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Decker lifts Minnesota over Montana St, 35-23

By The Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- When nothing seems to be going right for Minnesota's offense, when the young line is a little jittery and the running backs can't get going, coach Tim Brewster knows exactly where to turn.

Eric Decker almost single-handedly lifted the Gophers out of a first-quarter bog and finished with nine catches for 157 yards and a touchdown to lead Minnesota to a 35-23 victory over Montana State on Saturday.

"He's a guy that we can go to and he's a tremendously mature guy," Brewster said.

It took a while for the sluggish Gophers (3-0) to get going, but once Adam Weber started getting the ball to Decker, the Bobcats (1-2) didn't have an answer.

"Man, that's the only guy they went to, it felt like," Montana State linebacker Bobby Daly said.

Freshman DeLeon Eskridge rushed for 114 yards and three touchdowns, replacing starter Duane Bennett, who tore his ACL in last week's victory over Bowling Green. Willie VanDeSteeg added 1? sacks and a blocked field goal for the Gophers.

Demetrius Crawford returned a kick 100 yards for a score and rushed for 76 yards for Montana State, which played the Big Ten's Gophers much tougher than they did Kansas State a week ago in losing 69-10.

DeAndre Green raced right past safety Tramaine Brock on a seam pattern and was wide open when he hauled in a 32-yard scoring pass from Cody Kempt to give the Bobcats a 6-0 lead late in the first quarter.

At that point, the Bobcats had outgained Minnesota 134-21 in total yards and they held the bigger, faster Gophers to just one first down in the first quarter.

Just when Minnesota appeared to be flexing its muscle -- with a 3-yard touchdown run by Weber and another by Eskridge following an interception by Traye Simmons -- plucky Montana State pushed back.

Crawford returned the ensuing kickoff for a score -- tying a school record for the longest return set in 1954 -- to cut Minnesota's lead to 14-13.

Weber State 44, Dixie St. 7

OGDEN, Utah -- Cameron Higgins threw for a career-high five touchdowns as Weber State defeated Dixie State 44-7 on Saturday night.

Higgins completed his first 14 passes and finished 18-for-23 for 333 yards with one interception before leaving the game midway through the fourth quarter. He was 15-of-16 in the first half as the Wildcats (2-1) built a 34-7 lead.

Cody Nakamura had three touchdown catches and Trevyn Smith ran for two TDs while rushing for 116 yards on 26 carries.

Weber State gained 470 yards and held Dixie State (1-2) to 280.

Higgins threw a 4-yard touchdown to Cody Nakamura to start the scoring, then connected with Mike Phillips on a 62-yard touchdown later in the first period. Higgins threw a 37-yard touchdown to Nakamura in the second quarter and Trevyn Smith scored on runs of 10 and 14 yards later in the period.

Aaron Davis scored the only touchdown for Dixie State on a 1-yard run.

Davis finished with 45 yards on 11 carries and Dexter Hill completed 15 of 26 passes for 161 yards for Dixie State, a Div. II program.

Weber State's Jon Williams kicked a 37-yard field goal in the third quarter.

Montana 46, So. Utah 10

MISSOULA, Mont. -- Marc Mariani caught four touchdown passes Saturday to lead Montana to a 46-10 victory over Southern Utah.

Mariani, who tied a school record for most touchdown catches in a game, finished with eight receptions for 208 yards to propel the Grizzlies to a 2-0 football record on the season. Southern Utah fell to 1-2 with the loss.

"You dream of games like this," Mariani said.

The Grizzlies got four touchdown passes from backup quarterback Andrew Selle and two interceptions from true freshman cornerback Trumaine Johnson as they won their home opener in front of a stadium-record crowd of 25,056.

"All the credit goes to the University of Montana," said Southern Utah coach Ed Lamb. "They played a fantastic football game and took advantage of every mistake we made."

Montana's offense sputtered in a scoreless first quarter as freshman kicker Russell Schey had a 24-yard field goal attempt blocked and badly missed another three-point try from 47 yards.

Southern Utah "came in with a couple of completely different looks that took us some time to get a handle on," Montana coach Bobby Hauck said.

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