MISSOULA — Third-ranked Montana alleviated any concerns of a hangover following its statement win at UC Davis last week.
The Grizzlies, fresh off that 62-22 win over the Aggies, put together another dominant performance Saturday at Washington-Grizzly Stadium, rolling past Northern Colorado for a 36-14 Big Sky Conference football win. Montana is now 5-1 overall and 3-0 in the Big Sky.
Quarterback Keali'i Ah Yat played his best game of the season, completing 23 of 30 passes for 346 yards and five touchdowns. The five TD passes matched a career high. He now has 14 touchdown passes on the season and hasn't thrown an interception since UM's first play of the season.
Ah Yat and the Griz couldn't have been much sharper to start. The QB was 4-for-4 passing for 56 yards on UM's first offensive possession and threw a 24-yard dime to Ian Finch for a touchdown. It was the third catch of the season, and first TD, for Finch, a graduate of Hellgate High School in Missoula. The fifth-year receiver has only one other touchdown catch in his career: a 2-yard reception in 2024 against Northern Colorado in Greeley.
But the remainder of the first quarter was filled with missed opportunities for Montana. After Braeden Orlandi intercepted Northern Colorado quarterback Brayten Silbor on the Bears' first possession, the Grizzlies stalled in the red zone and turned the ball over on downs after Ah Yat threw incomplete on fourth-and-4 from the UNC 10-yard line.
Later in the first, after a long Ah Yat-to-Brooks Davis pass got Montana to the Bears' 8-yard line, Ah Yat couldn't handle a shotgun snap, and Northern Colorado's Brennen Acosta jumped on the loose ball to stop another Griz drive.
Northern Colorado couldn't take advantage, though. The Bears got deep into UM territory, but a false start on fourth-and-1 pushed them back to the UM 20. They missed the field goal attempt, and Ah Yat hit Davis for a 61-yard touchdown on the Grizzlies' ensuing possession. A successful two-point conversion made it 15-0 at halftime.
Eli Gillman (finally) found the end zone in the second half. A week after a record-setting performance of 275 rushing yards and four touchdowns against UC Davis, Gillman had a lighter workload — 13 carries for 99 yards and three receptions for 31 yards — against Northern Colorado. He caught a 9-yard touchdown from Ah Yat on UM's first third-quarter drive to bring his career total to 67 TDs, 10 off the Big Sky-record 77 set by Eastern Washington's Cooper Kupp.
On the next drive, a 55-yard run by Gillman, where he started right and then reversed field to his left and followed a lead block by Ah Yat, set up Davis' second touchdown reception, this one from 25 yards out.
But Davis saved perhaps his best for last. In the fourth quarter, he ran a deep cross over the middle of the field and leaped high in the air to catch the pass from Ah Yat. He took a big hit from the UNC defender but spun and used a hand to keep himself off the turf as he extended the ball across the goal line for his third touchdown of the day.
BROOKS DAVIS ... BEST RECEIVER IN THE FCS?: Last season, Brooks Davis was a freshman All-American. This season, he looks like he might be the best wide receiver in the FCS. He was sensational again Saturday and set a career high with 205 receiving yards. His final stat line: nine receptions, 205 yards, three touchdowns. It's his fifth consecutive game with at least 100 receiving yards, and he now has 772 on the season.
QUIET DOMINANCE: At halftime, the scoreboard read just 15-0, but it didn't tell the story of Montana's stranglehold on the game. The Grizzlies had 300 yards of offense in the first 30 minutes compared to just 123 for Northern Colorado. The Bears were 1 for 5 on third downs and 0 for 1 on fourth down. Montana likely felt it should have been leading by more at the break and quickly corrected in the third quarter.
FRONTIER FINDS: Montana dipped into the Frontier Conference of the NAIA in the offseason to add defensive back Braeden Orlandi from Carroll College and defensive lineman Manase Tupou from MSU-Northern. Both players have been heavily involved in the Grizzlies' defense this season and Saturday made game-changing plays.
After Orlandi's interception on the Bears' first possession, Tupou sacked Silbor and then was in on a tackle-for-loss to force a punt on UNC's second offensive drive. Orlandi's interception was his first of the season and the second for Montana after Brock Beaner's game-clinching INT against Southern Utah in the season opener.
SCORELESS STREAK SNAPPED: Northern Colorado finally put points on the board against Montana when backup quarterback Kenny Lueth ran in a touchdown with 13 seconds remaining in the third quarter. The Bears hadn't scored against the Grizzlies since 2017 and had been shut out in the teams' three previous meetings. All told, UNC went 14 consecutive quarters without scoring against UM.
WHAT'S NEXT: Montana heads back on the road to face No. 19 Northern Arizona, which stood at 3-2 overall and 1-1 in the Big Sky heading into Saturday night's matchup at No. 12 Idaho State. Next week's Montana-vs.-Northern Arizona is scheduled to kick off at 3 p.m. MDT on Saturday, Oct. 10. Scripps Sports will broadcast the game on The Spot – MTN.
The Grizzlies have won six of the past 10 games against the Lumberjacks, including the most-recent meeting in 2024, a 31-20 UM victory in Missoula.
