Two Lights earn Frontier honors

A pair of Montana State University-Northern athletes have earned Player of the Week honors for outstanding performances last week.

MSU-Northern senior kicker Jordan Rueschhoff was named Frontier Conference Football Special Teams Player of the Week for his role in Northern’s 44-41 win last Saturday at Rocky Mountain College. Rueschhoff, who earned the honor for the second time this season, kicked a game-winning 2-yard field goal as time expired to lift the Lights to a dramatic win. He was 3-of-3 on field goals at RMC and was also perfect in extra points. Northern’s Zach McKinley and Kyle Cochran were also nominated for football honors this week.

Meanwhile, MSU-N senior Corbin Pearson was named Frontier Men’s Basketball Player of the Week. In last Monday’s loss at Concordia College, Pearson poured in 30 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Pearson was a scorching 13-of-14 from the field.

Only two Frontier Conference teams will represent the league in the upcoming NAIA football playoffs. Carroll College, which won the league title outright, goes into the playoffs as the No. 1 team in the NAIA. The Fighting Saints moved to No. in the final NAIA Coaches Poll, released Sunday afternoon. The Saints will host Northstar Athletic Conference champion Valley City State in the first round of the playoffs on Saturday in Helena.

Southern Oregon is also in, and will host MidAmerican Nazarene in the first round of the playoffs Saturday in Ashland, Oregon. However, the team that stopped the Raiders from sharing the Frontier title, Eastern Oregon, was snubbed for a playoff berth. The Mounties shocked the Raiders last Saturday in Ashland, but on Sunday, EOU was left out of the playoff bracket. The Mounties won their last four games and finished with an 8-3 overall record. They finished No. 15 in the last Coaches Poll as well, but were still left out. SOU dropped from No. 4 to No. 8 in the final poll.