Tough trip: Lights head to EOU

The Montana State University-Northern football team is young. The Lights have few seniors on a talented roster for 2010. And now the Lights' resiliency is about to be tested.

On Saturday afternoon in LaGrande, Ore., the Lights (1-1, 1-1) will try to bounce back from a heartbreaking 17-13 loss to Montana Tech when they take on winless Eastern Oregon University (0-2, 0-3).

And not only is MSU-N looking to rebound from its first loss of the season, but the Lights are hoping to win in Community Stadium for the first time since 2005.

"I've been really impressed with how the kids have responded to the Montana Tech game," MSU-N head coach Mark Samson said. "It's been a good week of practice, the kids have worked hard and they've put last week behind them.

"It's one of those situations where, yes, we were disappointed after the game (Tech)," he added. "But it's so early. We've only played two games, so there's certainly no reason to panic at this point. We'll be fine."

On the other hand, the Mountaineers may have reason to panic.

EOU started out the season with high hopes and even higher expectations after going 7-4 a year ago. With one of the NAIA's top offenses returning this season, the Mounties earned the No. 20 preseason ranking, only to lose in each of their first three games, including last Saturday's 49-12 blowout loss to Carroll College at home. EOU opened the season with a loss to Southern Oregon, then was beaten by Tech 39-21 two weeks ago in Butte.

"I know they've struggled somewhat on defense," Samson said. "I think it's a situation where they lost a lot of guys off that defense last year, there's a lot of new faces and they are playing a lot of younger guys. So it's taking them some time to put it together.

"But their offense is still very good," he added. "They still have a great quarterback in Chris Ware, they have a really good running back and they are explosive. They have the potential to be a really good team still, we just haven't seen them put it together for four quarters. That makes me a little nervous because we're going in there with them trying to turn their season around."

EOU's struggles on defense are in stark contrast to what the Lights are doing defensively. While the Mounties are giving up 40 points and almost 500 yards of offense in three games, the Lights are surrendering just 13 points and 270 yards of offense. MSU-N is first in the Frontier Conference in every major defensive category while EOU is last. Northern has the league leader in interceptions in Casey Varner and the league leader in tackles in linebacker A.J. Pasalo. With two sacks last week against the Orediggers, former Blue Pony standout Jared Weigel also took over the league lead, but he was knocked out of the game in the fourth quarter and will not play this week. Senior Travis Hjort, who had an outstanding game against tech, (8 tackles and a sack) will start in Weigel's place.

And while the Lights have been lights out on defense so far, they'll have to be even better on Saturday. Despite the three losses, Ware is as dangerous a player as there is in the country, and he's only getting better as a junior. Last year in LaGrande, he torched the Lights, racking up over 400 yards of offense by himself in a 45-14 Mountaineer win.

And now that EOU has a strong running game with junior tailback Kevin Sampson leading the conference in rushing at 117 yards per game, the Mounties are even more explosive. The only thing that's held them back this season is turnovers. EOU has committed at least three turnovers in each of its first three games, and Samson expects the Mounties to be better this week.

"It's obvious they have the talent to be a really good football team," Samson said. "It's just a matter of them making a few too many mistakes up until this point. But we know what they are capable of and we're prepared for them to play well, we're prepared for this to be a very difficult game."

While EOU is hoping to put its turnover problems in the past, so will the Lights. MSU-N turned the ball over seven times in its three-point loss at home last weekend. Quarterback Derek Lear, who still leads the Frontier in passing, had four interceptions and a fumble against the Orediggers, and Samson knows he'll need to be better this week. The Lights did get a solid outing from sophomore Stephen Silva, who is second in the league in rushing, and Justin Montelius is getting healthy so the Lights are hoping to be much more balanced against EOU.

"Derek (Lear) suffered a hard day last Saturday," Samson said. "So as a team, the entire offense has to go out there and play well, and help him get his confidence back up. We need to keep getting our running game going and we need to help Derek get into a flow, so that he can do what he does best out there.

"Really, this game is more about focusing on us," he added. "We expect Eastern Oregon to play well. So what we need to do is make sure we're playing better, we're improving. If we can cut down on the mistakes we made last week, and we play as hard and as well as we did against Tech, then we'll be just fine."

And while it's only week four of the regular season, the game has plenty of meaning for both teams. The Mounties are trying to avert an even more disastrous start to a once-promising season, while the Lights are still looking to make a run at a league title and a playoff berth. And Northern's schedule is favorable after the almost 800-mile trip to EOU. The Lights play their next three games in four weeks at home and won't leave Havre again until Oct. 23.

"This is a good challenge for our team," Samson said. "For a lot of these kids, this is another first for them. We're taking a lot of player who haven't played at Eastern or been on this trip. But again, we're focused on what we can control. We just want to go down there and be a better football team than we were a week ago. If we do that, we'll be in good shape.

MSU-N and EOU will kickoff at 2 p.m. M.S.T Saturday in LaGrande, Ore.