MISSOULA — The early reviews are in on Montana’s 42-17 season-opening win over Central Washington Saturday night.

Short middle passes: Not great. Off-tackle runs and shots up the seam: Fantastic. 

While Eli Gillman rushed for a career-best 198 yards and three touchdowns, it was Drew Deck’s 50-yard catch and run for a touchdown that put the Grizzlies up for good, 21-17, with 2:29 left in the first half. 

The Wildcats, the 18th-ranked team in NCAA Division II, caused concern right up until Jalen Webber picked off a Keali’i Ah Yat pass that caromed off the hands of his Michael Wortham. 

Set up at Montana 36-yard line early in the third quarter, the Wildcats tried a third-down double-pass. Kennedy McGill’s heave toward Mason Juergens was picked off by UM’s Harper Mason in the end zone. 

That kept the score 21-17 and from there it was all Griz.  

"They're a good team,” Montana coach Bobby Hauck said of the 1-1 Wildcats. “Chris Fisk (CWU’s coach) does a really good job over there. In the end we were just too much for them. I thought our guys were terrific in terms of effort level. Thought the intensity was great. I thought we finished runs and broke tackles and did a lot of good things.” 

A hot evening got hotter for the Wildcats at 8:25 of the third quarter, when Wortham hauled in another seam pass for a 76-yard touchdown and a 34-17 lead.  

Ah Yat noted the routes were an adjustment to a defensive look CWU hadn’t shown, and Deck confirmed it. 

“Kind of knew it was going to be open,” the senior out of Glacier High said of his TD, his first as a Griz. “It was a little different look that we hadn’t seen before.” 

“It’s not a bad defensive call,” Hauck added. “You just have to execute it.” 

The Wildcats had other problems. Gillman, who ran for a 54-yard touchdown on the game’s third snap, added an 11-yard run on the ensuing Grizzlies’ possession. 

That capped a nine-play, 80-yard march that included one incomplete pass and eight runs. Montana led 35-17 at 2:57 of the third quarter.  

Gillman got his third TD with 7:53 left in the game, from 1 yard out; he’d set it up with a 61-yard burst around the left side that ended at the CWU 3-yard line. 

The game, played under hazy skies in front of an announced Washington-Grizzly Stadium crowd of 26,319 eventually ended. Montana, about the last Division I program to get its season going — the Griz had their lone bye last week — are 1-0. 

The Wildcats have some dudes. Kennedy McGill threw for 76 yards and ran for 39; he fired a 15-yard pass to wide-open tight end Camden Loidhamer to cut CWU’s deficit to 14-10 at 12:26 of the second quarter. 

After Ah Yat had a pass picked off in the Wildcat end zone, Beau Phillips shook off a shoulder-level tackle and raced in from 31 yards out for a 17-14 CWU lead at the 3:54 mark. 

Phillips picked up 69 yards on 11 carries and Justice Taylor added 66 on 13 totes. Ryder Bumgarner had seven carries for 47. 

Gillman’s previous career high was 175 yards, set last season against Western Carolina. He was 2 yards shy of becoming UM’s first 200-yard rusher since Nick Ostmo gained 221 in the snow against Cal Poly on Nov. 6, 2022. 

“Some of the same things where we gave up a couple runs on the edge to them,” Hauck said off Gillman’s bursts. “He’s doing a nice job of pressing and has good vision.”