Dawgs run by Lights

The Montana State University-Northern defense had really been putting up some strong numbers, and a strong front during the first three weeks of the 2014 season. But the Lights found out how the other half lives Saturday afternoon in Dillon.

In a game that featured the top two defenses in the Frontier Conference, it was the offenses that took center stage Saturday at Vigilante Stadium, as the UM-Western Bulldogs raced past the Lights 50-30. The two teams came in each surrendering less than 400 yards per game, but both offenses easily surpassed those numbers, while the Bulldogs outscored Northern 23-7 in the second half.

Western rolled up 504 yards of offense, including 255 on the ground, and the Bulldogs, who snapped a three-game losing streak with the win, got a huge day from quarterback Tyler Hulse. The junior accounted for five touchdowns, threw for 255 yards and ran for another 93 on 12 carries. While Western running back Sam Rutherford, and Northern counterpart Zach McKinley came into to the game as the focal points, it was Hulse and Northern QB Travis Dean who spent the day going back and forth.

“The offenses definitely had the upper hand,” Northern interim head coach Jake Eldridge said. “As a defense, we got outplayed big time. Western came out and punched our defense in the mouth and we didn’t respond. Western ran the ball really hard, they pounded it right at us, and we made some very uncharacteristic mistakes defensively. And we just weren’t physical enough, or aggressive enough.”

Hulse opened the scoring with a 61-yard touchdown run less than three minutes into the contest. It started a 21-point first quarter for the Western offense. Jordan Rueschhoff answered with a career-best 47-yard field goal, but the Dawgs came right back as Hulse hit Matt Lickfold for a 48-yard TD. However, the first-half fireworks were only beginning as Dean found Jake Messerly on a 73-yard score to make it 14-10 Western with six minutes left in the first stanza.

And the back-and-forth tussle continued as the two top-ranked defenses could do little to slow the offenses down. Western closed the first quarter with another Hulse to Lickfold TD, but Dean threw a 42-yard strike to Trevor Baum just eight seconds in the second quarter to make the score 21-17. Hulse added a 17-yard TD run in the second, while Dean found Baum on a 60-yard scoring strike to end the scoring in a wild first half which saw Western lead 27-23.

And while the Lights were lighting up Western’s normally staunch defense in the first half, things didn’t go the same way for Northern in the final 30 minutes.

“Our offense came out doing whatever they wanted,” Eldridge said. “We were running up and down the field on them, and we had a ton of big plays. I felt like we were firing on all cylinders in the first half. We played really well offensively.

“Unfortunately, when our defense finally did buckle down and get some stops in the fourth quarter, that was the time when things went the other way for our offense. We just didn’t capitalize on those stops and the scoring opportunities we had down there. So that was tough.”

With Western already in front 30-23, Hulse capped a drive with a one-yard plunge to give the Bulldogs a 37-23 lead with just the fourth quarter remaining. And the Western defense finally broke Northern’s back when Taft Benson intercepted Dean and returned it 25 yards for a score early in the fourth quarter, putting the Bulldogs too far ahead for Northern to rally. The Lights added a 35-yard pass from Dean to Baum, but it was too late for MSU-N to claw all the way back.

Like Western, Northern’s offense had a huge day. Dean threw for a career-high 403 yards to go along with five touchdowns as the Lights piled up 544 yards of offense. Baum finished his career day with 11 catches for 218 yards, while Messerly added seven grabs for 131 yards. On the ground, Northern was effective at times, with McKinley, the Frontier’s leading rusher, gaining 93 yards, but only on 11 carries. Mario Gobbato also carried seven times for 44 yards.

But the day belonged to Hulse and the Western attack. The Bulldogs got 99 yards from Rutherford on the ground, while Dylan Kramer rushed for 58 on 10 carries. Lickfold led the receivers with six catches for 141 yards, while the Bulldogs ran five more plays than the lights and gained just one more first down.

Defensively, MSU-N sophomore Tyler Craig got his sixth sack of the season and had seven stops. Kaimi Kanehailuia had 10 tackles, while Tucker Dunn and Will DeVos added five each.

The loss dropped the Lights to a bitter 0-3 in the Frontier Conference and 1-3 overall. The Bulldogs improved to 2-2 in the league and 2-3 overall, as they head into their bye week.

On the other hand, Northern will have a tall order in front of it if it wants to get its first conference win of 2014. Saturday, the Lights will host unbeaten and No. 9-ranked Southern Oregon at Blue Pony Stadium.

“There’s no off week,” Eldridge said. “The Western game is behind us now. We’re moving forward and we’ll come back to work on Monday and get ready for an entirely different beats in Southern Oregon. That’s what we have to do, and we’ll work really hard to get ready for that game.”

Western 50, Lights 30

MSU-Northern 10 13 0 7 - 30

Western 21 6 10 13 - 50

UM-W-Tyler Hulse 61 run (Connor Greth kick)

MSU-N-FG Jordan Rueschhoff 47

UM-W-Matt Lickfold 48 pass from Hulse (Greth kick)

MSU-N-Jake Messerly 73 pass from Travis Dean (Rueschhoff kick)

UM-W-Lickfold 51 pass from Hulse (Greth kick)

MSU-N-Trevor Baum 42 pass from Dean (kick failed)

UM-W-Hulse 17 run (kick failed)

MSU-N-Baum 60 pass from Dean (Rueschhoff kick)

UM-W-FG Greth 34

UM-W-Hulse 1 run (Greth kick)

UM-W-Taft Benson 25 interception return (kick failed)

MSU-N-Baum 35 pass from Dean (Rueschhoff kick)

UM-W-Sam Rutherford 40 run (Greth kick)

Individual Statistics

Rushing – MSU-N: Zach McKinley 11-93, Mario Gobbato 7-44, Travis Dean 2-10, Trevor Baum 2-(-6). UM-W: Sam Rutherford 15-99, Tyler Hulse 12-93, Dylan Kramer 10-58, Beau Brekke 1-0, Team 1-(-1).

Passing – MSU-N: Dean 26-39-2 403 yards. UM-W: Hulse 15-27-1 255 yards.

Receiving – MSU-N: Trevor Baum 11-218, Jake Messerly 7-131, John Jansen 4-29, McKinley 1-15, Logan Mayernik 1-6, Nick Luoma 1-3, Jacob Criner 1-1. UM-W: Matt Lickfold 6-141, Matthew Furhman 4-67, Brekke 1-19, George Sherwood 2-15, Quinn Chamberlain 1-13, Rutherford 1-0.