Missoula, MT – North Dakota State, the four-time defending national champions, opened its football season Saturday with a shootout in the haze-covered mountains of Montana.
And when the dust cleared, the top-ranked Bison suffered a rare season-opening loss with a 38-35 setback to Montana before a nationwide ESPN television audience and a Washington-Grizzly Stadium record crowd of 26,472.
Forum News Service reports, Montana’s Joey Counts scored on a one-yard touchdown with two seconds remaining to give the Bison only their second season-opening loss during the Division I era.
After Montana cut the Bison lead to 35-31 with a 28-yard field goal with two minutes, 47 seconds remaining, the Bison offense had to punt after gaining only three yards.
Montana took over on its own 20 with 1:39 remaining. The Grizzlies marched to NDSU’s 1-yard line with 15 seconds remaining.
The Bison held a 28-21 halftime lead
But Montana, operating first-year head coach Bob Stitt’s hurry-up offense, tied the game thanks to a 62-yard touchdown pass to Ellis Henderson.
The Bison regained the lead with a 79-yard scoring drive, highlighted by a 44-yard screen pass to King Frazier. That set up Frazier’s 7-yard touchdown run that gave the Bison a 35-28 lead with 10:37 remaining.
