If you’ve ever watched Montana play at Eastern Washington before, you knew it wouldn’t be simple or easy on Saturday night in Cheney. The Grizzlies and Eagles just don’t play those kinds of games on the red turf of Roos Field, and Montana certainly needed to put together a big performance in order to win on the Inferno for the first time in program history.
There were gutsy fourth down calls, trick plays from both sides, surprise onside kicks, and so much more as the two teams combined for over 100 points and 1,252 total yards.
It took everything that Montana had, and a historic night from the offense, to leave Cheney with a 52-49 win over Eastern Washington. The Grizzlies totaled 701 yards, the second-most in program history, to outpace the Eagles in a late-night shootout.
The balance that head coach Bobby Hauck loves was on display as Montana as they passed for 364 yards and ran for 337 to eclipse the 700-yard mark.
Photo by Tony Martino/Courtesy of University of Montana.
“That was a great football game, a wild game,” Hauck said. “Defensive fans are probably not as thrilled by it, but it was a great game. I’ve been saying all week what a fine job Aaron Best does here with this program. He had his team ready to fight. We had them on the ropes numerous times during that game, but they wouldn’t give. They fought it out to the end and we were holding on for dear life, and found a way to get the job done.”
Montana (4-1, 1-0 Big Sky) led for a majority of the game after scoring the final 21 points of the opening half, but it took some massive plays on fourth down for the Griz to pull out the win. They converted all three, including a touchdown pass in the final minutes, in a bold display of decision making, play calling, and execution.
Logan Fife started the game and went the distance in an impressive performance. The transfer quarterback went 30-for-42 for 364 yards and five touchdowns. It’s the first time since 2021 that a quarterback has thrown for five scores, and the first time since the 2022 non-conference season that someone has thrown for 300-plus yards.
“Logan played really well. We needed every point, obviously, and he handled a lot of things,” Hauck said. “There are some things that may have been a little gray for him, and I think when we go back and watch the film we will see he made a lot of good decisions throughout the game. Well played by Logan.”
Nick Ostmo led the rushing attack with 160 yards on 15 carries, averaging 10.7 yards per carry behind a big 62-yard gain in the fourth quarter that set up the game-winning score. Ostmo scored on the ground, and also hauled in a receiving touchdown.
Ostmo moved into fifth place in Montana’s all-time rushing yards list, passing Rocky Klever. He now trails only Yohance Humphery, Chase Reynolds, Lex Hilliard, and Jordan Canada.
Eli Gillman carried it 11 times for 109 yards, scoring from 69 yards out in the third quarter to continue his trend of making big plays. It’s his third straight game with at least 100 yards, and he’s also scored in all five contests.
He became just the 13th Grizzly to reach 20 rushing touchdowns in a career, tying Dave Dickenson and Josh Branen. Gillman also jumped several Griz legends and moved to 16th place on the all-time yardage chart with 1,598 career yards. He’s averaging 10.1 yards per carry this season, and a seemingly improbable 6.2 yards per carry in his career.
Photo by Tony Martino/Courtesy of University of Montana.
It’s the second time in the last three games that Montana had two rushers go for over 100 yards. Prior to this season, Montana hadn’t done it since 2013.
Fife spread the ball around with seven different players recording multiple receptions, but it was Junior Bergen who had the biggest day. The senior caught seven balls for a career-high 150 yards, scoring on a 47-yard pass in the second quarter.
It’s the most receiving yards by a Grizzly since Samori Toure broke the FCS record with 303 yards in a playoff win over Southeastern Louisiana in 2019.
Keelan White had seven grabs for 75 yards. Erik Barker doubled his career scoring numbers with three catches for two touchdowns, and Jake Olson caught his first career touchdown pass in the final minutes.
“It was really fun. I know our offense is capable of doing that,” Fife said. “We can obviously run the ball, we’ve shown that in weeks past, and as far as throwing the ball we know we are capable of that too. We have a lot of really good receivers, our tight ends showed up well tonight also, and I think we were just clicking on all assets of our offense.”
But in the end, it was the big plays on fourth down that proved the difference maker. Montana’s three tries on fourth down resulted in: a 47-yard touchdown from Fife to Bergen, a 40-yard run by Xavier Harris to the EWU 1-yard line, and the game winning touchdown from Fife to Olson.
Montana went three-and-out on the first drive of the game and gave Eastern Washington good starting field position. The hosts then benefitted from a roughing the passer call on third down to get into the red zone, but the Griz defense stood tall. Ryan Tirrell had a nice tackle on the outside on a third down play that forced EWU into a 40-yard field goal, which they missed to keep the game scoreless.
One play later, Montana’s offense hit big. Fife found Bergen on a quick slant that went for 54 yards. Back-to-back runs by Ostmo set Montana up with a first and goal situation. The Griz weren’t able to punch it in and settled for a 29-yard Ty Morrison field goal.
Eastern Washington drove 65 yards in nine plays on the following drive to take a 7-3 lead with five minutes to go in the opening quarter.
The Griz got the ball back and drove quickly down the field. Fife found tight end Evan Shafer for a 20-yard gain, and then hit Bergen again for a 17 yarder. The Griz then pulled a double-fake, first to Harris on a jet sweep and then to Gillman out of the backfield, to set Fife up for an easy pitch and catch to Erik Barker for his first receiving touchdown of his career and first since 2021.
Photo by Tony Martino/Courtesy of University of Montana.
The score gave Montana a 10-7 lead with over two minutes still to play in the quarter.
The lead didn’t last long, as Eastern Washington used the quick passing game to retake the lead on a seven-yard touchdown pass. They drove 69 yards in nine plays, seven of which were throws, to go ahead 14-10 early in the second.
The track meet continued with Montana’s offense back on the field. Fife found a good rhythm, completing five straight passes to four different receivers to set Montana up in the red zone. Ostmo then took it on back-to-back carries, punching it in from eight yards out for his 24th career touchdown to tie Tony Rice for seventh all-time in program history.
Montana stopped the Eagle offense on the next drive, and the Griz offense kept the momentum rolling. The Griz drove into EWU territory behind Gillman, who had a couple of good runs and then hauled in a seven-yard pass. It set Montana up with 4th-and-1 near midfield.
The Griz rolled the dice, faking a zone to Gillman and a reverse as well. Fife then turned to find Bergen over the top of the defense for a 47-yard touchdown to put the Griz up 24-14. The score was the first receiving touchdown of the season for Bergen, who moved his stat line to an impressive four catches for 132 yards. He set a new career high in the first half alone.
The Griz stopped the Eagle offense and forced another point on the following drive, giving Fife and the offense another opportunity to score in the two-minute drill.
Fife connected on a few short passes before a screen to Ostmo opened up for a 27-yard gain. Fife then hit White to move it down inside the red zone, and he broke for a scramble that gained Montana 15 more yards to set them up on the five.
Barker then doubled his career mark with his second touchdown reception of the day on a play-action pass that found him wide open in the endzone to give Montana a 31-14 halftime lead. They scored the final 21 points of the half.
Montana scored on its final five drives of the half, including four straight touchdowns going into the break, in an impressive first half offensively. The Griz had 396 total yards, 309 of which came through the air as Fife went 21-of-28 for three scores. His 309 passing yards in the first half alone were easily a season-high for any Montana quarterback.
It’s the most passing yards in a half since Dalton Sneed did it in the same 2019 playoff win over SELA.
They outgained Eastern Washington 249-100 in the second quarter alone, winning the period 21-7 on the scoreboard.
The teams traded punts to open the second half. On their second try, Eastern Washington found the end zone, scoring from 48 yards out to cut the lead to 10 points. The momentum for the hosts didn’t last long.
As he’s done all year, Gillman found space for a big play. The running back broke to the outside for a 69-yard touchdown run. It brought his line up to 99 yards on eight carries for the day, averaging 12.4 yards per carry at the time.
It’s his third carry of 50-plus yards in the previous two weeks, and fourth of the season. It made it 38-21 midway through the third.
Eastern Washington drove into the red zone for the third time on the night on the next drive, but Montana’s defense wouldn’t allow them across the goal line. The Eagles, feeling the game get away, went for it on fourth down and weren’t able to convert, giving it back to Montana.
The ground game had been building all night, and it turned into a steam engine on the next drive. They ran it on the first five plays, picking up at least five yards every time. They would make it inside the EWU 30-yard line, but were stopped and forced to take a 46-yard field goal that sailed just left.
The Eagles needed just four plays to score, going 71 yards to cut the lead to 38-28. They sensed the momentum, and surprised Montana with an onside kick that they recovered, giving them the ball back down 10.
They were able to turn it into points, driving 53 yards for a touchdown that cut the lead to 38-35.
Montana needed a response, and they got one from a balanced offensive attack. They went into Eagle territory, where Xavier Harris broke a big 40-yard run on fourth down to set his team up with first and goal. Fife scrambled right, and found Ostmo in the end zone to put the Griz up 10 again.
Chism broke free for a 50 yard score on the next EWU drive, his third touchdown of the day, to once again make it a one-possession game.
The clock read 4:27 when Montana took over again, and the Grizzlies needed a score. On the second play of the drive, they nearly got it as Ostmo broke free for a 62-yard gain all the way down to the Eastern Washington nine.
He was tackled from behind, but it allowed Montana to run more time off the clock. They couldn’t punch it in on the first three attempts, and facing a massive fourth down they decided to go for it on fourth down for the third time on the night.
The move paid off. Fife faked a hand-off and delivered a strike to Jake Olson. The big tight end’s second career catch, and first career touchdown, put Montana back ahead by 10 and gave them some security down the stretch.
“Shoutout to Coach Pease trusting everyone on the offense and what we were doing,” Fife said of the play call. “We could have ran the ball there, and everyone did their job and executed well and I just had to get our guys the ball.”
The Eagles drove the length of the field again in 10 plays and just 98 seconds, cutting the lead to 52-49 and putting the fate of the game on the result of an onside kick. The ball bounced high, but it carried too far and went out of play, giving the ball back to Montana to take a knee and close out their first win on the red turf of Roos Field.
It wasn’t pretty, but all that matters is that the Grizzlies improved to 4-1 and can finally put the narrative of any curses to rest. There was plenty to work on in several phases of the game, but it was a gutsy win in a hostile atmosphere.
The key to that victory?
“Scoring more than they did,” Hauck joked. “We probably didn’t play as well, especially in the second half, on defense. We were down a significant number of players and we just didn’t execute as well as we needed to on that side of the ball. I thought they outplayed us in the kicking game, too, frankly. I’m as pleased as I can be that we got the win this week.”
The Grizzlies will bring the three-game winning streak back home for two straight contests inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium. Montana plays Weber State on Oct. 5 and then takes on Northern Arizona on Oct. 12.