FLAGSTAFF, Arizona — Montana State’s flight to into Flagstaff was four hours late on Friday night. For the first three quarters of action on Saturday, it looked like the Bobcat defense never exited the plane.
Montana State surrendered touchdowns to Northern Arizona on six of the Lumberjacks’ first eight possessions as NAU burst out to a 42-14 lead with 6:47 left in the third frame. MSU staged a furious rally similar to the one the Bobcats mustered in a 55-50 loss at Eastern Washington. But Saturday, the deficit was too large to overcome. Northern Arizona threw the ball down the field at will, ran the ball between the tackles once MSU adjusted to hinder the deep pass and hung on for a 49-41 win here on Saturday evening.
“I would’ve liked to have the walk through but our guys were fine,” MSU ninth-year head coach Rob Ash said. “I was disappointed with our initial execution out of the locker room at the very beginning of the game on both sides. We weren’t as sharp as we need to be. I have to do a better job of making sure we are ready. It’s hard to sit around all day and come out and play but the other team has to do it to. I as the head coach have to do a better job of making sure we are ready.
“Forty-nine points is a lot of points. We have to get some questions answered on defense. We still have the capacity to score a lot of points. I don’t think it’s a huge change that has to be made. We just have to make a couple more stops.”
The victory snaps a two-game losing streak for NAU after a 2-0 start. The Lumberjacks fell 77-13 in Tucson to Arizona two weeks ago before falling 23-14 to Montana last weekend in Missoula. Against the Griz, NAU mustered just 19 first-half yards. On Saturday, Northern Arizona rolled up 317 yards before halftime and 506 overall as true freshman quarterback Case Cookus threw for 244 yards and four touchdowns and senior running back Casey Jahn rushed for 175 yards and two scores.
“This puts us right back on track,” NAU All-America senior cornerback Marcus Alford said after a seven-tackle, two-pass breakup performance. “I don’t want to say we ever lost our confidence but this shows us we can still compete with anyone. All of our goals are still in front of us.”
NAU head coach Jerome Souers
Saturday’s win was the 68th Big Sky Conference victory of veteran NAU head coach Jerome Souers’ career. It was also the 103rd win in his 18 seasons in Flagstaff.
“I hadn’t even thought about that actually,” Souers said with a smile. “I’m thankful that Northern Arizona has given me the opportunity to be here and see the program evolve. The things we are able to achieve, I see so much upside in our program right now. I think that as our guys continue to mature and grow, we will be a force to be reckoned with.”
On Saturday, NAU looked like a force to be reckoned with already, especially until the Bobcats came storming back. Cookus threw the ball down the field early and often, hitting sophomore sensation Emmanuel Butler for two 33-yard gains to set up senior Alex Holmes’ first of two touchdown catches. Cookus would continue to attack Montana State’s man coverage, throwing a 32-yard touchdown to Dejzon Walker to put NAU up 14-7 in the first quarter.
Montana State kept pace early as junior quarterback Dakota Prukop hit senior tight end Beau Sandland for a 37-yard gain to set up junior tailback Chad Newell’s seventh touchdown of the season for MSU’s first score. Montana State answered the Walker touchdown thanks to two runs of more than 20 yards by Newell to get MSU into the red-zone and then a one-yard touchdown run by Prukop set up by a Newell block to tie the game at 14-14.
MSU tight end Beau Sandland runs after a catch
Because Montana State struggled to cover Butler and Walker on the outside, the Bobcats elected to use their safeties to help out on the outside receivers over the top. Cookus adjusted and continued to dice the defense. He hit Kendyl Taylor for a 43-yard gain into the red-zone, then hit Butler for a two-yard jump ball touchdown to put NAU up 21-14 with 6:24 left in the first half.
Thanks to a swarming defense that didn’t allow Prukop any easy running lanes — he finished with just 54 yards on 21 rushes — the Lumberjacks forced a Bobcat punt. With no safety help down in the box on the ensuing possession, Jahn ripped off a 45-yard run on the first play of a drive that began with 2:11 left in the first half. Cookus hit Alex Holmes twice for 15 yards, then Corbin Jountti ripped off an 18-yard run. Jahn capped the drive with a two-yard touchdown, the first of his senior season, to give NAU a 28-14 lead with 13 seconds left in the half.
“All week, we knew what they were going to do: they were going to be one-on-one on the outside,” said Cookus, who completed 16-of-20 passes for 200 yards in the first half alone. “They were most of the game until they started doubling a few guys and that’s when we started running the ball.”
Following halftime, Montana State looked for a big play early. Prukop had junior tailback Gunnar Brekke wide open down the sideline on a wheel route but overthrew him one play after finding Mitch Herbert for a 30-yard gain. Five plays later, Montana State turned the ball over on downs.
NAU running back Corbin Jountti on a 27-yard gain
“We hit that and we are right in the game,” Ash said. “The offense executed well, battled hard but that was a big play. There are a lot of big plays in a game like this.”
Jahn ripped off a 43-yard run, then capped NAU’s six-play (all runs), 68-yard drive by running over MSU safety Khari Garcia to give his team a commanding 35-14 lead. NAU senior safety Eddie Horn intercepted a Prukop heave on the next play. A 12-yard Jahn run, a 27-yard Jountti jaunt and a 22-yard pass from Cookus to Jonathan Baldwin helped NAU reach the MSU 10-yard line. On a wide receiver reverse pass, Holmes hit senior tight end R.J. Rickert for a 10-yard score to put NAU up 42-14 with 6:47 left.
“Every time we came to the sideline, we kept asking what happened, what is happening and we didn’t play Bobcat defense is what it comes down to,” MSU senior captain defensive tackle Taylor Sheridan said. “We missed a lot of dumb things, a lot of spots. There was a play I didn’t even line up in the right spot. I don’t know what it was. Sometimes when that happens, you are just out of place. But you look past that and there was a hell of a fight after that and I thought we became the Bobcat defense again. We found the right adjustment at the end, it just took us too long to do it.”
Despite the deficit and the seemingly hopeless circumstance of the defense, the Bobcats found a way to rally. Prukop threw for 214 of his 399 yards in the fourth quarter. He hit Justin Paige for a 64-yard touchdown with three minutes left in the third but NAU answered with Holmes’ second touchdown catch, a 22-yarder, five minutes in the final frame.
MSU running back Chad Newell gets to the second level
Prukop hit senior Mitch Griebel for his first career touchdown catch with just under six minutes left to cut the NAU lead to 49-27. On a broken play, Prukop found Brekke at midfield and the speedster from Helena did the rest, scoring an 85-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 49-33. Prukop hit a streaking Paige with a perfectly thrown pass for a 40-yard touchdown to cut the margin to the final deficit with 1:49 on the clock.
Montana State did not recover any of its three onside kick attempts and the Bobcats fell to 1-2 against Division I opponents thus far this fall. Montana State finished with 572 yards of total offense as Prukop tied his career high in passing yards.
Against NAU, Montana State gave up seven plays of more than 32 yards, including four long pass competitions. In the last three weeks, MSU has surrendered 26 plays of more than 30 yards, including 15 through the air as opponents continue to take advantage of Montana State’s overmatched secondary.
NAU tight end Jonathan Baldwin stiff arms a defender
“Everybody thinks the defense isn’t pulling their weight right now,” Sheridan said. “As far as I’m concerned, if we have one point on the board, we are not doing our job. We are supposed to hold them to nothing. So far, we haven’t showed you guys that. It’s coming. Don’t count us out. There’s a sick, bad taste in everyone’s mouth right now. We will get it done.”
Northern Arizona bounced back from two straight losses to reestablish itself as a contender in the conference title race. The Lumberjacks play at winless UC Davis next week. Montana State returns home to host a one-win Sacramento State team that exploded for 463 passing yards last season against MSU.
“This is not the NFL where you can go to the waiver wire and we have a phrase in our program which is never complain about your personnel and I will never do that,” Ash said. “Our guys try hard and they are good kids, they work hard and they are athletic. We have to be better coaches on technique of playing those plays and make them the best players they can be and we will do that. We are not that far off some of the time. It’s a technique thing of knowing when to look back for the ball and if we keep coaching them and give them situations in practice, I think they will get better. We have to get better.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
