No. 2 Griz roll past Vikings, 63-17
Associated Press and Daily Inter Lake | Daily Inter-Lake | UPDATED 3 weeks AGO
PORTLAND, Ore. — Keali’i Ah Yat accounted for four touchdowns, Eli Gillman had two rushing touchdowns, and Montana beat Portland State 63-17 on Saturday.
Ah Yat was 14-of-24 passing for 184 yards with no interceptions and Gillman finished with 81 yards rushing on 10 carries for Montana (11-0, 7-0 Big Sky Conference), ranked No. 2 in the FCS coaches poll.
The Grizzlies close the regular season at home next Saturday against third-ranked Montana State with the conference title and automatic bid into the FCS playoffs on the line.
There has been speculation that the “Brawl of the Wild” might be the site of ESPN’s College GameDay next week; as of Saturday ESPN had not announced its next stop.
Portland State jumped out to a 7-0 lead after recovering the opening kickoff, and the game was 7-7 when Ah Yat threw an incomplete pass on third-and-10.
But a pass interference penalty gave the Grizzlies a fresh set of downs and on the next play Gillman — who ran for a 4-yard TD with 6:33 remaining in the first quarter — ripped off a 60-yard touchdown run that gave Montana a 14-7 lead as time expired in the period.
Ah Yat ran for a 15-yard touchdown late in the second quarter and threw touchdown passes of 4 yards to Brooks Davis, 27 yards to Josh Gale, and 27 yards to Stevie Rocker Jr. in the third quarter to make it 42-10.
Malae Fonoti ran for a 1-yard touchdown, backup quarterback Jake Jensen threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Korbin Hendrix and Hashim Jones added a 30-yard TD run for Montana in the fourth quarter.
John-Keawe Sagapolutele was 12-of-24 passing for 155 yards with three interceptions and Tyrese Smith completed 5 of 10 for 63 yards and threw two picks for Portland State (1-10, 1-6).
Smith added 101 yards rushing, including a 75-yard TD in the fourth quarter, on 11 carries. Montana State transfer caught three passes for 29 yards for the Vikings.
TJ Rausch had two of Montana’s five interceptions; Portland State transfer Peyton Wing, BYU transfer Micah Harper and Libby product Cy Stevensson had the others. Wing and fellow linebacker Caleb Otlewski led the Griz with six tackles each.
Jones picked up 61 yards on 11 carries for UM. Glacier High's Drew Deck had 63 receiving yards on three catches.