Griz survive Eastern Washington’s pass attack, barely

Montana Sports Information

Any time Montana and Eastern Washington square off, the one thing you can bank on is it won't be a boring game.

The 51st meeting between the two old foes was no different on Saturday, as the No. 2 Griz survived a second-half lull to beat the Eagles 29-24 and stay undefeated at 10-0 on the season and 6-0 in Big Sky play.

Led by a sparkling Keali'i Ah Yat who completed 14 of his first 15 passes early, Montana dominated the start of the game, scoring early and often to take a 22-0 lead halfway through the second quarter and it looked like the rout was on.

But Eastern Washington would not go quietly as the Eagles abandoned their run game and scrappy freshman QB Jake Shakel racked up over 400 yards passing as EWU scored three of the last four touchdowns and a field goal to set up a nailbiter of a finish.

Having just recovered an onside kick with a minute to play, Eastern was knocking on the door of an upset with the ball on the Grizzly five-yard line, trailing by five points, with five seconds to play.But a muffed spike from Shakel to stop the clock on third down would allow time to expire and the Griz to avoid the letdown as UM won its fourth-straight against EWU and improved to 32-18-1 in the all-time series.

Montana's defensive front had its most productive game all season, harassing Shakel to the tune of eight sacks on the day – the most of any team in the Big Sky to date. The unit was led by senior end Kellen Detrick of Havre who totaled three sacks and Jareb Ramos who added two more as UM combined for 12 TFLs and a pair of interceptions (one by a defensive end). EWU, meanwhile, was held to just 28 total yards in the run game.

The Grizzly offense, on the other hand went stagnant, putting up just 117 yards in the second half after posting 174 in the first quarter alone while going just 1-10 on third down. The bright spot was a 25-yard touchdown run from Eli Gillman early in the third quarter that proved to be the difference.

"That about as wild as it gets. Everything from giving up the onside kick at the end, and I can tell you we weren't good enough on third down on either side of the ball. We had a hard time making plays on the ball. We didn't run it effectively enough, but in the second half I thought our defense was tremendous stopping them and not letting them in the end zone," said head coach Bobby Hauck.

"But good teams find ways to win when they might not be at their best. I asked how many guys in the locker room have ever been 10-0, and no hands went up. There's going to be some close calls. It's rare to just dominate everybody."

With the win, Hauck is now tied with Jerome Souers for the most Big Sky Conference victories in league history with 85. He needs just one more to become the conference's overall wins leader and the winningest coach in league games.