Kevin Retoriano
Photo by: R. Dean Hendrickson
BOBCAT CALENDAR: Today in 2007 Rob Ash's First Bobcat Team Earned a Mid-Season Win Against Sac State
10/20/2020 9:00:00 AM | Football
Kevin Retoriano's big interception set up the game-clinching score
A day-by day look at Bobcat football history...
October 20
SPOTLIGHT: With the perspective of 13 years Montana State's 2007 football season seems to follow a fairly normal arc. Under first-year head coach Rob Ash the Bobcats lost at Texas A&M before rattling off four straight wins, sandwiching non-league victories over Dixie State and Southern Utah with conference wins against Weber State and Idaho State. A loss at Eastern Washington set up a home contest against Sacramento State on October 20.
Drilling down further, of course, reminds us of the whirlwind that led MSU football and its fans to week seven of the 2007 season. Rob Ash was hired in mid-June, and in the span of 10 weeks needed to assemble a coaching staff, operate the program's summer camps, organize workouts, plan fall camp, and begin working in sync with not just a new group of players but with administrators and support staff members with whom he shared no past.
Ash went out of his way to praise the talent his new program possessed in the weeks and months that led him to this day 13 years ago, and in some ways it was the watershed moment of that first campaign.
The Bobcats were slow to warm up on a cold, windy day in front of 14,167 fans, punting on four of the first six drives and missing field goals on the other two. Sacramento State connected on three field goals to take a 9-0 lead midway through the third quarter. Then, finally, MSU stirred to life. Eric Fisher connected on a 27-yard field goal, then the Bobcat defense forced three consecutive three-and-out possessions. In that stretch of time, Cory Carpenter found Elliott Barnhart on a 39-yard touchdown pass and Fisher hit another field goal to give MSU a 13-9 lead.
Sacramento State took over with 2:33 to play still trailing 13-9. With the game in the balance, on 2nd-and-10, Kevin Retoriano intercepted a Hornets pass at the 40 and returned it to the Hornets four. On the next play Demetrius Crawford plowed into the end zone and Montana State had sealed its 20-9 win.
Carpenter threw for 244 yards and Crawford ran for 75. Bobby Daly rang up 14 tackles, and Retoriano's big day also included a pass breakup and six tackles, including one for a loss. It was a satisfying win.
Montana State's record as the sellout crowd dispersed into the chill winds of early winter was 5-2 overall, 3-1 in the league. Much remained possible at that point, but the Bobcats lost two of their final three games and finished with a solid 6-5 record which still left a feeling of mild disappointment among fans because of where the Cats stood after seven games.
Bobcat coaches, though, were energized. Assembling its first full recruiting class, the MSU staff assembled a tremdous class. Included were: future Big Sky MVP and All-America linebacker Jody Owens, future Buck Buchanan Award winner and as the top defensive player in the FCS Caleb Schreibeis, MSU's most productive kicker ever Jason Cunningham, and solid starters such as James Andrews, Zach Coleman, Steven Foster, Heath Howard, Rick Haluszka, CJ Palmer, Kevin Steiner, and DeSean Thomas. These men eventually won either two or three Big Sky Championships, and beat the Grizzlies in Missoula at least once (depending on whether he was in the program four years or five).
BONUS: Staying with the forgettable theme, the 1951 football season was marked the first Cat-Griz game played on a campus since 1925 and the first ever played at Montana State's permanent Gatton Field. While many of the participants told author Pat Kearney years later that playing the game in Bozeman had an entirely different feel than playing 90 miles west in Butte, fans filled Gatton Field in spite of the rain and hail that pelted everyone there throughout the day. UM blocked a Bobcat quick kick on the game's first drive and recovered at the Montana State two, and scored on the next play. MSC held the game at 6-0 until midway through the second quarter, when another Bobcat mistake - this time a fumble - set up a Grizzly score to push the visiting team's margin to 13-0 at the intermission. Another fumble set up a University touchdown in the third quarter, and tthe floodgates opened in the final period when UM scored 19 points.
GAMES ON TODAY'S DATE
2017 - at #7 Weber State 34, MSU 24
2007 - MSU 20, Sacramento State 9
1990 - Idaho State 23, MSU 19
1984 - MSU 45, Portland State 22 - Homecoming
1980 - MSU 10, at Northern Arizona 7
1973 - MSU 33, UM 7
1962 - MSU 33, Idaho 15 HC
1956 - MSU 26, Idaho State 6 HC
1951 - UM 38, MSU 0 at Butte - First Cat-Griz game on a campus since 1925, the first in Bozeman since 1923, and the first ever at (permanent) Gatton Field
1939 - Colorado Mines 20, MSU 7
1928 - MSU 6, Northern Colorado 2
FINIS: A few words about Kevin Retoriano: he was a really, really good football player. As a redshirt freshman in 2006 he played in all 13 games at free safety, then entered the starting lineup at that position for the next two seasons. He led the team with three interceptions and was second in tackles (58) in 2007, then picked off a team-high three interceptions on his way to First Team All-Big Sky honors as a junior. Before hsi senior season, though, the MSU staff made a big ask of Regoriano: he was moved from safety to cornerback, an unusual transition. Retoriano picked off two more passes in 2009, broke up eight others, and in general capped a very good career with an excellent senior season.
October 20
SPOTLIGHT: With the perspective of 13 years Montana State's 2007 football season seems to follow a fairly normal arc. Under first-year head coach Rob Ash the Bobcats lost at Texas A&M before rattling off four straight wins, sandwiching non-league victories over Dixie State and Southern Utah with conference wins against Weber State and Idaho State. A loss at Eastern Washington set up a home contest against Sacramento State on October 20.
Drilling down further, of course, reminds us of the whirlwind that led MSU football and its fans to week seven of the 2007 season. Rob Ash was hired in mid-June, and in the span of 10 weeks needed to assemble a coaching staff, operate the program's summer camps, organize workouts, plan fall camp, and begin working in sync with not just a new group of players but with administrators and support staff members with whom he shared no past.
Ash went out of his way to praise the talent his new program possessed in the weeks and months that led him to this day 13 years ago, and in some ways it was the watershed moment of that first campaign.
The Bobcats were slow to warm up on a cold, windy day in front of 14,167 fans, punting on four of the first six drives and missing field goals on the other two. Sacramento State connected on three field goals to take a 9-0 lead midway through the third quarter. Then, finally, MSU stirred to life. Eric Fisher connected on a 27-yard field goal, then the Bobcat defense forced three consecutive three-and-out possessions. In that stretch of time, Cory Carpenter found Elliott Barnhart on a 39-yard touchdown pass and Fisher hit another field goal to give MSU a 13-9 lead.
Sacramento State took over with 2:33 to play still trailing 13-9. With the game in the balance, on 2nd-and-10, Kevin Retoriano intercepted a Hornets pass at the 40 and returned it to the Hornets four. On the next play Demetrius Crawford plowed into the end zone and Montana State had sealed its 20-9 win.
Carpenter threw for 244 yards and Crawford ran for 75. Bobby Daly rang up 14 tackles, and Retoriano's big day also included a pass breakup and six tackles, including one for a loss. It was a satisfying win.
Montana State's record as the sellout crowd dispersed into the chill winds of early winter was 5-2 overall, 3-1 in the league. Much remained possible at that point, but the Bobcats lost two of their final three games and finished with a solid 6-5 record which still left a feeling of mild disappointment among fans because of where the Cats stood after seven games.
Bobcat coaches, though, were energized. Assembling its first full recruiting class, the MSU staff assembled a tremdous class. Included were: future Big Sky MVP and All-America linebacker Jody Owens, future Buck Buchanan Award winner and as the top defensive player in the FCS Caleb Schreibeis, MSU's most productive kicker ever Jason Cunningham, and solid starters such as James Andrews, Zach Coleman, Steven Foster, Heath Howard, Rick Haluszka, CJ Palmer, Kevin Steiner, and DeSean Thomas. These men eventually won either two or three Big Sky Championships, and beat the Grizzlies in Missoula at least once (depending on whether he was in the program four years or five).
BONUS: Staying with the forgettable theme, the 1951 football season was marked the first Cat-Griz game played on a campus since 1925 and the first ever played at Montana State's permanent Gatton Field. While many of the participants told author Pat Kearney years later that playing the game in Bozeman had an entirely different feel than playing 90 miles west in Butte, fans filled Gatton Field in spite of the rain and hail that pelted everyone there throughout the day. UM blocked a Bobcat quick kick on the game's first drive and recovered at the Montana State two, and scored on the next play. MSC held the game at 6-0 until midway through the second quarter, when another Bobcat mistake - this time a fumble - set up a Grizzly score to push the visiting team's margin to 13-0 at the intermission. Another fumble set up a University touchdown in the third quarter, and tthe floodgates opened in the final period when UM scored 19 points.
GAMES ON TODAY'S DATE
2017 - at #7 Weber State 34, MSU 24
2007 - MSU 20, Sacramento State 9
1990 - Idaho State 23, MSU 19
1984 - MSU 45, Portland State 22 - Homecoming
1980 - MSU 10, at Northern Arizona 7
1973 - MSU 33, UM 7
1962 - MSU 33, Idaho 15 HC
1956 - MSU 26, Idaho State 6 HC
1951 - UM 38, MSU 0 at Butte - First Cat-Griz game on a campus since 1925, the first in Bozeman since 1923, and the first ever at (permanent) Gatton Field
1939 - Colorado Mines 20, MSU 7
1928 - MSU 6, Northern Colorado 2
FINIS: A few words about Kevin Retoriano: he was a really, really good football player. As a redshirt freshman in 2006 he played in all 13 games at free safety, then entered the starting lineup at that position for the next two seasons. He led the team with three interceptions and was second in tackles (58) in 2007, then picked off a team-high three interceptions on his way to First Team All-Big Sky honors as a junior. Before hsi senior season, though, the MSU staff made a big ask of Regoriano: he was moved from safety to cornerback, an unusual transition. Retoriano picked off two more passes in 2009, broke up eight others, and in general capped a very good career with an excellent senior season.
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