Northern Arizona Edges Montana 49-44 in a Shootout
Ty Pennington scored five touchdowns, and the Lumberjacks needed every one. Northern Arizona beat Montana 49-44 in a game that changed leads five times and was tied once, and that finished with a Montana safety at 0:06 that did not change anything except the margin.
Pennington ran for four touchdowns (4, 3, 1 and 5 yards), caught a seven-yard touchdown from Joey Stout, and threw a 28-yard touchdown to Jeter Purdy. The Grizzlies kept up. Eli Gillman scored on a one-yard run, Landon Ransom-Goelz caught a 70-yard touchdown from Keali'i Ah Yat, and Gillman scored again from a yard out with 47 seconds left in the half for a 24-21 lead. Northern Arizona led 28-24 on the Stout catch and 35-24 after Pennington's one-yard run with 3:35 left in the third. Montana got within 32-35 on an 11-yard Ah Yat touchdown to Lekeldrick Bridges at 13:19 of the fourth, and 13 seconds of clock later Lindsey Graves took the kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown. That was 42-32.
Montana got to 39-42 on a Gillman two-yard catch, Pennington ran in a five-yarder with 3:16 left, and Jo Silver's 35-yard field goal made it 42-49 before the safety. The yardage was nearly even: Montana had 489 yards and Northern Arizona 458. Montana threw one interception and lost a fumble, and Northern Arizona lost a fumble too. Both teams are now 5-1.
For fantasy, this was a rare game where the quarterback on the winning side outscored everybody, and the quarterback on the losing side still put up 33. Pennington's 55.8 was the top mark on the board by almost 18 points.