Taco Dowler Posts Career High in Receiving Yards to Lead Montana State to 41-7 Win Over San Diego

Saturday, September 13

BOZEMAN

1 pm

Montana State University

1-2 , 0-0

San Diego

1-2 , 0-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

San Diego

Montana St.

Taco Dowler

Photo by: Brian Morse

Taco Dowler Posts Career High in Receiving Yards to Lead Montana State to 41-7 Win Over San Diego

9/13/2025 6:26:00 PM | Football

Box Score

MSU defense stifles Toreros

By: Bill Lamberty

BOZEMAN, Mont. (Sept. 13, 2025) – At some point during Montana State's 41-7 home win over San Diego on Saturday, Brent Vigen said his fifth Bobcat team earned a battlefield promotion.

"Three games into this season," Vigen said, "we're not a young team anymore."

The result was a victory that saw the team score on six of its first eight possessions while limiting a Toreros squad that upended then-No. 20 Southern Utah a week ago to one fourth-quarter touchdown and 209 total yards. Taco Dowler's 116 receiving yards marked a career high, and his twin brother Caden registered his first career sack.

After forcing a punt on the game's first possession, MSU marched 74 yards in seven plays to score on an initial possession for the first time this season. The Cats backed that up by cashing in on a three-and-out defensive possession with a 43-yard Myles Sansted field goal to take a 10-0 lead.

Taco Dowler caught three passes for 51 yards and a touchdown in the first quarter, and early in the second returned a punt 21 yards to near midfield. That set up a four-play, 52 yard drive that ended when Lamson dropped a 17-yard pass into Adam Jones' lap for a touchdown. That gave MSU a 17-0 lead, which grew on the last full drive of the half when Lamson dashed 24 yards for a touchdown with 22 seconds remaining for a 24-0 lead.V

The first half played out exactly as Vigen had hoped. "We knew that we needed to control the line of scrimmage, limit their ability to run the ball," he said. "We knew that we'd have to throw it a little bit more just because of how they wanted to load the box. And I think by and large that played out."

The second half started as the first half ended. The Cats took the kickoff and marched 75 yards for a touchdown. The eight plays featured 5-for-5 passing by Lamson for 66 yards. The drive was capped by a pass into the flat to Taco Dowler that he turned into a 16-yard touchdown.

MSU's grinded out its next drive on the ground. Adam Jones ran for 27 yards on two carries and Davis gained 24 yards on two carries, including a 17-yard touchdown. Those were sandwiched around a pair of receptions by Taco Dowler for 39 yards. The Cats led 38-0 after three quarters.

As the fourth quarter opened, the question of the day was whether the Cats could log their first shutout in in 28 games while handing the Toreros their first scoreless outing in 281 games. The answer was, no.

On the first drive of the fourth quarter, San Diego pinpoint passing by Dom Nankill to matriculate the ball down the field. Adam Criter ran for 16 yards, then Nankil found Cole Monach for 16 and Criter for 11. On first-and-goal from the Bobcat eight, Nankil dropped a dime for Josh Heverly who responded with a contested catch for the Toreros' only score. Sansted tacked on a 40-yard field goal to close the scoring.

Montana State piled up 516 total yards with 28 first downs, including 14 through the air. Davis rushed for 83 yards, and Adam Jones 46. 10 Bobcats caught at least one pass.

Defensively, the Cats limited San Diego to 66 rushing yards. Toreros star running back Matt Colombo had averaged over 100 yards a game himself in the team's first two outings. ""I complement our defense," Vigen said. "You know, that was a team that spread people out these first couple weeks, had some success running the football. Their running back (Matt Colombo was) at 50 plus carries in these first two games, and we eliminated that part of their game. I know they got some yards as the game went along, but at halftime, they really didn't have anything to speak of running wise."

Bottling up USD's run game helped neutralize Toreros' quarterback Dom Nankil, Vigen said. "The effort was to make their quarterback as one dimensional as we could, and we did that and really made it hard on them."

Montana State raised its record to 1-2 on the season, while the Toreros fall to 1-2. The Cats host Mercyhurst next Saturday at 1 pm in Bobcat Stadium.

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