Big Sky Conference

Griz start fast, hang on for 26-23 win over No. 13 Northern Iowa

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After nine months of anticipation, the fans circling Washington-Grizzly Stadium Saturday evening before Montana’s clash with Northern Iowa seemed almost tense, as though waiting for something to happen that would give them permission to get crazy and finally believe that Bobby Hauck, their savior, was back.
Hauck and Dalton Sneed gave them that moment not even three minutes into the game — and then a dash of suspense for good measure by the end of the night as a homecoming blowout turned into a nail-biting 26-23 win over the No. 13 Panthers.

Montana defensive tackles David Shaw (96) and Jesse Sims (37) pressure Northern Iowa quarterback Eli Dunne (14)/by Brooks Nuanez

“What a great night in the stadium,” Hauck said. “The Griz fans were out in full force. It was fun to see it full. … Obviously, beating a really fine football team that’s as veteran as Northern Iowa is quite a win for us.”

 

Hauck’s return, after nine years away from the program where he made his name came weighted with equal parts hope and trepidation, and surpassed even the wildest expectations — for a half.

Under the lights at Washington-Grizzly, Montana (1-0) stomped UNI (0-1) comprehensively for the first 30 minutes, took a 26-0 lead into the break, and looked poised to win in a blowout — only to have the Panthers switch quarterbacks in the second half and nearly storm back for the win.
Northern Iowa head coach Mark Farley admitted during the week that Montana, because of the lack of information about what Hauck would run, would have the early advantage of making the first move, and that certainly proved true.
Sneed, who had a scintillating debut for Montana, completed his first eight passes. Three of them came on the first drive, before he sensed pressure, escaped up the middle, and outran Northern Iowa’s defense for a highlight 17-yard touchdown just 2:22 into the game.
“That was our guys paying attention to detail, being ready to play,” Hauck said. “I thought it was well done by the guys on our team, across the board. Our assistant coaches did a really, really nice job of having this team prepared, and we came out and played fast, hard and physical right out of the gate.”
Even though Tim Semenza missed the extra point, the score was the spark that brought a Washington-Grizzly crowd of 25,018 into the game, and it set Montana on a scoring tear. Following two UNI three-and-outs, Semenza booted a 25-yard field goal for a 9-0 lead.
Two drives later, Samori Toure reached over a defender in the back right corner of the end zone to haul in a 4-yard Sneed pass and give Montana a 16-0 lead — before the end of the first quarter.
“I knew they would play with a lot of energy because of Coach Hauck,” Farley said. “I did not know what they were going to do offensively or defensively … We just didn’t do a good enough job on the first move. It took us too long to adjust to it, and then we ran out of time.”
Montana’s offense wasn’t quite operating at the same efficiency in the second quarter, but a swarming defense and great special teams — Montana forced eight punts on eight first-half UNI possessions, and Jerry Louie-McGee had 78 yards on his first four punt returns — kept setting up the Grizzlies with short fields.

Montana lineback Shane Cochran (57) sacks Northern Iowa quarterback Eli Dunne (14)/by Brooks Nuanez

A trick play made it 23-0 when Sneed threw a backwards pass to senior wide receiver Keenan Curran, who hit junior tight end Colin Bingham with a perfectly-placed 25-yard touchdown throw. Semenza added a 31-yard field goal with no time left in the half, after a couple good throws from Sneed to sophomore Samuel Akem got the Griz in range.

 

Although it didn’t look like it at the time, that score would prove to be the game-winner.
Montana outgained the Panthers 273-47 in the first half. Sneed was 18-of-25 passing for 196 yards, while his counterpart Eli Dunne was just 4-of-17 for 20.
Hauck made sure to tell his team not to let up in the second half, but not even the coach knew how much they would need the advice.
“After halftime, we had a chance to not let it be that close, and we didn’t win on third down on either side of the ball,” Hauck said. “Northern Iowa made some plays, so credit to them, but also shame on us for not executing more precisely in the second half. … I would attribute that to human nature, especially young people nature. That was actually said in our locker room, but we had a lot of guys playing their first college football game, so I’m not sure they believed me.”
Outside of Sneed, the Montana run game was non-existent all evening — Adam Eastwood and Alijah Lee combined for 19 yards on 13 carries.
Realizing this, Northern Iowa began to take away the short throws that Sneed had thrived on in the first half, forcing him to stand in the pocket and be vulnerable to pressure.
“Our d-line was eating it up pretty good, so they were just throwing a lot of short, quick passes,” UNI linebacker Duncan Ferch said. Ferch had 12 tackles to lead the Panthers.
“They kind of got rid of the run pretty early.”

Montana quarterback Dalton Sneed (11) breaks the pocket vs Northern Iowa/by Brooks Nuanez

Sneed was just 8-of-14 in the second half for 52 yards, and the Grizzlies gained just 75 yards total over the last 30 minutes.

 

While that was happening, Northern Iowa made a change that brought them back into the game, replacing Dunne with backup Colten Howell. On his second drive late in the third quarter, Howell led the Panthers 90 yards and bulled over himself from the 1-yard line to get UNI on the board, down 26-7.
The replacement wasn’t done. On his next drive, the Panthers went 77 yards and Marcus Weymiller scored from one yard out early in the fourth. A successful two-point conversion, after an interception on the first try was wiped out by pass interference, made it 26-15.
Montana finally got a stop on the Panthers’ next possession, thanks to a big sack by junior linebacker Dante Olson, but gave the ball right back to Northern Iowa.
This time, Howell survived a sack by converting a fourth-and-17 with a pass to Briley Moore right at the first-down line.
“When I went in there, my job was just to get the ball to the playmakers,” Howell said. “We kind of just cut it loose in the second half, and we kind of just dropped our gameplan and let the players play.”
Four plays later, he fired a dart between four Griz defenders to Nick Fossey for a touchdown, and then hit Moore for the two-point conversion to make it 26-23 with 3:14 left. The Panthers didn’t have any timeouts left, but elected to kick it deep and try to hold a Montana offense that had just two first downs in the second half to that point.

Montana wide receiver Samari Toure (82) breaks a tackle vs Northern Iowa/by Brooks Nuanez

With running the ball out of the question, Sneed hit Eastwood for three yards, Toure for six, and then, on third and 1, Toure for 13 to clinch the game and induce a massive sigh of relief from the stands.

“Samori’s a great receiver, but I trust every receiver on the field,” Sneed said. “He just happened to be the guy that was in the right spot at the right time and was open right there. The line made lanes, there was nobody in my face, nobody pressuring, and we executed. We did what we had to do when it crunch time.”

Sneed finished 26-of-39 for 248 yards and a touchdown in his debut.
Olson had 13 tackles and an interception for the Griz.
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved. 

About Andrew Houghton

Andrew Houghton grew up in Washington, DC. He graduated from the University of Montana journalism school in December 2015 and spent time working on the sports desk at the Daily Tribune News in Cartersville, Georgia, before moving back to Missoula and becoming a part of Skyline Sports in early 2018.

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