McGhee's career highs lift Bobcats
10/23/2010 5:15:48 PM | Football
Denarius McGhee won the battle of quarterbacks Saturday afternoon, and Montana State won the battle of offenses, beating Northern Colorado 37-35 in Big Sky Conference action.
McGhee, a redshirt freshman, threw for a career-high 400 yards and four touchdowns, including the game clinching underhand shuffle pass to Orenzo Davis that turned into a 77-yard catch and run in the fourth quarter.
MSU (4-1 in league, 6-2 overall) had fallen behind 28-27 on the third of four Dylan Orms touchdown passes. The 3-yarder to Doug Steele gave UNC (1-5, 2-6) the edge heading into the fourth quarter. Jason Cunningham's third field goal put the Bobcats up to stay, 30-28.
Then on third and 11 following a UNC punt that pinned them deep in their own territory, McGhee got the ball to Davis who wove his way under, through and around the UNC defense, breaking an assortment of tackles before scampering into the end zone. The final block that sprung him came from wide receiver Julius Lloyd far downfield.
McGhee threw scoring passes of 14 and 22 yards to Lloyd in the second half as MSU enjoyed a 17-14 lead at the half. The Bobcats upped their lead to 27-14 in the third quarter on a Cunningham field goal and McGhee's 19-yard scoring pass to tight end Kyle Begger.
The four scores matched McGhee's career high earlier this season at Sacramento State. In that game, a 64-61 Bobcat win, McGhee established his previous career best with 385 passing yards. For the game, McGhee completed 21 of 33 passes.
UNC's Orms was no slouch either. He threw for 344 yards and four touchdowns of his own, both career highs. He connected with Jace Davis on scores of 68 and 20 yards. Besides the pass to Steele that gave UNC its last lead, he also connected with Chris Morris late in the game for a 10-yard score. Davis hauled in eight passes for a career-high 207 yards (10th best in school history) while Andre Harris rushed for a team-high 66 yards on 13 carries.
UNC's 458 total yards was a season high. In addition to his yards, Orms completed a career-high 19 passes on 34 attempts.
MSU's Davis had a stellar day running the ball as well, in front of the announced crowd of 14,217. He carried 22 times for 107 yards. MSU got 139 yards on the ground and 539 overall. Another redshirt freshman, Tanner Bleskin, led MSU with 73 yards on four catches.
The game was the fourth straight where the Bobcats yielded 30 or more points, but they've won three of them and remain among the leaders in the Big Sky standings. Next week they travel to Pocatello to face Idaho State before their final home game of the season on Nov. 6 against Weber State.
MSU was hurt by turnovers. The Bears recovered three fumbles, increasing their nation-leading total to 15 and Max Hewitt had an interception. Meanwhile, they never turned the ball over. Next week, UNC travels to South Dakota for a non-league game.
