BOZEMAN – In a game highlighted by a wild first quarter than featured four touchdowns, seven punts, a punt return for a TD, a blocked extra point, a muffed punt, an inadvertently touched punt turnover, a 64-yard QB keeper for a TD and wise-beyond-his-years kick return move, Montana State took down Cal Poly 59-19.
The game became interesting in the third quarter when the Mustangs out-gained the Bobcats 127-3 in total yards but were only able to get six points and draw within 38-19 for that effort. The Bobcats answered with a 10-yard touchdown run by quarterback Sean Chambers. The play came after a roughing the kicker penalty on a field goal attempt by MSU’s Brendan Hall. The Mustangs couldn’t regroup.
MSU, now 3-0 in the Big Sky and 5-1 overall, saw a couple key players that have missed considerable time this season step to the forefront as quarterback Tommy Mellott and wide receiver Ty McCullouch had big outings.
Mellott returned to action for the first time since playing at South Dakota State about one month ago. He had a solid game to knock off any rust he may have collected while out with a leg injury. The Butte native connected on 7 of 9 passes for 92 yards and two touchdowns.
“It felt great getting back out there,” Mellott said. “It’s tough when you only have one thing that’s holding you back when everything else feels great. There’s a lot of guys on this team that have a couple things going on.”
Mellott really shined during a two-minute drill to end the first half. He drove the Bobcats 87 yards on six plays that included 3 of 3 passing for 46 yards and a 17-yard touchdown pass to Jared White, who made a spectacular catch in the back of the end zone that was initially ruled incomplete but was overturned on review. Mellott also carried for 32 yards on two carries during the drive as he accounted for 78 of the 87 yards with the other nine coming on a nine-yard run by White.
“He really looked like a quarterback out there,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said of Mellott on that drive. “Considering he’s been out five weeks. I thought while he was out there he functioned really well and we were still able to keep him somewhat limited.”
Mellott’s quarterbacking sidekick, Sean Chambers, had another stellar night for the Bobcats. The senior threw for 151 yards and added 91 rushing yards that included three rushing touchdowns. His second was a 64-yard jaunt that pushed MSU to a 21-6 lead. He added another from the nine-yard line in the third quarter where he bulled his way through at least six Cal Poly defenders.
After a head’s up play by kick returner Marqui Johnson, who laid down out of bound then reached onto the field to grab the kickoff resulting in a penalty for kick out of bounds on Cal Poly, MSU got off to an ominous start. MSU would lose 17 yards on a botched reverse on the first play of the game. Fans gasped as wide receiver McCullouch lost the ball on the 25 and had to chase it back to the 18 before falling on it. It was one of three recoveries he would make in the game.
McCullouch made up for the miscue when he scored MSU’s first touchdown on a 65-yard punt return to electrify the 21,997 fans on hand. Later, however, he would muff a pair of punts only to pounce on both of them to avoid disaster.
“I just fumbled the end around on the first play, so I said I’m just gonna take this no matter what and I’m gonna score,” McCullouch said. “Thankfully I did. There were a lot of emotions going but it was a great feeling. Bobcat Nation is amazing.”
McCullouch had his best game as a Bobcat as a wide receiver as he caught four passes for 119 yards, including a pair while tightly covered.
Like, Mellott, McCullouch had to miss a lot of action due to an injury this season. He came back two games ago, but didn’t get into the fray like he did on this night.
“It was extremely tough,” he said. “Just knowing I’m on a team with a lot of great guys who always work hard and give their best it just gave me hope for the first four games because although I was upset, I was happy for the team because we were winning.”
MSU’s defense was dominant for the first 25 minutes of the game, limiting Cal Poly to just 72 yards on 24 plays late in the second quarter. The Mustangs got a 41-yard touchdown strike from Sam Huard to Evan Burkhart, then carried that over to the third quarter despite giving up a circus-catch touchdown reception to MSU running back Jared White on a pass from Tommy Mellott that send the Bobcats into the locker room with a 38-13 lead.
Dating back to last season’s game in San Luis Obispo, the Bobcats outscored the Mustangs 110-41 and out-gained them 1,044 total yards to 497 over six quarters.
Huard, the son of former NFL quarterback Brock Huard, threw for three TDs for the Mustangs and was 19 of 36 for 225 yards with no interceptions. His favorite target was Burkhart, who finished with 86 yards on six catches. Huard spread the ball around well as he and backup Bo Kelly connected with nine different receivers.
White added a game high 93 yards rushing to go along with his touchdown reception. Freshman Adam Jones rumbled for 49 yards and a touchdown on the first carry of his career and Elijah Elliott continues to impress late in games with 37 yards and a score. MSU had seven carries of 17 yards or more.
The juggernaut MSU ground game was good for 335 yards on 35 carries that included five touchdowns.
MSU kicker Brendan Hall was entertaining with his booming kicks. The first was a kickoff into a slight breeze that still sailed through the uprights. An extra point was just one row below the string of tubas from MSU’s Spirit of the West marching band about halfway up the end zone grandstand. He also hit on a 44-yard field goal in the second quarter.
The Bobcat’ schedule becomes rough for the final five weeks. This Saturday they travel to California to take on Sacramento State, which has won or shared the conference title the past three seasons. Sac gutted out a 21-13 win over Northern Colorado on Saturday.
After that it’s a trip to Moscow, Idaho to face the No. 3 ranked Vandals. Idaho lost 23-21 to No. 6 Montana on Saturday night.
MSU returns home for November games against Northern Arizona and Eastern Washington before a trip to rival Montana, which has surged of late.
“There was plenty of good today, plenty of big plays by plenty of guys,” Vigen said. “At times, it didn’t look like we wanted it to but I appreciate the effort by our team. Any time you can win a game in this league, you’ll take it and run with it, analyze it and move on from there.”
