It had been seven years since Northern Colorado last scored on the Montana Grizzlies entering Saturday’s Big Sky football matchup. The shutout streak will last at least another two years as Montana’s defense kept the Bears off the board in a 24-0 win in Greeley.
It’s the third straight shutout for Montana over Northern Colorado, as they haven’t allowed an offensive score to the Bears in 15 straight quarters of football. In that time, the Bears have run 242 plays for 829 total yards, averaging just over three yards per play.
They have outscored the Bears 99-0 in the previous three matchups, and 143-14 in the last four dating back to 2017. The two teams won’t meet again until 2026.
It’s the second defensive shutout of the season for Montana as the only points that Morehead State scored in the week three game were off a returned PAT. It’s the fifth overall shutout, and sixth defensive shutout, in the previous four seasons for Montana.
“Shutting people out in modern day college football is kind of a monumental accomplishment, and I was really pleased that we were able to do that,” head coach Bobby Hauck said. “I think our guys kind of embraced that in the fourth quarter. We played a lot of guys that hadn’t played a bunch the last couple of drives and they took it upon themselves to shut it off and I was happy for that.”
The Griz (6-2, 3-1 Big Sky) defense was up to the occasion again on Saturday, holding Northern Colorado to just 218 total yards and no points. They intercepted three passes and also stopped the Bears on a fourth down attempt to keep the scoreless streak rolling.
It’s the only game with multiple interceptions this season, and the first time in 20 games that Montana were able to get three in the same game. Two of the interceptions led to Montana touchdowns on the other side of the ball, providing momentum swings in favor of the Griz.
The offense converted 66.7 percent on third down, picking up 10 first downs on 15 attempts. The defense was again dominant in that area, holding the Bears to just 3-of-11 on third down. Northern Colorado was also 0-for-2 in red zone appearances as the Griz defense came up clutch at the most important times.
Jace Klucewich, Caleb Otlewski, and Jaxon Lee had interceptions for the Griz. Ryder Meyer led the team with eight tackles, while Vai Kaho, Ronald Jackson, and Lee all finished with seven tackles.
They held UNC quarterback Kia’I Keone under 50 percent passing with the three interceptions.
“Generally speaking our coverage was pretty good and the takeways were awesome,” Hauck said. “The last one by Jaxon Lee, that was a heck of a play and I can’t wait to see the video on that.”
Keali’I Ah Yat handled the bulk of the drives at quarterback and threw for 149 yards and two scores, but it was the two running backs that carried the offense on the day.
Nick Ostmo ran 13 times for 107 yards, averaging 8.2 yards per carry with a long of 25. Eli Gillman had 12 rushes for 50 yards, but went over 100 total yards with four catches and 50 yards through the air. He was the top receiver for Montana on the day, and found the end zone once on the ground and once through the air.
Ian Finch had Montana’s other touchdown on the day, catching his first career score from two-yards out in the second quarter.
Xavier Harris also proved to be an X-factor, catching three balls for 48 yards and rushing twice for nine more. But his biggest play of the day came when he took the opening kick of the second half 76 yards, nearly scoring on a spectacular special teams play.
“Just saying that you shut a team out in conference three straight times, that’s pretty spectacular on defense. I thought our guys did a really nice job in the red zone in particular,” Hauck said. “We had some inefficiencies on offense, but we did a lot of good stuff too and could have stuck another one in there late. I was proud of our team, I thought we won in all three phases, and a good effort by the Grizzlies on the road.”
Montana forced a punt on the first possession of the game for Northern Colorado, and quickly picked up momentum on offense behind big runs from Ostmo and Aaron Fontes. Once in Bears territory, Fife found Drew Deck for his first catch of the year, an 18-yard pickup.
The Griz drive would stall out and a would-be career long field goal of 54 yards from Ty Morrison sailed wide right. The Bears took the good field position and moved into Griz territory as a result of a facemask penalty on an apparent third down stop.
In his first career start at safety, Jace Klucewich snagged his second career interception to give Montana the ball right back. Ryan Tirrell pressured off the edge on an RPO, and read it right, leaping into the air to tip the pass near the line of scrimmage. It floated right into the hands of Klucewich for the turnover.
Another jet sweep to Fontes brought the Griz deep into Bears territory yet again as he picked up 14 yards. Ah Yat connected with Keelan White for a first down into the red zone, and Gillman punched it in from the 15 with a pair of tough runs for his 24th career touchdown run.
Northern Colorado’s first drive of the second quarter brought them deep into Montana territory. In the red zone, the Grizzly defense forced two negative plays to put the Bears into a passing situation. A third down pass was tipped by a UNC receiver and fell into the hands of Caleb Otlewski for his first career interception at the Montana 3-yard line.
The teams would then trade punts, but with some breathing room late in the second quarter Ah Yat and the offense put together a drive. He found Bergen for a third down conversion and then hit Xavier Harris on a go route up the sideline for a 35-yard gain.
Ostmo pounded it down inside the five, and then Ah Yat rolled out to his right and connected with Ian Finch for the Missoula Hellgate product’s first career touchdown reception. The score came with just 31 seconds left in the half and sent Montana into the break in control at 14-0.
In nearly identical play numbers in the first half, the Grizzlies outgained the Bears by 100 yards and the two turnovers helped the Grizzlies build the big lead.
The Grizzlies started the second half with the football, and Xavier Harris took the kickoff several yards deep in the endzone, found a gap on the right side of the field and took it 76 yards to set Montana up just outside of the red zone on their first drive.
It was the highlight of the day for a special teams unit that had a solid all-around performance.
“All three phases played well, but I thought the guys on the special teams did a really nice job,” Hauck said. “Their punter was averaging 50. We pressured him, he didn’t handle it very well and then we also had the big kickoff return and our coverages were great. I was proud of the guys in that area, they controlled the field position battle.”
They lost yards on the drive, but Morrison dialed up another great play in the special teams and was able to connect from 47 yards to make it 17-0 Montana.
The Bears made it near midfield on the next drive and then attempted to take a deep shot down the far sideline. The ball sailed on quarterback Kia’I Keone and Jaxon Lee made an incredible play, covering all sorts of ground and diving for an interception at his own 13-yard line.
It was the third career interception for Lee, who had a pick-six in the meeting last year between Montana and Northern Colorado.
Eli Gillman did a bit of everything on the next drive for Montana, hauling in a 15-yard pass on the first offensive play and rushing for eight yards a few plays later. He had another long run before taking a third down screen pass 25 yards to set Montana up in the Bears’ territory.
The Griz went back to their stalwart back on a 3rd-and-1 and he picked up yet another first down on the drive. His dominance opened up the read-option for Ah Yat on the next third down as the quarterback kept it and picked up 11 yards to set up 1st-and-goal.
Who else but Gillman could have finished off the impressive 16-play scoring drive? Ah Yat found him leaking out to the right and the running back cut inside the pylon for his second receiving score of the year. The 87-yard drive took up nearly nine minutes of the game clock and put the Griz firmly in the driver’s seat at 24-0.
Northern Colorado was able to drive deep into Montana territory on the first drive of the fourth quarter, setting up a 1st-and-goal from the seven. They decided to go to the air on first, second, and third down, completing a pass on a screen but an open-field tackle from Otlewski kept the Bears out of the end zone.
On fourth down the Bears decided to go for it, and the Griz defensive front batted the pass at the line of scrimmage to keep UNC out of the end zone and keep the shutout streak alive.
Ostmo picked up 14 yards on his 12th carry of the game to give Montana some breathing room and eclipse 100 yards on the day. It’s the fifth time in his career that he’s run for 100 yards in a game, and he also went over 2,500 career yards on the carry.
After the teams traded punts, Montana took over with nine minutes to play and the Griz offense, behind a heavy dosage of Stevie Rocker Jr., ate up the rest of the clock and drove all the way to the Northern Colorado two-yard line to seal the 24-0 victory.
Rocker Jr. had 28 yards on the day, and Ah Yat and Fontes combined for 29 yards together. Montana ran for 198 yards as a team, averaging 5.0 yards per rush, and the Grizzly quarterbacks were sacked just once. A rotating cast of characters on the offensive line get plenty of credit in the win.
“I think we played eight guys on the offensive line today, which was part of the plan going into the game, kind of like rolling the quarterbacks,” Hauck said. “Those guys up front did a really good job. There was not much pressure on the quarterbacks, we had a couple knocked down, but there wasn’t a lot of leakage in that front.”
Montana went deep into its depth chart on the final drives of the game both offensively and defensively, and the reserves lived up to the task of keeping the shutout streak alive.
“That was great,” Hauck said. “It was a good job by those guys, and I think you get better at football by playing it and the ability to get those guys into the football game and get them quality reps is going to be better for us as we move forward.”
The Grizzlies now prepare for another road trip as they head to San Luis Obispo, Calif. to face off against Cal Poly on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 3:00 PM (MT).
“One of the major points of emphasis this week and even as late as this morning and last night was to play our best game in all three phases and I think we did that,” Hauck said. “We will continue to improve and we want to be playing our best football in November, and I hope that’s the case.”