BOZEMAN — It'll be Friday night lights for the Montana State Bobcats in the quarterfinal round of the FCS playoffs.
The No. 2-seeded Bobcats will host seventh-seeded Stephen F. Austin at 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 12, inside Bobcat Stadium. Third-seeded Montana will host No. 11-seeded South Dakota on Saturday, Dec. 13. Kickoff between the Grizzlies and Coyotes is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
The quarterfinal schedule was announced during ESPN2's Saturday night broadcast of the second-round game between No. 8 seed UC Davis and No. 9 seed Rhode Island.
Montana State, seeking its second consecutive trip to the FCS championship game, advanced to the quarterfinal round with a 21-13 win over Yale on Saturday, while Stephen F. Austin — quarterbacked by former Griz QB Sam Vidlak — got past No. 10 Abilene Christian 41-34 in the second round.
Montana cruised to a 50-29 win over No. 14-seeded South Dakota State in the second round. The Grizzlies will meet a South Dakota squad coming off a 47-0 demolition of sixth-seeded Mercer.
The winners of those two quarterfinal games will meet in the semifinal round on Dec. 20. Montana and Montana State have never met in the playoffs.
The other quarterfinal games will both be played Saturday, Dec. 13. Fourth-seeded Tarleton State will host No. 12 seed Villanova at 10 a.m. Mountain Time. The other quarter will pit Illinois State, which stunned top-seeded North Dakota State on Saturday, against the winner of the game between UC Davis and Rhode Island. Kickoff time has yet to be determined.
