Simply put, things were looking promising until they weren’t in No. 13/13 Northern Arizona’s first home loss since 2023, Saturday afternoon.
After forcing the No. 5/5 Montana State to punt on its first three offensive drives, NAU had built up a 7-0 lead by the beginning of the second quarter.
Then, MSU woke up.
A 90-yard punt return touchdown by junior wide receiver Taco Dowler and a 79-yard touchdown reception from junior quarterback Justin Lamerson to junior wide receiver Jabez Woods were the first two scoring plays in which MSU scored all 34 of its points unanswered in its 34-10 win over NAU.
“We were doing a good job,” NAU head coach Brian Wright said. “We were hanging in there defensively, and had them in third and long and just played a bass quarters coverage that we were in there, and I’ll have to go back and look at the film to see exactly what happened, but just base quarters back there and let them get behind us, which you can’t do.”
From senior linebacker Travis Arena’s perspective, the Bobcats beat the Lumberjacks with one characteristic: Discipline.
“We have dogs on our team, but again, it’s about who’s more disciplined, and they were just more disciplined than us today,” Arena said.
Box Score
First Quarter
Second Quarter
- Senior P Ben D’Aquila (NAU) punt returned by junior PR Taco Dowler (MSU) for a 90-yard touchdown. Sophomore K Myles Sansted (MSU) extra point is good. (7-7, 7:40)
- Junior QB Justin Lamson (MSU) pass complete to junior WR Jabez Woods (MSU) for a 79-yard touchdown. Sophomore K Myles Sansted (MSU) extra point is good. (14-7, 6:01)
- Senior RB Julius Davis (MSU) rushed for a 13-yard touchdown. Sophomore K Myles Sansted (MSU) extra point is no good. (20-7, 0:59)
Third Quarter
Fourth Quarter
- Junior QB Justin Lamson (MSU) rushed for a 19-yard touchdown. Sophomore K Myles Sansted (MSU) extra point is good. (34-7, 12:51)
- Sophomore K Samuel Hunsaker (NAU) 39-yard field goal is good. (34-10, 5:11)
| TEAM | 1ST QTR | 2ND QTR | 3RD QTR | 4TH QTR | FINAL |
| MSU | 0 | 20 | 7 | 7 | 34 |
| NAU | 7 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 10 |
The Standouts
Montana State Junior Wide Receiver Jabez Woods
Woods was the only receiver in Saturday afternoon’s game to record 100 yards receiving between both teams, doing so on only three receptions, with 79 of those yards coming off his big touchdown play.
Montana State Junior Quarterback Justin Lamson
Lamson only needed to complete a pass to a wide receiver 13 times to throw for more than 200 yards for the second week in a row. Those 13 receptions were spread out between seven different wide receivers. Lamson got it done on the ground as well, finishing with a total of 35 yards rushing on seven carries, including his 19-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.
Montana State Senior Linebacker Kenneth Eiden IV
Eiden finished the game with seven tackles and a team-high 2.5 tackles for loss, including contributing to a sack in the fourth quarter that led NAU to have to kick a field goal after being on MSU’s 13-yard line.
Key Plays
- With the ball inside the red zone on third-and-7 late in the first quarter, Pennington fired a quick pass across the middle to junior running back Seth Cromwell, who ran an extra nine yards after the catch to pick up the first down. Three players later, it was Cromwell who rushed it up the middle for a 2-yard touchdown, giving NAU its only lead of the game.
- Down by 20, NAU had no other choice but to attempt to convert on fourth-and-7 inside its own territory on the second play of the fourth quarter. Pennington threw an interception directly at MSU sophomore defensive back Bryant Meredith. Pennington’s first interception in 133 passing attempts led to a 19-yard touchdown run by Lamson to give the Bobcats a 34-7 lead.
Sound Off
Northern Arizona junior quarterback Ty Pennington, who completed passes to 11 different receivers in Saturday’s 34-10 loss to Montana State, on if it takes some of the pressure off him knowing he has so many receivers that can catch the ball: “Yeah, it does. We have a lot of playmakers on the team, use a lot of different personnel groupings. So, you know, I’m comfortable with everyone going out there. They’re all great with the ball in their hands. So, you know, it makes my job a little easier, and you can just dish out to them.”
Northern Arizona head coach Brian Wright on how mentally tough Montana State is: “I mean, they’re used to winning. They’ve been doing it for a while, and again, showed up today, you know, that team never really flinched when maybe it wasn’t going how they wanted on offense to start the game, or, you know, we drove down there on the third drive, I think it was. You know, that group’s not going to flinch, and at times we flinched today in certain situations, and it was just a lack of maturity. I think we had a little bit of youth out there that allowed that moment in time to be a little bit too big, and you can never do that.”
Northern Arizona head coach Brian Wright on how they attack the rest of the year after Saturday afternoon’s game played out: “Yeah, well, we’re not thinking about the rest of the year yet, we’re thinking about next week, and we play a really tough (UC Davis) team on the road next week, and so we have to learn quickly and grow from this, to get better. That’s all we’re going to do with this game. We’re gonna learn from it, grow, get better, and we better do that quickly again, because we play a really good team on the road this coming week.”
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