FRISCO, Texas – All year long, Montana State was second to none.

The Bobcats stormed to an undefeated record, an outright Big Sky Conference title and the No. 1 seed in the FCS playoffs.

Photos: Montana State falls short in the FCS championship game

Then came Monday night when MSU, despite a furious comeback attempt, finally met its opponent. Cam Miller and North Dakota State defeated Tommy Mellott and the Bobcats with a 35-32 victory in the national championship game before 18,005 fans at Toyota Stadium.

Slim Kimmel / MTN Sports

Miller, the runner-up to Mellott for this year’s Walter Payton Award as the FCS’ most outstanding offensive player, completed 19 of 22, threw for 199 yards, ran for 121 and accounted for four touchdowns.

It’s the second time the Bobcats have lost to NDSU in the title game. The Bison defeated MSU 38-10 to end the 2021 season.

Montana State (15-1) was a slight favorite as it looked set to break its 40-year national title drought. Instead, the Bison (14-2) won their 10th FCS crown in the last 14 years and their first since this 2021 season.

Slim Kimmel / MTN Sports

“A hard-fought battle,” Montana State coach Brent Vigen said afterward. “Of course I want to congratulate North Dakota State. They played better than us and we ended up digging ourselves a big hole. The boys fought like crazy in the second half.”

“We came here with an expectation. I know it hurts a lot for these people, especially these seniors, that they laid such a foundation for our program.”

Championship press conference: Montana State coach Brent Vigen, players react to loss

The Bison started the game in Bisonesque fashion, putting together some expert scoring to take a 7-0 lead. Miller’s leaping 2-yard run capped a 12-play, 75-yard march that lasted nearly half of the first quarter.

After an MSU punt, the Bison capitalized on a pass interference call on third down, and a few plays later, Miller broke through on a draw play up the middle against a modest Bobcat defense for a 64-yard touchdown Run to 14:0.

NDSU owned the ball for 10:10 of the first quarter and went 3-for-3 on third-down plays.

The Bobcats scored their first points on a 32-yard field goal by Myles Sansted, cutting their deficit to 14-3 with 5:38 left before halftime. The Cats had a chance to further cut the lead, but a fourth-down pass from Mellott fell incomplete with 59 seconds on the clock.

Slim Kimmel / MTN Sports

Just before halftime, Miller marched the Bison 56 yards and connected with Bryce Lance for a 1-yard touchdown pass with 12 seconds left. At that point, NDSU led 21-3. It was Lance’s 17th TD catch of the year.

“I think unfortunately our offense was a little stagnant in the first half and that’s why we came up short,” Mellott said. “But coach (Tyler) Walker got us going. The players started making plays. The boys kept fighting.”

“It’s very easy to give up when you’re down 21-3, and we came back and fought for the seniors and just came up short.”

The Bobcats did what they had to do early in the third quarter, scoring a touchdown on a 1-yard run by Scottre Humphrey to bring the score to 21-10. After an NDSU punt, Mellott found Ryan Lonergan for 54 yards and then hit Rohan Jones with a 5-yard TD pass.

Mellott hit Lonergan for a two-point conversion and suddenly the Cats were down again, 21-18.

However, Miller, who was voted the game’s Most Outstanding Player, came right back and threw a deep throw to Lance for 38 yards on third down to 2 on the final play of the third quarter. This resulted in a 1-yard pass from Miller TD to Joe Stoffel.

Slim Kimmel / MTN Sports

But the Bobcats answered as Mellott raced 44 yards down the other sideline for his first rushing TD of the night, narrowing the gap on the scoreboard to 28-25 with 11:25 left.

The teams then exchanged punts and NDSU scored on a huge third-down conversion throw from Miller to RaJa Nelson with less than 4:00 remaining in Bobcat territory. Then a 3-yard touchdown run by CharMar Brown put the Bison back up by 10. 35-25, 2:41 left.

“They practiced and played better than us today, and it’s in these critical situations – these third downs – that it shows most clearly,” Vigen said.

Montana State didn’t give up and Mellott hit Taco Dowler with a sweet 19-yard TD pass toward the corner of the end zone on fourth down to pull the Cats within 35-32 with 1:09 left.

However, Brendan Hall’s onside kick attempt was blocked by NDSU’s Lance and time expired for the Bobcats.

“We expect this program to win this game, and that’s hard to do,” Vigen said. “First and foremost, it’s really hard to get here, and the fact that we did it two out of four years I think speaks to our program.”

Turning point: Miller’s 64-yard touchdown run on that first quarter draw play on third down gave NDSU a crucial two-score lead.

Miller received the snap, took a step back and then burst through a huge hole to run 64 yards untouched. Miller appeared to be halfway to the end zone before Montana State’s defense knew what was happening.

The Bobcats were never able to fully come back.

Statistics of the game: Despite Mellott’s efforts, MSU fell well below its season rushing total. The Cats had 198 rushing yards but averaged 301.4 per game. The Bobcats broke the 30-point mark for the 16th time this season but averaged 41.3.

Bobcat game balls: QB Tommy Mellott (Attack). As he has been all season, Mellott was once again Montana State’s leader. In his final game, Mellott had 135 rushing yards, 195 passing yards and three total touchdowns.

S Rylan Ortt (defense). While the Bobcats struggled to battle Miller, Ortt was busy playing football all night. His 10 tackles led the team. Eight of them were solo stops.

What’s next?: It was a dream season for the Bobcats, but now they look to the future knowing they will have to replace Mellott, Brody Grebe and a host of seniors who helped put together one of the best four-year runs in program history.

But they do so with the knowledge that Brent Vigen will return as coach after strong interest from the FBS last month. Although MSU lost on Monday, Vigen is 47-10 in his tenure in Bozeman with just one home loss.