BOZEMAN, Mont. (ABC4 Sports) – In a top-five national showdown on a rainy day that saw a little bit of everything, No. 2 Montana State handed No. 5 Weber State its first loss of the season with a 43-38 win Saturday afternoon at Bobcat Stadium.
The loss snapped a school-record eight-game road-winning streak and an overall eight-game winning streak.
Montana State put up 487 yards of total offense with 347 rushing yards and 140 passing yards. MSU quarterback Tommy Mellott had 32 carries for 273 yards and rushed for three touchdowns.
Weber State had 338 yards of offense with 187 yards rushing and 151 yards passing.
The game saw a kickoff return touchdown, a punt return touchdown and a blocked kick by Weber State and four bad snaps that resulted in safeties for Montana State.
On just the third play of the game, Eddie Heckard picked off an MSU pass that led to a 25-yard field goal by Kyle Thompson.
The Wildcats then snapped a punt into the endzone leading to an MSU safety. The Bobcats scored on a 42-yard run on the next possession to take a 9-3 lead.
That’s when the Wildcat special teams kick returners got things going.
On the ensuing kickoff, Abraham Williams returned the kick 100 yards for a touchdown, his second 100-yard return of the season.
Late in the first quarter, Hudson Schenck returned a punt 91 yards for a touchdown to give the Wildcats a 17-9 lead. It was the third-longest punt return in Weber State history and the first punt return touchdown by a Wildcat in four years.
The Wildcats opened the second quarter with a 70-yard drive, culminated by a five-yard touchdown run by Damon Bankston to give Weber State a 24-9 lead with 12:42 to play in the second quarter.
Maxwell Anderson blocked a field goal attempt on MSU’s next possession, but the Bobcats scored the next 34 points.
With 6:19 to play in the second quarter, the ‘Cats had a bad snap again that resulted in an MSU safety to make it 24-11.
Montana State scored a touchdown with 2:34 to play to make it 24-18, before another bad snap made it 24-20 with 1:39 to play in the half.
MSU scored on its next possession with 59 seconds left in the half to end the half at 27-24.
The Wildcats had another bad snap that led to a safety to start the second half to make it 29-24. The four safeties is a new FCS record for safeties in a game.
Montana State scored two-straight touchdowns to take a 43-24 lead before Barron connected with Ty MacPherson for a 21-yard touchdown late in the third quarter. The ‘Cats got a two-point conversion to make it 43-32 after three quarters.
Weber State put together a 14-play, 86-yard drive that took 5:46 and ended with a one-yard touchdown run from Barron to make it 43-38 with 6:49 to play.
The Wildcats had a chance on the final drive and converted on two fourth downs, but couldn’t convert on a third fourth down attempt with 25 seconds to play.
Individually, Barron was 14 of 30 passing for 151 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 40 yards and a touchdown.
MacPherson had five catches for 69 yards and a touchdown.
On the ground Dontae McMillan led the Wildcats with nine carries for 76 yards.
Montana State dominated the time of possession 37:45 to 22:15 and the Bobcats had three sacks.
At 6-1, Weber State now returns home for three-straight games at Stewart Stadium, starting with Montana on Saturday, October 29 at 1 p.m. in a blackout game.