POCATELLO, Idaho — — Scottre Humprey ran for 159 yards and three touchdowns and Montana State pulled away for a 37-17 Big Sky Conference opening win over Idaho State on Saturday night.

The Bobcats (5-0), the third-ranked team in the FCS coaches poll, struggled offensively until Tommy Mellott hit a wide-open Rohan Jones for a 70-yard touchdown that changed the momentum early in the fourth quarter.

Idaho State had just pulled within 17-10 on a 33-yard Gabe Panikowski field goal on the first play of the fourth quarter. On the next snap, Mellott had the longest touchdown pass of his career.

After a defensive stop, Humphrey capped a 74-yard drive with a 6-yard run and he ended the game with an 8-yard touchdown as time ran out. In between, Tracy found Jeff Weimer for a 16-yard touchdown.

Mallott had a 7-yard TD run and Humphrey scored from 18 yards out in the second quarter for a 17-0 lead but the Bengals got a last-second 5-yard touchdown reception by Michael Shulikov from Tracy Kobe.

The Bobcats had 410 yards of offense, but just 158 in the first half. Their 268 yards on the ground was almost 100 behind their average.

Tracy was 17 of 33 for 183 yards for the Bengals (2-3) who were held to 276 yards.

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IDAHO FALLS – The goalposts at Ravsten Stadium will remain blue.

The Emotion Bowl rivalry football game between Idaho Falls and Skyline dates back to 1966 and provides a thrilling atmosphere that’s hard to beat when the two teams meet up.

But on the field, the Emotion Bowl has become a one-sided affair as the Grizzlies won for the 10th time in the past 11 games on Saturday, and they did it convincingly. The 47-0 win was the largest margin of victory since 2015, when Skyline came away with a 50-0 win.

As per tradition, the winning team gets to paint a goalpost at the stadium in their school colors and players and fans didn’t hesitate to join in the postgame celebration with the blue theme.

Despite the end result, Skyline coach Scott Berger wasn’t ready to downplay the long-running rivalry.

“We always say it’s not who we play, it’s how we play,” Berger said. “But, this game, it adds a little bit more to it but you can’t get all wrapped up in the emotion of it.”

The rout was on early as Idaho Falls punted on the opening possession and Skyline’s Taylor Taylor ran it back 50 yards for the score.

The Grizzlies added two more scores by the end of the first quarter as CarMyne Garcia connected with Trey Kirkham for touchdowns of 18 and 38 yards for a 19-0 advantage.

Idaho Falls’ offense never got in sync, punting on its first four possessions and then getting stopped on a fourth-and-1 play. The Tigers punted on their final two possessions of the half while the Skyline offense continued to march downfield with running touchdowns by Garcia and Kirkham, and finally a passing score when Garcia hit Zyan Crockett for an 18-yarder just before the half for a 40-0 lead.

“What we talk about is you have to go for 48 minutes,” Berger said. “You have to stay focused. We talked about at halftime let’s do everything right. Let’s get lined up, let’s pursue to the ball. It was a physical game … you got to make sure we’re shedding blocks and we got to be good tacklers.”

The win was the second big conference win for the Grizzlies, who downed defending conference champion Hillcrest 28-16 last week and improved to 3-0 and 3-2 overall after Saturday’s victory.

As players and fans celebrated at the goalpost painting, Berger reflected on the history of the rivalry game.

“You never know what’s going to happen in this game,” he said, noting that the lone loss during the team’s current streak came in 2021 when Idaho Falls rallied for a 38-34 win.

“Trust me, no one has been a part of as many wins as I have, and nobody’s been a part of as many losses as I have,” Berger added.

Garcia was an efficient 12-for-16 for 174 yards, and passed for four touchdowns while running for another. Kirkham accounted for two receiving touchdowns and a rushing score.

Idaho Falls (1-4, 0-2) hosts Minico in a non-conference game on Friday. Skyline continues conference play at Shelley.