Dillon, Mont. -  Trailing 21-17, The University of Montana Western converted on fourth down twice, moved to Rocky Mountain College's 36-yard line, and then quarterback Jon Jund connected with Jake Messerly to set the Bulldogs up at the 3-yard line with under 40 seconds to play.

Two plays later, Jund took the snap, booted left, broke a tackle and lunged to goal line. The score, Jund's second running touchdown of the game, gave Montana Western a 24-21 win over the No. 14 Battlin' Bears Saturday afternoon at Vigilante Stadium.

Rocky quarterback Jacob Bakken did attempt a hail-mary with two seconds to play, but it was batted down outside the endzone, and the newly 3-0 Bulldogs stormed the field in celebration.

"Obviously it was our last chance to win the game, and that's all that was going through our head," Jund said of the final drive. "'We've got to score guys, we gotta go now.' We didn't pick it up (offensively) the whole game until the second half. It was a good game."

The first half was all defense from both sides. The Bulldogs took to halftime up 10-0, with Mark Kharchenko drilling a 51-yard field goal and Garrett Turner returning an interception 45 yards for a touchdown.

But in the second half, Bakken came alive for the Battlin' Bears. He hit Max Gray for back-to-back touchdowns in the third quarter, the second on a broken play that went 56 yards.

Western responded down 14-10, with Jund driving 80 yards in eight plays and finishing with a seven-yard bootleg touchdown to put his side back up.

But Bakken and company weren't yet done. The quarterback again found Gray, this time on a third-and-20 from the Bulldogs' 32, to recapture the lead at 21-17 with just over eight minutes left to play.

Montana Western's defense bottled Bakken up in the first half, limiting him to just 97 yards passing. In the second half the quarterback settled, found Gray at will and finished with 291 yards on 25 of 41 passing.

Gray had 10 of those catches for 132 yards.

"Western was doing some things in the first half, but the thing with Jake is it always takes him a little bit to see it and kind of understand it, in terms of where to get the ball," Rocky coach Jason Petrino said. "Those are the things right there, second half we went back to our base stuff and were able to execute."

Jund threw his second interception on the next drive, but Western's defense regained its first-half form, forcing a quick three-and-out.

"I can't let that affect me in the last drive of the game," Jund said of the interceptions. "If that's going to bother me in the last drive of the game we're not going to go down there and win, and I had to pull it out for my team."

Rocky could have sealed the game before Jund hit Messerly to set up the winning score. Tom Roman and Chase Bertelsen shared a sack on a third-and-seven from Western's own 42.

The next play, with heavy pressure again, Jund delivered a strike to Messerly in traffic, a 13-yard completion that gave way to the winning drive with 85 seconds left to play.

"That two minute drill is something Jon is really comfortable with and part of our offense," Western coach Ryan Nourse said. "The fourth down throw was just one of our base plays we were going to use in all third-and-seven to -nine yard situations.

"We ran the play, they ran the coverage we thought they were going to run, and Jon was able to slide up and hit it."

Jund went 22 of 35 passing for 296 yards and two interceptions. He also has 12 carries for 31 yards and Western's two offensive scores.

After Jamison Hermanson went down with an injury, Messerly became the favorite target, collecting five passes for 62 yards.

With the win, Montana Western shares the top spot in the Frontier Conference, though before the start of the season the Bulldogs were picked to finish near the bottom.

For Jason Ferris, Western's star linebacker who finished with 17 total tackles and a number of key pass breakups, this win is among the biggest he's experienced as a Bulldog.

"It's high up there just because if we lose this game it's going to put us on a downhill," he said through a hoarse voice after the game "But now we can keep climbing that hill now. It's just really big."

And for Nourse, taking down a top 15 team in the nation was just another passed test, with many more to come.

"I truly believe each week in and of itself is its own challenge," he said. … This week you're playing a veteran football team that is really good, and really fast, and I'm just really proud of our guys. … It's just another great step for our team and I just hope we can keep it going."

Recap by Chance Cook