(Montana Sports Information) Head Coach Bobby Hauck he said it best himself.

“The enthusiasm is unprecedented.”

The sold-out crowd at Washington-Grizzly Stadium, dressed in Blackout theme under the lights, was still coming down from last season’s national championship performances. They were treated to a thriller on Saturday night as Montana defeated Missouri State 29-24 to win their 13th straight home game.

The result is what counts in a match that was far from perfect for the hosts. Improvements will have to be made in several areas, but at the end of the day Montana finished with more points and left the stadium with a 1-0 lead.

“Anyone can win if they play really well,” Hauck said. “When you have adversity, good teams can find ways to win, and this team found a way tonight. I hope that continues throughout the season.”

It’s the 10th straight season-opening win and 21st straight home opener for UM. The Grizzlies also improved to 11-0 in night games under Hauck since his return to Montana.

The game was evenly matched with nearly equal total yardage. The Bears outscored Montana 356-347 and held the ball for 13 more minutes than the Griz. It was Montana’s ground attack that made the difference as they averaged nearly five yards per run, led by an impressive start to the sophomore season for Eli Gillman.

The 2023 FCS Freshman of the Year ran for 89 yards and two scores, averaging nearly six yards per attempt. Nick Oostmo He also ran with the ball eight times for 36 yards, while the two quarterbacks combined for 34 yards.

Hauck made good on his promise by playing both teams Keali’i Ah Yat And Logan Fife at the quarterback position. Ah Yat started the game and played into the second half, completing 9 of 19 passes for 90 yards and rushing for 19 more. His numbers could have been better, but there were a handful of drops in the first half that hampered his completion percentage.

Fife finished the game under center, completing 5 of 7 passes for 90 yards and a score. Fife also carried the ball three times for 15 yards.

“They’ve done a really good job at times with their reads and running the ball when things go wrong. We haven’t missed a lot of throws,” Hauck said. “They’re both pretty inexperienced, so there’s still a lot of cleaning up to do, but they’ve done a good job. They’ve really run the ball well, and that’s an element we need to have, and they’ve shown that they can do it.”

There were a few areas where Montana typically excels that caused problems Saturday night, particularly on third downs. The Griz finished the night just 2 of 9 on third down and allowed the Bears to convert several third and longs to extend drives.

“It could have been a little easier if we had gotten off the field on third and extra long,” Hauck said. “They converted three of them tonight and that’s a problem. Some of it was a missed tackle, some of it was a failed coverage by different people, and some of it was just, you know, we probably didn’t play the right defense. We have the blame to go around, starting with me. We’ll fix that.”

However, the defense made some big plays, with Ryder Meyer intercepting a pass in the first half and the defensive line that combined for four sacks and 10 tackles for loss. Hayden Harris had 2.5 sacks and three tackles for loss, including a big sack on the final drive of the game for Missouri State.

Missoula product Ryan Tirrell led the Grizzlies with 10 tackles. Transfer linebacker Go to Kaho added seven stops, including 2.5 tackles for loss. Safety Chrisshawn Gordon also had seven tackles, five of which were solo.

Ultimately, Montana performed well in all three phases of the match to pull the experienced Missouri State team out as the winner.

“Nobody would listen when I said, ‘Hey, these guys are pretty good.’ Their running back is real, he’s a good player and they were very calm,” Hauck said. “They came in and ran out the clock and we helped them by keeping them on the field on third down and falling behind, dropping the punt in the first quarter,” Hauck said.

“They did a good job of keeping their distance. We helped them do that, but ultimately the Griz were able to get out of some tough situations and find a way to win.”

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