Dave Dickenson’s return to Montana was overshadowed by a wild, rowdy, record-setting game Saturday, as the Grizzlies came from behind to beat Sacramento State in the Big Sky opener for both teams, 41-34.
Dalton Sneed had one of the greatest games in Montana history and the Griz defense followed a horrifying first half with a great second to get Montana off to a 1-0 conference start.
Montana quarterback Dalton Sneed (11)/by Brooks Nuanez
“Sac State is the best football team we’ve played this year, and I don’t think it’s close,” Montana head coach Bobby Hauck said. “They’re well-coached, they’re veteran, they’re talented.
“I’m starting to like this team’s resilience and their ability to fight back and never give in. That was awesome.”
Sneed ran for 206 yards and three touchdowns on just 16 carries, by far the most by a quarterback in a single game in Montana history. It was the eighth-highest single-game total by any player ever for the Griz, and the most since Chase Reynolds’ 241 in 2009. Yohance Humphrey holds the UM single-game record of 265 yards against Weber State in 2001.
“I don’t want to take any credit for that, because any person in this room could have run through the holes that we ran through today,” Sneed said in the post-game press conference. “It shows the growth of the young offensive line that has just progressively gotten better week in and week out. It really showed today. Hats off to the offensive linemen the whole way.”
The Griz as a team ran for 351 total yards, more than doubling their season total to date of 320.
With the game tied at 31 early in the fourth quarter, Sneed hit redshirt freshman tight end Matt Rensvold for a 1-yard touchdown pass on fourth down that would prove to be the winner, capping a comeback that started with the Griz down 28-17 late in the second quarter.
For all of Sneed’s heroics, Montana likely wouldn’t have won without its defense. After giving up 373 yards and 28 points in the first half, the Griz D surrendered just 137 yards and two field goals in the second.
Junior Dante Olson finished with 15 tackles and a sack for Montana, while his senior linebacker partner Josh Buss had 11 and three sacks.
Former Montana quarterback Dave Dickson/by Brooks Nuanez
Dickenson, who quarterbacked the Griz to a national championship in 1995, was honored between the first and second quarters for his recent election to the College Football Hall of Fame.
By the time he took the field with his family to a thunderous ovation, the game was already 14-14, thanks to a delirious first quarter that saw three touchdowns of over 50 yards. Sac sophomore Elijah Dotson’s 59-yard touchdown run to start the game for Sac State was immediately followed by Griz freshman Gabe Sulser taking a sweep 53 yards to the house for the Grizzlies.
It was the first college touch for the true freshman from Billings Senior, and Sulser showed off the speed that made him Montana’s high school player of the year in 2017, rounding the corner and then just vanishing down the right sideline for the score.
“Gabe’s a kid that’s got some explosive ability,” Hauck said. “It showed, obviously, on that play. When you give him that much space, he’s got a chance to finish in the end zone, and he did. I’m proud of him for not dropping it on the 5-yard line or something, getting excited. He did a nice job.”
After punts for both teams, Dotson got his second touchdown of the game on a 1-yard dive to cap a good drive. The first Sac State lead had lasted 47 seconds before Montana responded.
This one survived for even less time.
On the first play of the ensuing Montana drive, Sneed faked a pitch to Jeremy Calhoun and took off up the middle before bouncing out to the left for an untouched 75-yard touchdown to make it 14-14.
“That read quick pitch, the quarterback play, [offensive coordinator Timm Rosenbach] invented that right here in Missoula, Montana, this week,” Hauck said. “It was big for us. … We gave them a few wrinkles they had not seen, and it was successful.”
Sacramento State running back Elijah Dotson (33)/by Brooks Nuanez
A 45-yard field goal attempt from Sac State’s Devon Medeiros bounced squarely off the left upright late in the first quarter, giving Montana the chance to take the lead. The Griz capitalized with a 25-yard field goal from Tim Semenza early in the second for a 17-14 lead, but, appropriately, the advantage didn’t last long.
Just 32 seconds later, Dotson ripped off his third touchdown of the first half, a 66-yard jaunt.
Dotson, a sophomore, ran for 185 yards and the three touchdowns on 19 carries in the first half, and finished with 234 yards on 30 carries.
“We have a lot of confidence in [Dotson],” Thomson said. “We had prepared a lot during the week, and we saw some looks in the run game looked really good to us. We noticed they were going to kind of pay it soft on the give, as far as the zone read, so that was my job, just give the ball to him, fake, and let him do his thing.”
This time, Montana couldn’t answer, and Sac State opened up the first two-score lead of the game on their next drive.
Jaelin Ratliff got wide open over the middle, Gavin Robertson and Dareon Nash collided with each other trying to make the tackle, and Ratliff went 77 yards for the touchdown to make it 28-17 with 4:10 left in the half.
The Grizzly offense did have one answer left in it, though, as Sneed led a long drive and capped it himself with a 12-yard touchdown run with only 24 seconds left in the half.
That made it 28-24. Both teams rushed for at least 200 yards in the first half, with Sac State going for 373 yards total and Montana right behind at 352.
Montana quarterback Dalton Sneed (11)/by Brooks Nuanez
Sneed added another rushing touchdown a few minutes into the fourth, taking the same fake-pitch play 38 yards for his third score of the game to take the lead back at 31-28.
The Hornets had their best drive of the second half after that, but committed a false start on fourth-and-goal from the 1 and had to settle for a 23-yard field goal to tie the game at 31.
“Play of the day, the north end zone got them to jump,” Hauck said. “It put them in a 4th-and-6 and made them kick a field goal there. It was absolutely huge, so our crowd, they listened. We said we needed them, they showed up in droves.”
After that, the Montana defense wouldn’t give up anything else.
With delayed blitzes from Buss and Olson, the Grizzlies were able to pressure Thomson on nearly every big third down.
“They were bringing some odd blitzes there, and we struggled on a few plays,” Thomson said. “Getting them picked up, I’ve got to slide the protection the right way.”
Between Medeiros’s tying field goal and a late garbage-time drive that came with Montana up by two scores, the Griz defense gave up just nine yards, and no points, on four drives. That gave the offense a chance to win the game, and they obliged. Sneed led a nine-play, 63-yard drive that stalled out on the Sac State 1.
With the opportunity to take the lead with a field goal on 4th-and-1, Hauck instead opted to keep the offense on the field.
Rensvold ran a stick route right at the goal line, and Sneed waited for a defender to clear his receiver’s face before firing it in to Rensvold for the winning score.
“With the ball on the half-yard line, a field goal is what they want us to do. We don’t want to do what they want us to do,” Hauck said. “It’s a read play. It was a special for inside the 5, something we worked on. … He did a nice job seeing the guy pop open.”
Montana running back Adam Eastwood (25)/by Brooks Nuanez
Sac State gave it right back to the Griz, and the offense took four minutes off the clock before Semenza kicked a 24-yard field goal for a 41-31 lead with 1:32 left.
That sealed it, although Thomson drove the Hornets down the field and Medeiros added a 30-yard field goal with 11 seconds left.
Jerry Louie-McGee scooped up the ensuing squib onside kick to end it.
The win was the 200th in Washington-Grizzly Stadium history for Montana.
“Our team’s got character,” Hauck said. “I think they have a lot of fight in them. I think they’re learning to play with an edge, and that’s going to be a process for us. We’re not anywhere near where we’re going to be, but they’re getting it.”
Thomson threw for 259 yards on just 10 completions for Sac State, which fell to 2-2.
Montana will be on the road next week, taking on Cal Poly’s triple-option attack in San Luis Obispo. Cal Poly dropped its Big Sky opener 70-17 at Eastern Washington on Saturday afternoon.
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
