
Lindsey Branch, UMW Sports Information
DILLON, Mont. – The no. 4 ranked Montana Western football team (10-2) capped the season this afternoon with a 31-24 loss to the no. 6 ranked Morningside University (12-1) after a season that saw the Bulldogs win the outright Frontier Conference championship and make the NAIA FCS Quarterfinals.
After leading 24-10 at the half, the Bulldogs were held scoreless in the second half as the Mustangs racked up 21 unanswered points in to close out the game on top.

How It Happened
After forcing the Mustangs to punt on their opening drive, the Bulldogs were quick to get on the board. Michael Palandri hit Dylan Shipley in stride for a 58-yard reception that put the Bulldogs on the Morningside 1-yard line. Jake Humphrey would finish the job on the following play to put Western up 7-0 early in the game.
As Morningside began to pick up steam on the following drive, UMW's James Ochs picked off Morningside's quarterback Zack Chevalier to fuel a quick scoring drive. Palandri went on to hit Eli Nourse from 32-yards out to send Western into the second quarter up 14-0.
Shortly after the start of the second quarter, Morningside's kicker Trevor Paulsen put it through the uprights to put the Mustangs on the board at 14-3.
The Bulldogs then used 15 plays to go 64 yards down the field and eat up eight minutes off the clock to score on a 24-yard field goal from John Mears. They would then go up 17-3 with four minutes to play in the first half.
Morningside answered on the following drive with their first touchdown of the game, but the Mustangs left just shy of two minutes on the clock for the Bulldogs. UMW would utilize the time left with a quick one-minute drive to score on a rush from Nourse and take a 24-10 lead into the half.
Following a fumble that gave the Mustangs excellent field position after Western's opening drive of the second half, Morningside needed just three plays to score, narrowing the gap to 24-17 against the Bulldogs.
Despite their best efforts, the Bulldog offense was unable to piece together a scoring drive for the remainder of the game. Morningside would go on to score twice more to take the lead and finish on top 31-24.

Notables
Today's loss marks the first loss for the Bulldogs at home this season.
Both teams struggled on the ground, with the two teams combining for just 151 rushing yards in the game. Western led with 85 yards on the ground.
Palandri threw for 368 passing yards and a touchdown. He went 27-41 in the game and was sacked four times.
Nourse led the Bulldogs in the air, totaling 96 yards through the air and recording a touchdown. He also added a touchdown on the ground in the game.
Aiden Prado and Keegen Muffich led the Bulldog defense with seven tackles apiece. Prado totaled seven solo tackles and a pair of pass breakups. Muffich had three solo tackles and a sack for a loss of eight yards.
Season Recap
The Bulldogs cap their season with an overall record of 10-2 and their first season in their new home at Bulldog Stadium.
Palandri completed 68.26% of his passes this season, surpassing the previous record of 64.9% set by Jason Truman in 1995. He also broke Truman's single-season passing yards record from 1994, eclipsing the former mark of 3,503 yards with an impressive 3,670-yard total. Additionally, Palandri amassed 3,972 total offensive yards and threw 34 touchdown passes, shattering Truman's 1994 records of 3,758 total yards and 33 passing touchdowns.

Nourse broke his own single season record for receiving yards of 1,186 in today's game, totaling 1,205 yards this season.
As a team, the Bulldogs broke the total offense in a season record set in 2021 at 5,399 yards. They totaled 5,773 yards of offense this season after today's game. They also broke the record for passing yards in a season with a previous record set in 1994 at 3,535 and total points scored that was set in 2021. They totaled 3,735 passing yards this season and totaled 498 points this season.














































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