George Ferguson Column: These Lights have their own day now

The win the Montana State University-Northern Lights earned against Carroll College, now 10 years ago, will always be remembered. And deservedly so.

But, from Saturday forward, it won’t be remembered as the last time the Lights beat the Fighting Saints.

No, the 2016 Lights put that phrase to rest. In fact, the way the Lights played against nationally-ranked Carroll Saturday, they buried it. They buried it for good.

And that’s something these current Lights needed. They needed to win, they needed it for the football program at Northern, they needed it for the fans who support them, and most importantly, the players needed it for themselves.

Yes, there was no doubt the Lights believed they were going to win a game this season. In fact, these Lights have played so well, and are so far removed from the team that went 0-11 a year ago, they were brimming with confidence before the season started, and even after two losses to start the 2016 campaign.

However, while confident they were a team that was capable of winning games, and while knowing that first win of the Aaron Christensen era would come, they might not have known, at least when the schedule was released last summer, that much-needed, and much-wanted win would come at home, against Carroll.

Oh the irony of it all.

A month shy of 10 years from the last time the Lights beat the Saints, they did it again.

And, make no mistake, while winning a game, any game, was important to the Lights, beating Carroll made it extra special.

“We really wanted to get that win, especially against Carroll,” an emotional MSU-N senior Tyler Craig said. “It’s a damn good feeling. There’s just something about Carroll that everybody wants to beat them.”

And beat the Saints the Lights did. But this time around, Northern wasn’t playing for history. Northern wasn’t trying to dethrone Carroll from its Frontier Conference perch, or snap a 31-game Carroll winning streak, or even give itself a chance at a first-ever conference title.

No, this win against Carroll was different. This time around, the Lights were playing for something equally as important, they were playing to prove they’re a good football team. They were playing to prove they can win football games on Saturdays, just like every college football team in America does each and every fall. This time, the Lights were playing to earn respect, and to just taste victory.

And, bo,y did they ever do all of that Saturday, and more.

The Lights proved to themselves, to their fans, to their coaches who push and work to get the very best out of them each day, that they can win, that they will win, and that they are indeed a good football team. Those are things I believed, and knew already. And they are things the Lights knew too. Deep down, they already knew it all, they knew that they were good.

They just had to go out and do it. In football, in athletics, you have to prove on the field of battle, and this Lights’ team just hadn’t quite done that yet … that is until Saturday, and until they met Carroll College for the first time this season.

And all the proof that’s needed was on the Blue Pony Stadium scoreboard for all to see Saturday. The proving is over. These Lights can win. These Lights can beat the Carroll College’s of the world. They know it now and so do we.

Yes, 2006 will never go away. In fact, Northern student-athletes and coaches are reminded of it every day because a picture of that glorious October day hangs in the lobby of the MSU-N athletic department. That day will never be forgotten and rightfully so.

But, at the same time, the page has been turned. For now, there are no more losing streaks against the mighty Saints. For now at least, there’s no more anguish about losing at Northern, of any kind.

Of the many amazing memories the 2016 Lights made on Saturday, and it was an amazing Saturday, the fact that the Lights vanquished some ghosts is one of them. The Lights exercised a bunch of demons Saturday, and they did it in dominant and exciting fashion.

Make no mistake about it, Northern was the better team Saturday from start to finish. And that win, that one day, is something no one can ever take away from them.

So congratulations to the 2016 Lights. Congrats to head coach Aaron Christensen on your first win. Here’s hoping there are many more. But, no matter what the future holds, you guys have earned your own day, your own place in MSU-N history. You did that Saturday, and you did it against Carroll.

It doesn’t get much better than that.