Griz thump Hornets, 49-35

SACRAMENTO — The Panda Bowl was almost all Panda.

Behind Michael Wortham’s three touchdowns, the Montana Grizzlies thumped Sacramento State 49-35 Friday in a Big Sky Conference football that didn’t live up to the pregame talk from California. 

Eli Gillman’s 13-yard scoring run broke a 21-21 tie with a minute left in the first half, and the No. 4 Grizzlies (8-0 overall, 4-0 in the Big Sky) pushed out to a 42-21 lead on third-quarter touchdowns from Evan Shafer and Wortham to take control.  

Sacramento State president Dr. Luke Wood referred to the Grizzlies as “the Montana Pandas” a week before the ESPN2-televised game, and with the program going to Bowl Subdivision level had compared the FCS where the Big Sky excels to junior varsity football. 

The Hornets (4-4, 2-2 in league) led 7-0 on a 7-yard run from Rodney Hammond, Jr., and 14-7 on a 63-yard touchdown pass from Cardell Williams to Ernest Campbell, who had 206 yards on nine catches. They tied the game 21-all on another TD run from Hammond covering 6 yards. 

But they also had a kickoff return from Hammond called back, had a fake punt come up short — leading to Wortham’s 27-yard scoring run that put the Griz up 21-14 midway through the second quarter — and saw Williams answer an interception thrown by UM’s Keali’i Ah Yat with one of his own. 

Griz linebacker Caleb Otlewski snared the pass and returned it 11 yards to the Sac State 4-yard line. Malae Fonoti scored on the next snap to put Montana up 49-28 with 1:45 left in the game. 

Williams, who threw for 332 yards, scored on an 18-yard run in the final minute. 

“My first thought is the JV was ready to go tonight,” Grizzlies coach Bobby Hauck said in a postgame radio interview. “We whupped their tails tonight, and it wasn’t close.” 

Wortham had a 64-yard scoring pass from Ah Yat that tied the game at 14-14 at 12:45 of the second quarter. His third TD came from 15 yards out with 13:12 left in the game; it was set up by a fake punt, Ty Morrison hitting Ian Finch for 28 yards down to Sac State’s 10-yard line. 

To that point the Grizzlies had held Sac State’s vaunted running attack under 100 rushing yards. The Hornets had 141 by the end and gained 478 overall (to 384 for the Grizzlies), with 152 coming in the final 15 minutes. 

Shafer’s scoring reception covered 11 yards and capped a 75-yard drive to open the second half. Brooks Davis made a great catch and run covering 24 yards for UM’s first score.  

Ah Yat was 16 of 24 passing for 196 yards and three scores. Wortham had five catches for 80 yards and added 89 rushing yards on seven carries. 

Davis had three receptions for 47; Gillman carried the ball 19 times for 66 yards. 

Peyton Wing led the Griz defense with thee sacks.

Williams was 25 of 32 passing. Hammond ran 12 times for 54 yards and Damian Henderson picked up 50 yards on nine carries for the Hornets.