Montana Rides to Victory on Arm, Legs of Ah Yat

Brian Ah Yat passed for three touchdowns and ran for another in the first half Saturday to help Montana stay in the Division I-AA playoff hunt with a 38-13 victory over Weber State at Missoula, Mont.

Montana scored on its first three possessions and led, 24-0, after a 33-yard field goal by Kris Heppner early in the second quarter.

Quarterback Steve Buck came off the bench for Weber State to hit Jason English on a 26-yard touchdown pass play with 6:35 left in the first half and scored on a one-yard run with 4:33 left in the game.

Ah Yat completed 24 of 38 passes for 297 yards. He threw touchdown passes of 10 yards to Josh Paffhausen, eight yards to Jim Farris and seven yards to Raul Pacheco, who had eight catches for 105 yards.

Nate Sanders of Montana rushed for 118 yards, including a 23-yard touchdown.

Montana State 30, Cal State Sacramento 6--Rob Compson passed for 389 yards and three touchdowns to keep the Bobcats’ playoff hopes alive at Sacramento.

Compson completed 26 of 31 passes without an interception and threw touchdowns of 37 and seven yards to Tony Vallez, and 20 yards to Scott Harry. Vallez caught 10 passes for 230 yards.

Sacramento scored when Scott Towne hit Sheridan Mitchell on a 24-yard pass play in the third quarter.

The Hornets drove inside Montana State’s 30-yard line three times in the third quarter but were unable to score.

Idaho State 26, Portland State 24--James Ferrell kicked a tie-breaking field goal with 2:31 left and Joe Barnes returned an interception 33 yards for a touchdown with 1:52 left for the Bengals at Pocatello, Idaho.

Portland State made it close when Hassan Proherbs scored on a 47-yard punt return with 44 seconds left.

Kennedy Nkeyasen of Idaho State rushed for 141 yards in 21 carries and scored on runs of one and 82 yards.

Freshman Charles Dunn of Portland State rushed for 142 yards in 25 carries and scored on a 26-yard pass play from Jimmy Blanchard.

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Standings

Conference

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School W L W E. Washington 7 1 10 Montana 5 2 7 Montana State 5 2 6 No. Arizona 4 3 6 Weber State 3 4 5 CS Northridge 3 4 5 Portland State 3 5 4 Idaho State 2 5 3 CSSacramento 1 7 1

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Standings

Overall

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School L PF PA E. Washington 1 389 189 Montana 3 327 162 Montana State 4 202 180 No. Arizona 4 289 240 Weber State 5 231 244 CS Northridge 6 349 303 Portland State 7 212 294 Idaho State 7 181 330 CSSacramento 9 188 363

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Saturday

Eastern Washington 39, Northridge 32

Montana State 30, CS Sacramento 6

Idaho State 26, Portland State 24

Montana 38, Weber State 13

Next Saturday

Northern Arizona at Northridge

Idaho State at Weber State

Montana at Montana State

CS Sacramento at Cal Poly SLO (nonconference)