MISSOULA — Bobby Kennedy won his first game as a college head football coach, but it was a toughie.

Keali’i Ah Yat hit LeKeldrick Bridges for 53 yards and a touchdown to break a 21-all tie with 3:14 left in the game, and Brock Beander’s interception with 4 seconds left sealed the No. 2 Montana Grizzlies’ 28-21 win over Southern Utah Saturday. 

The Thunderbirds, back in the Big Sky Conference after three years away, were a tough nugget: Quarterback Will Burns ran for 124 yards and threw for 251; Floyd Chalk added 100 rushing yards. SUU held the ball for more than 43 minutes out of 60. 

The Grizzlies led 14-3 at halftime and 21-9 on Ah Yat’s 3-yard touchdown run at 8:48 of the third quarter. The TD capped a four-play drive that started with an unsuccessful onside kick; it was the Grizzlies only four offensive snaps in the period. 

These Week Zero games are generally non-conference affairs that allow for first-game mistakes. Both teams had some; SUU had the last critical two, an intentional grounding that short-circuited a drive with the score 21-all.  

The Thunderbirds punted, and Montana went 80 yards in five plays, capped by the Bridges score. 

The Grizzlies also traded the uneven with the sublime. Ah Yat’s first pass, a home run ball toward Brooks Davis, fluttered and was intercepted. Montana’s defense held, and his next pass was a swing to running back Eli Gillman. 

With Landon Ransom-Goelz sealing the sideline, Gillman went 85 yards for a TD and a 7-0 lead at 13:42 of the first quarter. 

Southern Utah drove for a field goal but Gillman answered that with a 29-yard scoring run off a direct snap, making it 14-3 at 11:50 of the second quarter. 

Chalk’s 6-yard run in the third quarter shortened the gap to 14-9, and SUU tried to quiet the Washington-Grizzly Stadium crowd. 

After Ah Yat’s TD run, the Thunderbirds put together two scoring drives, both helped by third-down personal fouls on the Griz. Joshua Acord capped both: the tight end caught scoring passes of 13 and 58 yards.  

Southern Utah also had some misadventures, including a blocked field goal near the end of the first half and a a blocked PAT after Acord’s second floor. That left the score 21-all. 

There was also the onside kick, after Chalk’s touchdown SUU tried to steal a possession and seemed to get it, only to be called for interference with a fair catch (the Grizzlies’ Weston Adams was under the ball).  

That left UM with a short field, and they scored quick — not for the last time. At the end, the defense chased Burns, who also threw for 251 yards, some 20 yards before his desperation pass was picked off by Beaner. 

Gillman ran 13 times for 76 yards and caught 2 passes for 93. Ah Yat was 15 of 28 passing for 265 yards.