BOZEMAN – It took awhile for Northern Arizona to warm up on a cold Saturday.
Michael Herrick threw for 388 yards and a touchdown as Northern Arizona scored 16 fourth-quarter points en route to a 23-10 Big Sky Conference victory over mistake-plagued Montana State in a game that kicked off in light snow and 19-degree weather.
Matt Myers, whose field goal on the first play of the fourth quarter tied the game, kicked a 19-yard field goal to give Northern Arizona (3-2, 2-1) a 13-10 lead with 8:55 to go. After Montana State (3-2, 2-1) muffed a punt, Northern Arizona recovered, and on the next play Herrick hit Ed Berry on a 14-yard scoring strike to make it 20-10 with 4:43 to go. Herrick was 30-for-40 passing with no interceptions while Berry finished with 12 receptions and 182 yards.
“I think we got comfortable in the second half,” said Herrick, who was 30-for-40 passing to offset NAU’s minus-16 total yards rushing. “I made better decisions, our offensive line gave me great protection and our defense did a great job all day.”
Mark Iddins threw for 235 yards and a TD for Montana State, but was limited to 42 yards passing in the second half. The Bobcats had just 48 yards overall after halftime after compiling 198 yards in the first half. Despite all those yards, turnovers kept them from doing much scoring, as Northern Arizona led 7-3 at the break. The Lumberjacks scored with 27 seconds left in the half on a 6-yard TD, a jump pass from wide receiver Davieun Curry-Chapman to tight end Shaun Fitzpatrick.
“We felt as though we were up at halftime because we know we were dominating that game,” Montana State senior defensive end Dane Fletcher said. “We should have won that game.”