Lights fall to Montana Tech

After a two week break, the Montana State University-Northern football team had high hopes for its home-opener against Montana Tech, but unfortunately, the Orediggers had other ideas.

In a dominant effort on both sides of the ball, Tech thrashed Northern Saturday at Blue Pony Stadium, thanks to a four-touchdown performance from Nolan Saraceni, as well as a solid debut by new quarterback Quinn McQueary, who threw a pair of touchdown passes in the Diggers easy 58-7 win.

Tech controlled the game on the ground from start to finish and in the first half, they built a 34-0 lead. Yet, the Lights had a glimmer of hope early in the third when Jess Krahn found Kagen Khamaneh for a 15-yard touchdown to make the score 34-7.

Yet, as it did all day, Tech had the answer and it came via Saraceni, who essentially ended his day by sprinting 64 yards for a touchdown. Then, on the Diggers' next possession, Zach Winfield scampered 61 yards for a score, pushing the lead to 48-7.

The Lights had some chances to score in the fourth quarter but failed, while Tech added ten points in the last stanza to make the final score 58-7. The Diggers are 1-0 on the season, while the Lights are now 0-2 and 0-1 in Frontier Conference play.

"We obviously have a lot of work to do," Northern head coach Aaron Christenson said. "We just have to go back to work this week and try to improve as much as we can."

The Lights will be back in action next Saturday when they will travel to Billings to take on conference foe Rocky Mountain.