and a half minutes left put the Trailblazers ahead 28-24. Eastern’s final drive got help from three Utah Tech defensive penalties, including pass interference on fourth-and-12 and another in the end zone that set up Branch’s game-winner.
Tiller completed 18 of 23 passes for 344 yards and three touchdowns, and Greene had four catches for 108 yards and two scores as Utah Tech outgained Eastern 486-262. Bell went 21 of 35 for 188 yards and three touchdowns, and Branch caught seven passes for 104 yards and two scores. Eastern (3-8, 2-6) earned its first road win of the season despite a travel day squeezed by Friday’s nationwide ground stop, and hosts Portland State on Senior Day. Utah Tech fell to 1-10, 1-7.
Southern Utah 23, Portland State 21 (Friday)
Jayden Rogers drilled a 33-yard field goal with 13 seconds left Friday night in Hillsboro, lifting Southern Utah to a 23-21 win after Portland State had rallied from 13 points down to take its first lead.
The Thunderbirds struck first when Will Burns found David Spjut for a 49-yard touchdown, and Rogers added field goals of 48 and 25 yards around a Terence Loville touchdown catch. Burns’ 19-yard scoring toss to Hayden George pushed the lead to 20-7 in the third quarter.
Portland State answered with a pair of grinding drives. Cru Newman capped a 15-play, 75-yard march with a 6-yard run late in the third, and Delon Thompson plunged in from a yard out with 1:51 to play for a 21-20 lead. Burns then took over, running for 29 yards on the final drive to set up Rogers, who finished 3-for-3 on field goals.
Thompson ran for 169 yards on 26 carries and climbed to sixth on Portland State’s career rushing list with 2,283 yards. The Vikings outrushed SUU 208-164 and outgained the Thunderbirds 340-330, but two red-zone interceptions of John-Keawe Sagapolutele proved costly. Jaxton Helmstetler made 11 tackles. Southern Utah moved to 5-6, 4-4, and Portland State fell to 2-9, 2-6 under first-year coach Chris Fisk before visiting Eastern Washington.
Montana State 31, Northern Colorado 21
Justin Lamson completed 24 of his 28 passes and ran for two touchdowns as Montana State clinched at least a share of the Big Sky title with a 31-21 win in Greeley. The victory was the 71st of Brent Vigen’s tenure, the most by any head coach in program history, and the Bobcats presented him a game ball to mark it.
It was not easy. Adam Jones punched in a 1-yard score to cap a nine-play opening drive, but UNC answered when Brayten Silbor hit Trey Olsen on a short slant that turned into a 68-yard touchdown. MSU was stopped on fourth-and-1 at the UNC 16, and the Bears came away empty after a 20-play drive ended with a missed 26-yard field goal. Lamson’s 16-yard scramble gave the Cats a 14-7 halftime lead.
Nursing a 17-14 lead early in the fourth, Lamson broke loose for a 17-yard touchdown, and Jared White’s 28-yard burst made it 31-14. White finished with 112 yards on 12 carries, and Jones added 65 yards on 17 carries to push past 3,000 career rushing yards. Dane Steele caught eight passes for 91 yards and Carter Dahlke had five for 57. Montana State piled up 473 yards, 227 on the ground, and 28 first downs.
The Bobcats (10-1, 7-1) host Montana next Saturday. Northern Colorado fell to 3-8, 2-6.
Montana 38, Idaho State 30
Montana scored in all three phases and held off a late Idaho State push to win 38-30 on Senior Night in Missoula, a victory that basically eliminates the Bengals from the playoff picture.
Isaiah Su’esu’e’s 2-yard run gave ISU an early lead, but Monte Gillman took the ensuing kickoff 96 yards to tie it. Keali’i Ah Yat hit Landon Ransom-Goelz for a 13-yard touchdown and a lead the Griz never gave back, and Jo Silver added a 46-yard field goal. After Ransom-Goelz fumbled a kickoff late in the half, the Bengals had first-and-goal with a chance to tie, but Devin Dunn intercepted Jordan Cooke and returned it 94 yards for a touchdown as time expired for a 24-10 halftime lead.
Eli Gillman caught two second-half touchdowns from Ah Yat, extending his Big Sky record for career touchdowns to 80 and breaking Marcus Knight’s school single-season mark with his 26th. Cooke answered with scoring throws to Tommy Poe, Zedekiah Anahu-Ambrosio and Simeon Brown, but ISU’s two-point try failed with 7:56 left, Mason Lindberg missed two field goals, and the Griz defense forced three straight incompletions on a late stand. A 23-yard Ah Yat strike to Mariano Birdno helped Montana run out the clock.
Ah Yat completed 25 of 34 passes for 329 yards and three scores. Ransom-Goelz caught nine passes for 159 yards. Montana (8-3, 6-2) has won 17 straight in the series and heads to Bozeman for Bobby Kennedy’s first Brawl of the Wild. Idaho State (6-5, 3-5) hosts Idaho.
Cal Poly was idle and closes the regular season at UC Davis.
