The Montana Grizzlies beat the Northern Colorado Bears to a pitching shutout

GREELEY, Colo. – The Montana Grizzlies collected three passes and posted their first shutout of the year in a 24-0 win over the Northern Colorado Bears on Saturday at Nottingham Field.

The Grizzlies improved their record to 6-2 overall and 3-1 in the Big Sky Conference as they returned from their bye week to win their second straight game. The Bears fell to 1-7 overall and 1-3 in conference play after snapping their 18-game losing streak in their final game.

“I thought it was a good performance by our guys,” Montana head coach Bobby Hauck said. “We played well on offense, defense and special teams. It was just a complete team effort. I thought we were physically fit. When we had to make plays, we made them. I liked our preparation all week and I thought it showed on the field today.”

Montana had three interceptions, marking the first time this season that the Griz forced multiple turnovers in a game. In Saturday's first seven games, they had four interceptions and two fumble recoveries. They turned those three turnovers into 14 points. They had turned their previous six forced turnovers into just 15 points early in the game.

The Griz also made two stands in the red zone to keep UNC off the field. The shutout marked the first time Montana eliminated an opponent since it defeated UNC 40-0 in Missoula last year. The Griz have now shut out the Bears for three straight games, a streak that began 2021 with a 35-0 road win.

“Shutouts are really, really difficult,” Hauck said. “Our defense has two of them this year. To knock out a conference opponent three times in a row is remarkable.”

UM rotated quarterbacks Keali'i Ah Yat and Logan Fife in the first half. Ah Yat took over more after halftime, leading all four scoring drives and completing 14 of 22 pass attempts for 149 yards and two touchdowns in his most playing time since being knocked out in the nonconference final. Fife, starting his fourth straight game, completed 5 of 7 passes for 47 yards.

Nick Ostmo ran for 107 yards to lead the ground attack, while UM totaled 199 rushing yards compared to 196 passing yards. Eli Gillman rushed for 39 yards and a touchdown while leading UM with 50 receiving yards and a TD catch.

The Griz held UNC quarterback Kia'i Keone to 15 of 31 passes for 153 yards and three interceptions. They limited the Bears to 65 rush yards.

“When you see our defense playing as strong as we did today, it makes you want to play even harder and help them and get points for our team,” Ah Yat said.

The Griz had to muster their own energy to play in front of an announced crowd of 3,902. That was the smallest crowd they had seen all year, having previously played at Eastern Washington: an announced crowd of 8,846.

After missing a 54-yard field goal, Montana took a 7-0 lead on its second drive when Jace Klucewich's second career interception, headed by linebacker Ryan Tirrell, turned into a 4-yard TD run by Gillman converted. That was the culmination of an eight-play, 54-yard drive that was led by Ah Yat, his first of the game, and featured five runs for 27 yards by Gillman, including a third-and-1.

“We've been working on this play all week,” Lee said of the interception. “Somehow I was prepared for it. Just the right call, the right play and it fell right in the window where it needed to be. Really disciplined game from Klucewich. … It really set the tone and it was kind of like, 'Yeah.' “We're here to play.” It was great.

Montana was unable to convert its second forced turnover into points, but redshirt freshman linebacker Caleb Otlewski's interception of a tipped pass from the hands of a UNC receiver at the 3-yard line prevented the Bears from losing the game could possibly equalize in the second quarter.

After the teams traded threes and outs, Montana took a 14-0 lead in the final minute of the half when Ah Yat rolled right and threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Finch, the first catch of his career for the Missoula Hellgate graduates. Ah Yat and

Montana extended its lead to 17-0 when Ty Morrison hit a 47-yard field goal on the first possession of the second half after Harris completed a 76-yard kickoff return to the UNC 24-yard line .

The Bears began moving the ball through the air, but Jaxon Lee intercepted a pass in double coverage, the third of his career and first this season. The Griz turned that into a touchdown and led 24-0 with a 16-play, 87-yard drive with 98 seconds left in the third quarter. On that drive, they scored 5 of 5 on third downs, including a 9-yard touchdown pass from Ah Yat to Gillman.

“I felt like after the kickoff return and our lead being 17 at that point, we kind of had a chance to win the game,” Hauck said. “We made them stop and then took a long drive, it was going to be really hard for them.”

Montana's defense stalled in the red zone as consecutive passes from the 3-yard line were broken up. Nose tackle Jareb Ramos created separation on fourth down in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter.

The Griz later put together a Fife-engineered 9:07 drive to run out the game.