Frontier Notebook: Frontier a two team race now

Two weeks left in the Frontier Conference football season, and as expected, the Frontier title will go down to the wire. In fact, unless a drastic upset takes place, it looks like a tie in the Frontier standings is more than likely.

This past Saturday, Carroll College and Southern Oregon kept pace with each other, both winning handily. Carroll blasted the Montana State University-Northern Lights in Havre, while SOU thumped Rocky Mountain College 45-28.

In the standings, the Fighting Saints and Raiders are tied at 7-1, each with two games left. Carroll will host a reeling RMC squad Saturday, then finish with a home game against College of Idaho Nov. 15. SOU plays its last road game this Saturday, at Montana Tech, then returns home to host Eastern Oregon in a rivalry game Nov. 15.

With RMC dropping its game at UM-Western last Saturday, the Battlin’ Bears have fallen out of contention for the Frontier title. At the start of the season, Rocky was a popular pick to challenge Carroll and SOU for the conference crown.

However, EOU still has plenty to say about the conference championship, but the Mounties will have to win their last two road games, which would include an upset at SOU, and need Carroll to drop its last two home games, in order to share the league title. That scenario is unlikely given how well the Saints are playing, but EOU can very much spoil the conference title for the Raiders with a win in LaGrande, Oregon Nov. 15. Two wins to finish the season would also put EOU within striking distance of being the third Frontier team invited to the NAIA playoffs.

At this point, barring a disaster for either team, Carroll and SOU are locked into the playoffs, no matter which team wins the league’s automatic bid.

Hungry Dawgs

When the UM-Western Bulldogs come to Havre Saturday for Northern’s home finale, they will have plenty to play for. Though it’s Western’s last game of the season, and the Bulldogs have no chance of winning the Frontier or making the playoffs, they will be in Havre ready for a fight.

Western, which beat the Lights 50-30 back on Sept. 20 in Dillon, has a chance to go 6-4 in the Frontier standings, and post its first true winning record in nearly 10 years. The Bulldogs upset then nationallyranked RMC last Saturday, and, in just B.J. Robertson’s second season as head coach, have become a tough team to beat for Frontier opponents.

And one of the main reasons the Dawgs are hard to handle is their consistency. Western does nothing fancy, and the Bulldogs won’t likely have many All-Conference players on offense. But they run the ball extremely well with sophomores Sam Rutherford and Dylan Kramer, and senior quarterback Tyler Hulse makes few mistakes. He’s thrown 15 touchdowns on the season, while only throwing five interceptions in 262 pass attempts this fall.

Western’s defense is just as steady. Led by safety Jess McCloud, defensive end Phil Selin, and a rabid group of linebackers, the Dawgs allow just 28 points per game, 401 yards of offense and a Frontier-best 122 yards rushing per game. The Bulldogs have also garnered 15 takeaways this season, meaning their defense is just as steady and rock solid as their offense.

And while some teams with no hopes of finishing high in the conference standings will generally mail in their last game, the Bulldogs won’t. With a win in Blue Pony Stadium Saturday, Western would finish off one of its best seasons in a long, long time, and with tons of talent returning, would establish itself as a major player in the Frontier in 2015.

Great Falls production

Saturday will be senior day for the MSU-Northern Lights when they take on UM-Western. And interim head coach Jake Eldridge says the goal will be to make sure the seniors leave Blue Pony Stadium with one last win.

“We have to go out represent these seniors and get ’em out of here with a win on senior day,” Eldridge said. “So we just have to go back to work, and I think we’ll have a good week of practice and be ready to play Western next Saturday.”

And while Northern’s 15 seniors will do everything they can to make sure that happens Saturday, it’s a couple of sophomores from Great Falls who can really help lift the Lights to a win.

Running back Zach McKinley is now smashing Northern records every time he steps on the field. The former CMR product has already broken five different MSU-N single-season and all-time rushing records, and he’s nowhere near done.

On the other side of the ball, sophomore defensive end Tyler Craig is doing the same. With two games left in the season, Craig needs 1.5 sacks to tie the Northern single-season record, and he’s averaging one sack per contest, which means he could break the record over the next two weeks. Craig has a Frontier best 10 sacks so far and is certainly a candidate for Frontier Defensive Player of the year.

Lost season

The Montana Tech Orediggers were picked to finish fifth in the Frontier Conference this fall. It was a modest pick, but certainly, the Orediggers didn’t think they’d be where they are now.

Tech has lost eight straight games since beating MSU-Northern Aug. 30 in Butte.