Carroll steam rolls Lights at home

The Montana State University-Northern Lights suffered a rough loss last Saturday at Eastern Oregon. Back in Blue Pony Stadium, the No. 2 Carroll College Fighting Saints showed no mercy on the young Lights. Saturday afternoon, Carroll drubbed MSU-N 55-13. It was Carroll's 16th consecutive win over the Lights.

Things were going fine for Northern until Carroll's Mac Roche punched in a short touchdown just before halftime. Carroll went into the half leading 28-13, and the Roche TD was the start of 34 straight points by the Saints, who improved to 7-1 in the Frontier Conference and have won seven straight games.

The Lights fought hard early on. Zach McKinley scored on a long TD run to pull the Lights to within 21-13 late int he first half. That score came on the heels of a touchdown pass from Jess Krahn to Jake Messerly after Carroll jumped out to a 14-0 lead. Krahn was filling in for the injured Travis Dean.

Despite the loss, McKinley had a huge day for the Lights. Carroll has the No. 1 rush defense in the Frontier, but McKinley gained 142 yards on just 20 carries. Overall however, Northern's offense struggled. The Saints gained 5o2 yards to just 268 for the Lights. Krahn completed just 10 passes and threw three interceptions.

The loss dropped Northern to 2-7 overall and 1-7 in the Frontier Conference. The Lights will close out their home schedule next Saturday against UM-Western.