CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - The James Madison Road Show rode through Finley Stadium Friday night, and now it's official: These Dukes can get downhill on any field.
Maurice Fenner ran for 164 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winner at 3:25 of the third quarter, and JMU rumbled for 314 yards overall to topple Montana 31-21 in the Division I-AA title game.
The eighth-ranked Dukes, the first I-AA finalist to win three road playoff games, played perfect ball control while improving to 13-2 in front of 16,771 fans. The Grizzlies, seeking their third championship in 10 seasons, ended up 12-3.
"I've been dreaming about this since a kid playing ball in the back yard," said JMU quarterback Justin Rascati, who clinched it with his 6-yard TD run with 8:00 left. "It's a great feeling. I can't even describe it."
The seventh-ranked Griz were undone by untimely mistakes, an awful field and the Dukes' deft zone blocking. Freshman kicker Dan Carpenter struggled on Davenport Field's unstable turf, missing two field goals. The Grizzlies dug JMU out of holes on two drives that netted the Dukes 10 points with penalties.
And James Madison's defense did just enough to blunt the Grizzlies' potent offense.
Montana quarterback Craig Ochs had a huge night, throwing for a career-high 371 yards and three touchdowns. He went 29-for-38, including an 8-yard scoring strike to a diving Willie Walden that put Montana up 21-17 at 7:29 of the third quarter.
It wasn't enough.
On their ensuing possession, the Dukes drove 78 yards and nine plays, all of them runs, to go up 24-21. Key were bursts of 13 and 11 yards by Fenner, and a 25-yard sprint by Alvin Banks.
After Montana got to JMU's 13 only to see Carpenter's 31-yard field goal go wide right, the Dukes went 80 yards in 16 plays, capped by Rascati's keeper.
"We couldn't stop them all night, pretty much, when we had to," said Montana defensive tackle Blake Horgan. "It pretty much came down to that. They just kept running the ball. That's what to do."
It wasn't the most exciting performance, but it certainly pleased roughly 7,000 JMU fans present. They roared with each tackle-breaking run by Fenner, Banks (88 yards) and Rascati (57 yards, two TDs). All of them are 220-pound sophomores. The trio helped the Dukes hold the ball for almost 12fi more minutes. Fenner and Banks worked back from injuries only last week.
"We thought we'd have to throw the ball, but we were making so many yards rushing, we didn't have to throw it," JMU coach Mickey Matthews said. "Obviously we're a pretty good football team when Maurice and Alvin are healthy."
It helps to have 285-pound guard Matt Magerko pulling and 260-pound fullback Chris Iorio lead blocking. The duo teamed with 295-pound center Leon Steinfield and 300-pound guard George Burns for some excellent push. After the first quarter, anyway.
By then, Montana had held the Dukes to 2 yards, and owned a 7-0 lead. The Grizzlies took the opening kick and went 71 yards, capped by Ochs' scrambling, 3-yard pass to Jefferson Heidelberger at 10:16 of the first. It was the first TD James Madison had surrendered in the first quarter all season.
"Offensively, we played so bad in the first quarter, I think we thought kickoff was at 8:30," Matthews said.
"We thought we could run it on them. I thought if they had a weak point on their football team, it was their defense," he said. "Their stats have gotten better the last six weeks, but they were playing at home. Up to that point they had not been a great defensive football team. We felt we could exploit them. We thought we were better than them."
James Madison started imposing its will. Montana's second possession ended with a fake field goal from the Dukes' 30. Carpenter took a pitch and made a nice cut, but was stopped a yard short of first down.
James Madison used 14 plays to drive for a chip-shot field goal by David Rabil, then, after Carpenter pulled a 45-yard field goal left, went 71 yards in 10 plays. Fenner started the drive with a 17-yard burst, and capped it with a 1-yard plunge behind Iorio. The Dukes led 10-7 at halftime, and had set the tone.
"I think they just decided they were going to do it," said Montana coach Bobby Hauck. "They played well up front, I thought they wore us down a bit, they're extremely physical with their inside three, and their backs did a good job."
James Madison took the second half kickoff and scored again, this time on an 11-yard run by Rascati. Staring at their first 10-point deficit since Oct. 30 at Portland State, the Griz scored two touchdowns less than a minute apart, sandwiched around a fumbled option pitch by Banks, which Nick Vella recovered. Ochs hooked up with Levander Segars for a 17-yard TD at 8:51; after the fumble, he hit Walden.
Rascati's final TD was helped along when on second-and-goal from the 12, the QB threw incomplete, but was hit late by defensive tackle Kerry Mullan. The personal foul set up first-and-goal, and the Louisville transfer scored on the next play.
"In my mind, without going back through it play by play - which I'll do - the three biggest plays in the game that maybe turned the tide against us were the two missed field goals and the roughing the passer call," Hauck said. "We pushed off on the quarterback late, and that makes it a double-digit lead for them, rather than them being in a field goal situation, and the lead's going to be six.
"It changes the whole complexion of the game. The two missed field goals, had we been able to make those, it's also a different ball game."
The Atlantic 10 Dukes had played only one other team from west of the Mississippi before Friday, but had little trouble running the rock. Ochs, whose final pass was intercepted by Clint Kent, after which JMU ran the final 6:14 off the clock, could only do so much.
"Congratulations to JMU, but also congratulations to our team," Hauck said. "Our kids did an amazing job. Our seniors did a great job of leading a bunch of young kids on our team. I've never been around a team that came as far from Sept. 1 to the end of the season."
Game recap
- Crowd: 16,771
- Conditions: Clear, 39 degrees.
- Elapsed time of game: 3:14
- Records: James Madison finished its season at 13-2. Montana finished at 12-3.
- Key stat: James Madison rushed for 314 yards and held the ball for 36 minutes 13 seconds, compared to 23:47 for Montana.
- Key moment: After the Griz went ahead 21-17, James Madison drove 72 in nine plays, all runs, to take the lead for good on a 1-yard run by Maurice Fenner with 3:25 to play in the third quarter.
- Quotable: "It's an absolutely great year for us. It's been an honor to play with these guys. It's beeen a fabulous team. We came up a little bit short tonight, but it's a year I'll always remember and have fond memories of." - UM quarterback Craig Ochs