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Stephen F. Austin Takes Down Montana State

By Beacon Staff

NACOGDOCHES, Texas — Brady Attaway passed for 392 yards and two touchdowns to lead Stephen F. Austin to a 52-38 victory over Montana State on Saturday night.

Attaway was 34-of-56 passing, hitting Mike Brooks and DJ Ward for a pair of Lumberjack touchdowns. Gus Johnson added to the team’s potent offense, rushing 26 times for 157 yards and three touchdowns.

The Lumberjacks’ (2-2) defense intercepted Montana State’s Jake Belskin four times. Bleskin threw for 308 yards and two touchdowns.

The Bobcats (2-2) took the lead once during the game early in the fourth quarter on a 2-yard touchdown run by Cody Cook. Cook then caught a Bleskin pass for the 2-point conversion, giving Montana State a 38-31 lead. Three Lumberjack touchdowns followed, including a 25-yard interception return of a Bleskin pass by linebacker Ortavious Hypolite in the final seconds.

“We ran into a hot offense tonight,” said MSU coach Rob Ash. “Explosive offenses can be like good-shooting basketball teams, they get on a roll and it’s really hard to stop. I thought we played very well in the third quarter, we stopped them from scoring and got the only points of the quarter. But they answered in the fourth quarter, and credit’s to them.”

While Jake Bleskin threw for 300 yards for the second straight game, his brother Tanner reached a milestone. His 131 yards receiving vaulted him into first place on MSU’s all-time receiving list, past his friend and former teammate Elvis Akpla with 2,268 yards. His 160 catches is third in school history and 25th in Big Sky Conference annals.

MSU plays at North Dakota next Saturday.