MISSOULA, Mont. - Week two of the 2021 fall season saw Western Illinois football (0-2, 0-0) on the road again. A test against the #4 Montana Grizzlies (2-0, 0-0) took up Saturday evening (Sept. 11), ending as a 42-7 loss for WIU.

On its second drive, Montana struck first in the scoring column around the four-minute mark in the opening quarter, running in a 7-yard carry. Three penalties hurt the Leathernecks, and the opposing defense kept WIU on its side of the field during the first 15 minutes. However, with seconds remaining in the first frame, the Western defense saw light after Dallas Martin recovered a fumbled ball.

Big plays from the WIU defense helped prevent another score by the home team early in the second period, as the Grizzlies could not convert a 50-yard field goal attempt. Penalties continued as a detriment for Western, as a touchdown catch by Dennis Houston was called back due to an illegal block in the back. Minutes later, Montana completed an 8-play, 96-yard drive by flying in a 12-yard pass to the right side of the end zone with just over six minutes before halftime. Less than a minute later, Michael Lawson swooped in to intercept a pass by the Grizzlies and return it to the house for a whopping 75 yards, cutting the lead to 14-7. The quarter's frenzy was capped off with another Montana touchdown on a last-second, 18-yard pass. This momentous play gave the host a 21-7 halftime edge.

A 39-yard pass upped Montana's advantage to 28-7, just three minutes into the third. Jumbled play then occurred with Western throwing an interception and Lawson responding with his second pick of the night on Montana's next drive. A fumble recovery by the Grizzlies led to another score at 6:27 in the quarter.

The second play of the fourth quarter resulted in Montana's fifth passing touchdown, which would be its final points of the evening.

Up next, Western has its sights set on its home opener -- a Saturday (Sept. 18) 3 p.m. CT meeting against Eastern Washington.
 

Notes

• Michael Lawson's 75-yard interception return places ninth-best on the all-time single-game list. He is the first Leatherneck to return an interception for a touchdown since Quentin Moon at North Dakota State in 2017 (43 yards). Lawson is also the first player to record two interceptions since Eric Carrera ironically did the same against Montana in 2018. It was the first multi-interception game of his career.

• WIU's four takeaways were its most in a single game since a 2018 win at Southern Illinois. Darius Joiner grabbed his first interception with the Leathernecks.

• Dallas Martin picked up WIU's second fumble recovery of the year. Michael Lawson collected the first one at Ball State during the season opener.

• In his second game as a Leatherneck, Myles Wanza started at halfback and totaled 40 rushing yards.

• Dennis Houston now has 15 consecutive games with a caught pass.

• Connor Sampson has rung up ten straight games of 100 or more passing yards. He finished 21-31 with 111 yards.