| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) Craig Ochs passed for 168 yards and a touchdown in his debut as Montana quarterback Saturday to lead the Grizzlies to a 17-14 victory over Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo.
Montana (4-1), ranked 8th in NCAA Division I-AA, trailed 14-10 after Geno Randle scored his second rushing touchdown for No. 20 Cal Poly (3-2) with 5:40 left in the third quarter.
Ochs, the Colorado transfer who missed the first four games with an ankle injury, played two quarters and led Montana on the game-winning drive from the Cal Poly 34-yard-line early in the fourth.
Ochs completed an 8-yard pass to Jefferson Heidelberger on a 3rd-and-9 play to give UM the ball 4th-and-1 on Cal Poly's 5-yard line.
The Griz set up for a field goal but holder Dane Oliver pitched the ball between his legs to kicker Chris Snyder, who ran 2 yards for the first down. On the next play, running back Lex Hilliard took a direct snap and ran 3 yards up the middle for a Montana TD with 13:25 remaining. Hilliard finished with 57 yards rushing.
Justin Green, who rushed 25 times for 99 yards, ran for 25 yards on the second-to-last play of the game to help Montana run out the clock.
Both teams struggled offensively in the first quarter and Cal Poly scored first on an 11-yard run by Randle with 5:51 left in the half.
Ochs led Montana's first scoring drive, which ended with a 25-yard field goal by Snyder at the 2:58 mark.
After Cal Poly was forced to punt, Ochs completed 6-of-8 passes for 80 yards, including a 5-yard TD pass to Willie Walden, to give Montana a 10-7 lead with 37 seconds left in the half.
Randle rushed for 117 yards, including the 4-yard TD run in the third quarter, to lead Cal Poly while Chris Peterson completed 13 of 26 passes for 160 yards for the Mustangs.