MISSOULA — One quarterback started quick, the other finished strong, and 14th-ranked Montana got past a stubborn Butler football squad 35-20 Saturday at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

The game looked like it could be a runaway on the third snap, when starting Griz quarterback Sam Vidlak found Junior Bergen up the seam and the junior stepped out of one tackle, put on a move and raced in for a 54-yard touchdown.

From there the points got a lot tougher against the Bulldogs of the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League, and late in the third quarter backup QB Clifton McDowell took over.

“That was our plan going in,” Montana coach Bobby Hauck asserted, which may be, though the switch came right after Vidlak threw his second interception, which Butler QB Bret Bushka cashed in for a 26-yard touchdown pass that drew Butler to 21-20.

At any rate McDowell led two touchdown drives, capping the latter with a fourth-and-goal, 1-yard sneak for his first Griz touchdown with 6:34 left in the game. He ran for 81 yards.

“Speaking to him throughout the second half, (McDowell) was on it in terms of the checks and all the stuff that we normally do,” Hauck said of the 6-foot-4 senior transfer from Central Arkansas. “I thought he did some good stuff.”

Let's back up: Vidlak was 14 of 22 passing in the first half, and the one hiccup was a throw that caromed off the chest of receiver Sawyer Racanelli for an interception at the Montana 39-yard line. Butler got a field goal, drawing to 10-3.

From there the Griz offense stayed uneven. In fact a fake punt early in the second quarter — Kellen Dietrick rumbled 19 yards — looked like the second biggest play of the half. Following that Vidlak hit Aaron Fontes for 14 yards and Keelan White for 17, but then took an intentional grounding penalty that moved the ball back to the 32.

Grant Glasgow came on and boomed through a 49-yard field goal for a 13-3 lead.

The Grizzlies then had their best drive, despite two potential killer holding penalties. One called back a 42-yard TD to Bergen, but Vidlak stayed sharp, firing a 26-yard pass to Racinelli down to the Butler 3. Xavier Harris scored on the next play and UM went into halftime 21-6.

On the other side Bushka was settling in. The 5-foot-10 senior found Jyran Mitchell with a 32-yard TD pass early in the third quarter despite heavy pressure and tight coverage. He had four such completions; he took some wallops and finished 24 of 35 for 265 yards.

After Vidlak’s second interception — a scrambling throw right at Butler’s Lucas Kozlowski — Bushka looked right and then found Ryan Lezon all alone on the left hash. Touchdown. Butler trailed by one at 4:48 of the third quarter.

“He’s a competitive kid, and just a guy that nobody with a scholarship would recruit because they say he’s too short,” Butler coach Mike Erumovich said. “He’ll just keep throwing touchdown passes and winning football games against teams that didn’t recruit him.”

“Yeah, back foot,” Hauck began. “They threw a lot of stuff at us. It’s really hard when you haven’t seen some things, and then they hit us on some stuff — like the touchdown on the wide side throw back — that we covered in practice. Same guy covered it on Thursday.”

In the end Montana grinded it out. After Lezon’s TD, Eureka’s Garrett Graves took the ensuing kickoff to midfield. Two runs by McDowell netted 26 yards, and Eli Gillman got the rest on a 24-yard run.

The Minnesota freshman finished with 119 yards, 112 after halftime.

“I told him at halftime, ‘Hey, great job.’ He took care of the ball and got some yards after contact,” Hauck said. “And the second half was awesome. Good job by our freshman running back.”

The announced crowd of 25,430 celebrated Kale Edwards popping a fumble loose on Butler’s first possession — Braxton Hill recovered, setting up Glasgow’s first field goal — as well as Travis Gradney’s highlight-reel interception in the in the third quarter and Nash Fouch’s bone-crushing tackle in the fourth.

Bergen had four catches for 72 yards, and a 26-yard halfback pass ahead of McDowell’s touchdown.

Erumovich regretted his team’s tough start.

“We don’t see crowds like this in our conference,” said the second-year coach, who took the Bulldogs to South Dakota State in 2022 (and lost 45-17). “I’ve coached in the ACC, I’ve coached in the MAC and the American. This is as good as any environment I’ve coached in.

“Our kids were really looking forward to playing in this environment. I wish we’d handled it better the first quarter, but this is something they’ll remember forever.”

Butler 3 3 14 0 - 20

Montana 10 11 7 7 - 35

First Quarter

UM — Bergen 54 pass from Vidlak (Glasgow kick), 14:00

UM — Glasgow 23 FG, 9:45

BU — Zurak 29 FG, 6:00

Second Quarter

UM — Glasgow 49 FG, :35

BU — Zurak 39 FG, 6:00

UM — Xavier Harris 3 run (Meyer run), 3:05

Third Quarter

BU — Mitchel 32 pass from Bushka (Zurak kick), 6:57

BU — Lezon 26 pass rom Bushka (Zurak kick), 4:48

UM — Gillman 24 run (Glasgow kick), 3:41

Fourth Quarter

UM — McDowell 1 run (Glasgow kick), 6:34

—

But UM

First downs 15 24

Total Net Yards 304 441

Rushes-yards 26-41 45-230

Passing 263 211

Comp-Att-Int 24-36-1 17-29-2

Punt returns 1-7 1-10

Kickoff returns 2-29 4-84

Sacks-yards lost 1-10 1-15

Punts 4-39.5 3-47.0

Fumbles-lost 1-1 0-0

Penalties-yards 5-45 6-65

Possession 28:45 31:15

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: Butler, Mitchell 12-23, Suchy 4-12, Jasey II 2-5, Bushka 6-3, Team 2-minus 2. Montana, Gillman 19-119, McDowell 11-80, Harris 9-40, Detrick 1-19, Fontes 2-7, Vidlak 1-minus 15.

PASSING: Butler, Bushka 24-35-1-263, Bill 0-1-0-0. Montana, Vidlak 15-25-2-180, McDowell 1-3-0-5, Bergen 1-1-0-26.

RECEIVING: Butler, Loss 4-45, Enneking 3-44, Mitchell 3-36, Wooten 3-11, Lezon 2-55, Bill 2-21, Suchy 2-minus 4. Montana, Bergen 4-72, White 4-51, Fontes 4045, Harris 2-5, Racanelli 1-26, Ashton 1-7, Barker 1-5, Shafer 1-0, Simpson 1-0.

MISSED FIELD GOALS— Zurak 41 (WR)