Montana State steamrolls into FCS semifinals with rout of William & Mary

BOZEMAN — Montana State’s first two offensive possessions on a frigid Friday night time have been of the three-and-out selection, forcing punter Bryce Leighton onto the sector for the primary time in what appeared like an eternity.

Did William & Mary’s protection have a solution for the Bobcats’ vaunted speeding assault?

Quick reply: No.

MSU’s offense finally discovered its regular rhythm and the Cats rolled to a 55-7 victory over the Tribe in an FCS quarterfinal playoff sport at Bobcat Stadium. The win sends fourth-seeded Montana State (12-1) into the semifinal spherical for the second straight season and third time since 2019, the place it would face the winner of a quarterfinal sport on Saturday between No. 1 seed South Dakota State (11-1) and eighth-seeded Holy Cross (12-0).

Leighton punted thrice on a frigid Friday night time, however the Bobcats had one other banner day. Quarterback Tommy Mellott rushed for 3 touchdowns and threw one other, working again Isaiah Ifanse ran for 162 yards and two scores, and Taco Dowler took a punt again 79 yards for a TD as MSU dominated in all three phases.

“Actual pleased with our guys for popping out and actually attacking this,” MSU coach Brent Vigen mentioned afterward. “Stylistically, how they have been constructed and the way we have been constructed, it was going to be a matter of simply how that first quarter would play out from a physicality perspective. I assumed defensively we set the tone proper from the get go.

“Offensively I do know it took us a short while to get going, however hats off to our guys. Protection performed nice, and particular teams-wise we have been capable of make some actually large performs, and actually offensively, we did the issues we wanted to do.”

A 22-yard scoring run by Mellott on the final play of the primary quarter gave the Bobcats a 10-0 lead. That was adopted by a 68-yard TD gallop by Ifanse, who within the course of grew to become Montana State’s profession speeding chief with 3,690 yards, surpassing the earlier file of three,646 by MSU corridor of famer Ryan Johnson (1998-2002).

Mellott had an 8-yard landing run within the second quarter and Blake Glessner tacked on a 50-yard subject objective — the longest kick in MSU playoff historical past — to make the rating 27-0 at halftime.

The onslaught did not cease there. Ifanse and Mellott had back-to-back landing runs within the third quarter, and Mellott later discovered wideout Clevan Thomas on a 17-yard TD throw for a 48-0 benefit. Dowler’s punt return made it 55-0 with 5:03 left within the third.

William & Mary, which got here into the sport averaging 276.7 speeding yards, was restricted to 135 yards on the bottom and 197 internet yards of offense. The Tribe prevented a shutout when Bronson Yoder scored on a 2-yard run with 3:11 remaining, however the sport was out of hand lengthy earlier than that.

“I am disillusioned in the way in which we carried out,” William & Mary coach Mike London mentioned. “That is an excellent soccer workforce. Montana State is well-coached. They’re bodily. I see why they have been final 12 months’s runner-ups. They seem to be a full soccer workforce — offense, protection, particular groups.

“We did not do sufficient right this moment to maintain drives and achieve success in third-down conditions. They did job of getting after us and we did not do sufficient. My hat goes off to them.”

Mellott, a sophomore from Butte who has now quarterbacked the Bobcats to 5 playoff wins in two years, accomplished 7 of 9 passes for 106 yards and a landing. He additionally had 45 speeding yards on 10 carries. Led by Ifanse, the Bobcats piled up 328 speeding yards and 5 TDs on the bottom.

The Bobcats prolonged their FCS finest dwelling successful streak to twenty video games. William & Mary noticed its eight-game successful streak come to an finish. The Tribe completed what was one of many best seasons in program historical past with an 11-2 file.

The Bobcats will now await the winner of South Dakota State and Holy Cross. The Bobcats and SDSU squared off within the semifinals final season, a sport gained 31-17 by Montana State that despatched the workforce into the nationwide championship sport for the primary time since 1984.