'It's sickening' ... Vandals rally after slow start, but fall short to Griz at sold-out Kibbie Dome

By MARK NELKE

Sports writer

MOSCOW — The Montana fans helped sell out the Kibbie Dome for the first time in 13 seasons.

Then the Montana football team took it to the Idaho Vandals most of the night before holding on for a 23-21 Big Sky Conference victory Saturday night before 14,218 and a national TV audience.

“Hats off to Montana,” Idaho coach Jason Eck said. “I expected them to come in and play hard, and they did. They caught us off-balance in the first half, and were able to run the ball well.”

Montana (6-1, 3-1 Big Sky) led 23-7 on Grant Glasgow’s third field goal of the day, a 44-yarder with 11:43 left.

Idaho then picked up the pace, and scored on Gevani McCoy’s 19-yard pass to Hayden Hatten with 5:48 left. The two connected on the two-point conversion to cut the Griz lead to 23-15.

The Vandals (5-2, 3-1) got the ball back and quickly drove to another score, when McCoy rolled right and, on his way out of bounds, heaved the ball to a wide-open Hatten in the right corner of the end zone to cut the Griz lead to 23-21 with 1:47 left.

On the two-point conversion, the Vandals ran a reverse to Hatten with a run-pass option, but Hatten slipped when he threw and the ball fell incomplete.

Idaho then recovered the onside kick, but the Vandals were ruled to have been offside. Montana recovered the re-kick, but turned the ball over on downs at the Idaho 34 with 52 seconds left.

But McCoy was hit trying to pass and fumbled, and Levi Janacaro of Montana recovered to ice the win for the Griz.

Moments later, Montana players rushed the field after the game, lifting Griz coach Bobby Hauck on their shoulders in celebration.

“I’ve got to have some fun too, right?” Hauck told an ESPN2 interviewer after the game.

McCoy passed for 336 yards and two touchdowns, but was sacked four times and intercepted twice.

“Hats off to them; they did a good job putting pressure on Gevani,” Eck said of Montana.

Hatten caught 11 passes for 139 yards, and his two touchdown passes gave him 28 for his career, surpassing Jerry Hendren’s record set in the 1970s.

“Proud of him,” Eck said. “He’ll go down as one of the all-time greats at Idaho. I’m sure he’d trade that touchdown record for the win.”

“It’s sickening,” Hatten said of the loss. “You’re sad, frustrated and full of emotions when you can’t pull out a game like that.”

Montana gave Idaho a dose of the Vandals’ own medicine for most of the first half — ball-control drives, mostly on the ground, eating up the clock and keeping Idaho’s offense off the field.

The Griz went field goal, touchdown, touchdown, field goal in building a 20-0 lead with 2:12 left in the first half.

Meanwhile, Idaho went punt, punt, punt. It was the first time this season the Vandals didn’t score on their opening possession. Ricardo Chavez had not punted three times in a game all season.

At that point, Montana had outgained Idaho 271-69.

(For the game, Idaho outgained the Griz 394-334, but only 58 of those yards came on the ground.

But late in the first half, Idaho came to life, and Anthony Woods capped a 75-yard, eight-play drive with an 11-yard TD run with 52 seconds left in the half, and the Vandals trailed 20-7 at intermission.

After taking the opening kickoff and driving to a field goal, Montana made it 10-0 when kick return stud Junior Bergen got behind the Vandal secondary for a 76-yard touchdown pass from Clifton McDowell.

The Griz made it 17-0 when McDowell scampered 8 yards on a keeper early in the second quarter.

After a bye this week, Idaho plays host to Montana State on Oct. 28.

“The good thing is we’ve got two weeks to get guys to emotionally be able to handle this environment,” Eck said.

Montana 10 10 0 3 — 23

Idaho 0 7 0 14 — 21

First quarter

Mont — FG Grant Glasgow 46, 9:11

Mont — Junior Bergen 76 pass from Clifton McDowell (Glasgow kick), 3:36

Second quarter

Mont — McDowell 8 run (Glasgow kick), 9:22

Mont — FG Glasgow 46, 2:12

Idaho — Anthony Woods 11 run (Ricardo Chavez kick), :52

Fourth quarter

Mont — FG Glasgow 44, 11:43

Idaho — Hayden Hatten 19 pass from Gevani McCoy (Hatten pass from McCoy), 5:48

Idaho — Hatten 23 pass from McCoy (pass failed), 1:47.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Mont, Gillman 12-84, McDowell 13-38, Ostmo 11-21, Fontes 1-15, Bergen 1-1, Harris 1-0. Idaho, Woods 12-41, Romano 4-12, McCoy 15-8.

PASSING — Mont, McDowell 11-18-0-176. Idaho, McCoy 26-37-2-336.

RECEIVING — Mont, Bergen, 5-118, White 3-32, Fontes 2-15, Gillman 1-11. Idaho, Hatten 11-139, Traynor 4-67, Jackson 3-36, Dwyer 3-25, Ivy 2-16, Romano 2-12, Woods 1-11.