MOSCOW — When wins have been hard to come by for a program, you take the W’s when you can and worry about style points later.

The Idaho Vandals started out strong offensively, then sputtered the final 3-plus quarters. But the Vandals got a huge lift from their running game and their defense — something that hasn’t happened around these parts in a while — and fended off the Montana State Bobcats in the nonconference season opener for both teams Thursday night before an announced crowd of 11,987 at the Kibbie Dome.

“That’s the best defense we’ve played since I’ve been here,” said Paul Petrino, beginning his fourth season as Idaho coach. “Offensively we were a little off. Defensively we stepped up, and offensively we rushed for 225 yards. We found a way to win.”

Junior Aaron Duckworth rushed for 108 yards on 14 carries — his first 100-yard game as a Vandal — and scored two touchdowns. He came into the game with four career rushing TDs at Idaho.

“I’ve been dreaming about it for a long time,” Duckworth said. “Our defense, they played awesome today, and we needed them to, because our offense was struggling today.”

It wasn’t early.

Junior Matt Linehan, in his third year as the starting quarterback, hooked up with Deon Watson for 36 yards down the right sideline on the first play of the game, leading to a Vandal field goal. They ran the same play on the next drive, and Watson, the former Coeur d’Alene High standout, again went up for a twisting catch, this time for 31 yards, leading to a touchdown and a 10-7 lead.

After Russell Siavii’s interception and 30-yard return to the Bobcats 24, the Vandals scored four plays later on Duckworth’s 1-yard run, and Idaho led 17-7 with 4:04 left in the first quarter.

But after that, it was all Idaho could do to hold off its past -- and future -- rival in the Big Sky Conference, and spoil the head coaching debut of Montana State’s Jeff Choate, the former St. Maries High star and former Post Falls High football coach and athletic director.

“It’s the kind of hard-fought game i like to play,” Choate said. “We got them to play our style a little bit, and I was happy with that. I’d like to play them one more quarter. … One of the ways to frustrate a really talented offense is to keep them on the sideline.”

After that 17-7 lead, Idaho’s final 10 drives produced only a 34-yard Austin Rehkow field goal that made it 20-7 with 4:58 left in the half. Of the other nine, the Vandals punted four times, twice turned the ball over on downs, lost a fumble and Linehan was intercepted at the goal line on an underthrown pass to Watson, who had a step on the cornerback.

Linehan, who missed all of spring ball with a foot injury, was 8 of 22 for 128 yards and the one interception. He was off-target on some throws, and bounced some others.

“Whether it wasn’t my day, wasn’t the receivers’ day … it happens,” said Linehan, who did rush for 41 yards on seven carries. “But we still did what we needed to do to win. I’ll take all the (blame); it all starts with me. I’ve got to look myself in the mirror … ”

Chad Newell ran for 105 yards on 25 carries for Montana State. The Bobcats ran for nearly 100 yards in the first half, but were hurt by two gaffes trying to pass. One was Siavii’s interception of Tyler Bruggman, a junior playing at his fourth school in four years (including a redshirt year at Washington State).

The Bobcats then tried a flanker pass, but Mitchell Herbert’s pass was deflected by Siavii and intercepted by Aikeem Coleman. However, Herbert’s knee was ruled down and he was being tackled by ex-Cheney High standout Tyler Graham, sparing the Bobcats a turnover.

Montana State totaled just 126 of its 300 yards after halftime. And after an 81-yard touchdown drive to start the second half (which included a 4-yard penalty), the Bobcats managed just 49 yards after that in its last five drives.

Montana State threatened on just one of those five drives, and that ended when backup quarterback Chris Murray, who more of a running QB, was stopped for no gain on fourth and 1 at the Vandal 32 by Siavii, Ed Hall and Tueni Lupeamanu.

“It’s no shocker to me,” said Lupeamanu, a senior defensive lineman, of Idaho’s stout defense on Thursday night. “Maybe we came out and proved to everybody that we can be a consistent defense.”

Notes: Choate’s first big decision was going for it on fourth and 2 from the Vandal 33. The Bobcats completed the pass for 4 yards, leading to a touchdown and a 7-3 lead. … Montana State was picked to finish tied for seventh by the coaches, and eighth by the media, in the Big Sky. The Vandals travel to the University of Washington on Saturday, Sept. 10.

Montana St. 7 3 7 0 — 17

Idaho 17 3 0 0 — 20

First Quarter

Idaho—FG Rehkow 44, 13:38.

MSU—Paige 12 pass from Bruggman (Tandberg), 8:17.

Idaho—Duckworth 43 run (Rehkow kick), 7:38.

Idaho—Duckworth 1 run (Rehkow kick), 4:04.

Second Quarter

Idaho—FG Rehkow 34, 8:09.

MSU—FG Tandberg 33, 1:40.

Third Quarter

MSU—Newell 3 run (Tandberg kick), 9:22.

MSU IDA

First downs 20 15

Rushes-yards 38-110 35-225

Passing 190 128

Comp-Att-Int 20-36-1 8-22-1

Return Yards 0 12

Punts-Avg. 5-0.0 4-0.0

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 1-1

Penalties-Yards 5-60 5-85

Time of Possession 34:32 25:28

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—Montana St., Newell 25-105, Murray 5-13, LaSane 4-9, Gates 1-0, Bruggman 2-(minus 7), Tandberg 1-(minus 10). Idaho, Duckworth 14-108, Ma.Linehan 7-41, Brantley 6-39, Saunders 5-34, C.Hightower 1-3, (Team) 2-0.

PASSING—Montana St., Bruggman 19-35-1-186, Murray 1-1-0-4. Idaho, Ma.Linehan 8-22-1-128.

RECEIVING—Montana St., D’Agostino 6-47, Paige 5-31, Herbert 4-62, Newell 2-27, LaSane 2-18, Barth 1-5. Idaho, Watson 2-67, Sannon 2-19, Onunwor 2-17, Cowan 1-14, C.Hightower 1-11.

MISSED FIELD GOALS—None.