Record crowd watches Bobcats win opener

Thursday, August 29

Bozeman, MT

7:05 PM

Montana State University

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MONMOUTH (GOLD RUSH)

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Monmouth

Montana State

Senior Cody Kirk scored two touchdowns in Thursday night's win.

Photo by: R. Dean Hendrickson

8/29/2013 10:57:00 PM | Football, General

Box Score

Over 21,000 enjoy 42-24 win

By: Paul Burns

The Bobcats showed off their new offense in Thursday night's season-opener, and it looked a lot like past Bobcat offenses: lots of yards and lots of points.

MSU vs. Monmouth Game Stats

Unveiling the zone-read introduced by new offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey, second-ranked Montana State picked up right where it left off last season while beating Monmouth 42-24 in front of an all-time record crowd of 21,007.

On the very first drive of the game, the fast-hitting Bobcats marched 75 yards in seven plays, culminating in a 1-yard keeper by quarterback Denarius McGhee. Less than 3 minutes later, following Monmouth's first fruitless possession, MSU went 70 yards in four plays. This time Cody Kirk ran it in from the five, making it 15-0 with just over 5 minutes played.

Kirk's touchdown was the 30th rushing score of the senior's illustrative career. That broke the all-time record he shared with former Bobcat great Don Haas.

But MSU, which finished 11-2 in 2012, was just getting warmed up. After again forcing Monmouth to punt, junior speedster Shawn Johnson took a handoff from McGhee and sprinted 90 yards to make it 22-0 at the 8:32 mark in the first quarter. By that point, MSU had 235 total yards to just 12 yards by the visitors from West Long Branch, NJ.

Eric Spillane's 45-yard field goal made it 22-3, but Cody Kirk added a 1-yard run in the second quarter and Rory Perez booted a 26-yard field goal.

Then came the heroics of Craig Ashworth. The 6-foot-1, 276-pound nose guard, dropped back into pass coverage as defensive end Brad Daly swooped down on Monmouth quarterback Brandon Hill. Under duress, Hill threw an ill-advised path that Ashworth intercepted with one big paw. The senior from Florence, Mont., rumbled 57 yards to the end zone, as Daly made two key blocks to keep Ashworth rumbling.

By halftime, MSU was up 39-3 and had 388 total yards to 125 for the Hawks. In the second half, the Bobcats slowed things down, getting only a 40-yard field goal from Perez. Meanwhile Monmouth's Julian Hayes scored from the 3 and Hill added fourth-quarter touchdown passes of 77 yards to Eric Sumlin and 17 yards to Elijah Phillips to make the final score respectable.

For the game, MSU totaled 293 yards on the ground and 268 through the air. Johnson finished with 109 yards on just five carries. McGhee completed 19 of 27 passes for 240 yards. Back-up Jake Bleskin completed two of four passes for 28 yards, including a 20-yarder to big brother Tanner Bleskin, a first for the Bleskin boys as Bobcats.

Tanner Bleskin was McGhee's favorite target, hauling in seven passes for 121 yards. The senior moves up to No. 5 on the Bobcat career receiving list with 136 catches, and to No. 3 on the career yardage list with 1,968 receiving yards.

Monmouth, a FCS independent this season that went 5-5 last season, saw success against MSU's non-starters, finishing the night with 355 total yards. Running back Hayes had a standout performance, rushing 22 times for 135 yards and his third-quarter touchdown.

Besides Ashworth, linebacker Alex Singleton also had an interception, to go with his two tackles for loss. Daly and Taylor Sheridan recorded MSU's sacks. Meanwhile McGhee was rarely troubled by the Hawk's defensive front.

Things should be tougher for the Bobcats next week when they travel to Dallas to face FBS member Southern Methodist, a member of the new American Athletic Conference.