Once the Bobcats were able to take what they were given, the points started to pile up. Montana State’s slow start wasn’t what most of the sellout “Gold Rush” crowd expected, but in the end, MSU emerged with its first win of the 2015 season.
In the second half, Prukop connected on two bombs, the top came off the defense and the Bobcats avalanched the visitors as the Bobcats emerged to a 45-14 victory. Montana State’s victory served as the first in the Bobcats’ season opener and the 66th of Rob Ash’s career.
“I thought one of the most disappointing parts of the game was the down the field throws,” Ash said after completing his ninth season opener at MSU. “That was frustrating to everyone on the offensive side. That’s why we weren’t running the ball as well either, because the safeties were down low. They were challenging us to throw deep and we did it and we didn’t make them pay.”
Most expected the Bobcats to run roughshod over a team picked to finish near the bottom of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. Following halftime, Prukop, Montana State’s preseason All-America junior quarterback, got on track. With his team clinging to a 14-0 lead early in the third quarter, Prukop hit streaking sophomore Justin Paige with a 49-yard bomb down to the Fort Lewis 1-yard line. Montana State scored three plays later on a touchdown pass from Prukop to sophomore Mitchell Herbert. On the next MSU possession, Prukop hit Paige for a 46-yard gain down to the Fort Lewis 1-yard line again and again, MSU scored three plays later on a TD toss from Prukop to Herbert.
“We were expecting them to play a little deeper, a little softer,” Prukop said. “I threw away three or four deep balls that would’ve taken this game away. The look wasn’t crazy or anything. It was a lack of execution on my part.”
The second score after halftime gave MSU a commanding 28-7 lead and the Bobcats never looked back. Junior running back Chad Newell scored his second touchdown of the game and sophomore Nick LaSane notched the first receiving touchdown of his career in the fourth quarter as Montana State opened with a win in front of a sellout crowd of 19,367 under the Bobcat Stadium lights.
“I tip my hat to them: they came out with a look that confused us and they twisted on every play,” MSU junior All-America guard J.P. Flynn said. “That gave them a chance to stay in the game.”
Prukop’s final stats were respectable: 14-of-24 for 197 yards and two touchdowns along with 69 yards rushing on 11 carries, including a score. But he never quite found a rhythm, particularly in the first half.
“We are not big enough, strong enough to hold up without bringing pressure so we knew we would have to turn it up,” Fort Lewis head coach John L. Smith said following his first game in Bozeman since 1993, when he was the head coach for the Idaho Vandals. “We put our secondary on a island but that’s part of it. You have to load up the box a little bit to stop these guys. We decided to stay in it until they could prove they could beat us. They didn’t do it until the second half.”
Last season, Montana State scored more points than any Bobcat squad ever had. The bulk of the unit, including a veteran offensive line featuring four seniors returned in front of Prukop. On Thursday, the Bobcat offense sputtered out of the gates as the underdogs from Durango, Colorado played toe-to-toe with one of the top programs in the Big Sky Conference for almost an entire half.
A bone-crushing hit of 5-foot-6 Fort Lewis running back PJ Hall by MSU sophomore linebacker Mac Bignell seemed to ignite the Bobcats after a dormant first quarter. FLC quarterback Jordan Doyle looked for Hall in the flat but Bignell read the play from the outset. He got roughly a 15-yard sprint at Hall before loading up and leveling him to the delight of the Bobcat sidelines and the Sonny Holland end zone to the Skyhawks’ backs.
“I read my keys, watching them on film let me run the play,” Bignell said following an eight-tackle, two tackles for loss performance in his first career start. “I think that’s the best one (of my life). It feels smooth. You don’t feel pain. You hope they do.”
A Bignell tackle for loss three plays later lead to a Fort Lewis punt. On the first play of MSU’s ensuing drive, Prukop slashed, cutback, juked and sprinted his way to a 58-yard touchdown run but the play was called back because of holding.
The Bobcats would not let the momentum built by Bignell’s hit slip away. Montana State rushed the ball nine consecutive times for 58 yards, capped by Newell’s first touchdown on a fourth down from the 1-yard line to give MSU its first score nearly 26 minutes into the game.
The Montana State defense recorded three second-half takeaways, including a forced fumble by senior safety Desman Carter recovered by senior cornerback Trace Timmer with less than a minute to play in the third quarter. The takeaway gave MSU the ball on the FLC 25. Newell’s 2-yard touchdown 1:16 into the final frame put MSU up 35-7 and the starters took a seat for the evening.
MSU sophomore Bryce Alley’s first career interception gave MSU the ball 38 yards from the end zone with 13:08 to play. It also was the final play of the game for Fort Lewis southpaw quarterback Jordan Doyle, a senior who ended the night 8-of-14 for 50 yards, including a 23-yard touchdown toss to Juquelle Thompson in the third quarter, and 58 yards rushing on 13 carries.
The Bobcats turned the pick into six as senior quarterback Jake Bleskin completed five straight passes, including a swing pass to LaSane in the flat that the sophomore turned into a 14-yard touchdown.
For the Skyhawks, the hard-fought effort serves a spark for their season and a boost for their budget. The six-figure payday the small school received will account for between one-third and one-fourth of FLC’s football budget, Smith said.
“Stuff has changed so much around here and they’ve done a great job,” said Smith, who led Idaho to a pair of Big Sky titles in the late 1980s and early 1990s before continuing a successful career that included stops at Louisville, Michigan State and Arkansas. “I have to thank Montana State for providing us with this opportunity because without being able to play up to a team like this, it’s hard for our program to survive. I’m thankful for that.”
For the Bobcats, the game served as a tune-up before an extended break. Montana State won’t play until it heads to Cheney, Washington on September 19 for a non-conference showdown with No. 6 Eastern Washington three-time reigning Big Sky champion.
“Like you always say in football, you don’t ever dwell on a win or a loss,” Flynn said. “It’s on to the next one.”
[/restrict]Photo by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
