VICTORIOUS: Lights 28, Fighting Saints 14

Since Aaron Christensen arrived in Havre two years ago, as the new head coach of the Montana State University-Northern Lights, over and over he preached to his players one message: “All we want to do is be 1-0 this week. All we want to do is win our next game.”

But, a young, inexperienced and rebuilding Lights program couldn’t find a way to do that for 13 straight games dating back to August of 2015.

Number 14, however, turned out be the one. It turned out to be the week the Lights were indeed 1-0.

On a windy Saturday afternoon at Blue Pony Stadium, the Lights snapped a couple of streaks that had been weighing on the program for a long time by beating No. 21 Carroll College 28-14 in a Frontier Conference clash.

For one, it was Northern’s first win over Carroll in the last 17 meetings between the two rivals. But, more importantly, the Lights earned their first win of the Christensen era.

“It feels great,” an elated Christensen said. “It's huge to get this first one, and when you consider, we're playing a great program and team in Carroll College, it's special. I'm just really proud of our players and coaches. It definitely feels really good to finally get one.

“This is big," added star tailback Zach McKinley. “It's big to get that first W, but it's also big for the program. I think it will just make things a lot better. It gives us the confidence to go forward, knowing we are a team capable of winning football games against good teams.”

The Lights may look forward to more victories down the road, but they’ll certainly savor what happened Saturday.

Behind a physical defense that shut Carroll out for three quarters, and an offense that executed better than it has in more than a full season now, the Lights looked, and played, like the better team against the struggling Fighting Saints, who are now off to their first 1-2 start in the career of legendary head coach Mike Van Diest.

“We felt like it had been building over the first two games,” McKinley said. “We felt like we were playing really well, but we had some tough luck in those two games, and we just knew, if we could get through four quarters without any of the big mistakes that were hurting us, we could do what we did today. And that’s exactly what we did. The defense played lights out all day, and as an offense, we really cut back or eliminated the things that were hurting us. I just think the entire team played a great four quarters of football. This one was a total team win.”

Right from the start, things felt different too. The Lights were certainly amped up, playing at home, and the Northern defense forced Carroll to turn it over on downs on its first two possessions of the game. And even offensively, while Northern turned it over once, the Lights were moving the ball well on a typically stingy Carroll defense.

The stalemate that ensued continued deep into the second quarter, with the Lights’ defense continuing to hold court, including a blocked field goal by defensive back Sherman Arthur. Then, finally, the Lights struck the first blow in what would be a shutout half for the Northern defense, as Tyler Craig drilled Carroll quarterback J.T. Linder, forcing his second fumble of the half, one that was picked up by Garet Fowler – setting the Lights up deep in Carroll territory.

From there, it was the start of the Zach McKinley show as he barreled his way into the end zone, sending Northern into halftime with a 7-0 lead.

“The defense played really well all day,” Christensen said. “They were aggressive and physical and really hustled and flew around all day. And we were also able to do some things offensively when we had good field position.”

Did the Lights ever.

Carroll started the second half with the ball, but Linder threw a pass right into the waiting arms of Logan Sprouse on the third play of the third quarter, and Sprouse took it deep into Carroll territory. Three plays later, Jess Krahn zipped a pass into fullback Wyatt McKinlay, giving the Lights a stunning 14-0 lead.

And things were just getting exciting.

The Northern defense forced two more punts by the Saints, including one that was sparked by a Patrick Barnett sack, and, with time winding down in the third quarter, the Lights went on their longest march of the afternoon.

Behind key third-down conversions from Krahn to Jett Robertson and Mike Cocke, the Lights went on an 11-play drive, which ended on a McKinley five-yard power run on the first play of the fourth stanza, giving the Lights a 21-0 lead.

“We executed really well when we had scoring opportunities today,” Christensen said. “I thought Jess made some really good throws to keep drives going, and, you see what we can do when we don’t give the ball away. We had been getting nothing out of our redzone chances the first two games, but today we executed in those situations.

“When we just don’t give it away, we are capable of executing, and we did that today, against a very strong Carroll defense,” he added

The lead Northern had with just over 14 minutes left was indeed insurmountable too. MSU-N did give up two long pass plays to Connor Fohn, the second of which finally got Carroll on the board with 10:58 left. But Northern answered right back with another long touchdown drive that included two key catches by Sam Mix, and ended with McKinley’s third score of the day — one in which he powered through the line, made a beautiful spin move and then out-ran the Carroll defense to the house.

And while Carroll tacked on one late score, McKinley’s last big run of the day proved to be the nail in the Saints’ coffin.

“This one definitely feels good,” said senior Mario Gobbato. “We knew we could play this well, and at this level, even against a really good team like Carroll. We just knew we had to not make the big mistakes, and play good football for four quarters. That was our mind set today, and once we got rolling, we just played with the attitude that we refuse to lose.”

There was no question the Lights weren’t going to be denied. There was a feeling right from the start, especially radiating from a Northern defense which held the Saints to just 268 yards of offense, including a scant 54 on the ground.

“Our defense came out and played with a lot of fire today,” senior end Jordan Brusio, who had a fourth-quarter sack on Linder, said. “Holding them (Saints) to no touchdowns until the fourth quarter was huge, especially a team like Carroll. They’re a powerhouse, and we have a lot of respect for that program. But, as a defense, we played exactly like we knew we could today.”

The MSU-N defense got huge plays all over the field, including a combined 14 total tackles between Craig and Fowler. Sprouse, and the rest of the Northern secondary also made big plays on a star-studded Carroll wide receiver corps, while the likes of Craig, Brusio, Barnett, David N’Guessa, Lane Urick and Alec Wagner constantly hounded Linder and tailback Major Ali, who was making his first-career start.

And while Carroll’s defense may have stood tall, at least statistically, as the Lights were held to just 220 yards of offense, Northern still made the plays when it needed to.

McKinley, despite playing with cramps for much of the game, rushed for a hard-earned 80 yards on 27 carries, while Krahn threw for 158 yards and a lone INT. His one touchdown pass was McKinlay’s third reception in three games, while Mix caught three passes for 44 yards, and McKinley, Gobbato, Robertson and Kagen Khameneh combined for nine grabs on the afternoon, many of which were key third-down plays as Northern was a sparkling 8-of-16 on third-down conversions, while also gaining 16 first downs, five more than the Saints did all day.

And at the end of the day, all of that added up to one of the most memorable days at Blue Pony Stadium in many years, and especially in the last two. And while the Lights will certainly enjoy knocking off the Saints for just the second time in modern school history, they’ll also make sure they use Saturday’s win as a springboard to even bigger and better things.

"I think it just reinforces our message," Christensen added. "That when you work hard, and stick to what you're doing, it will play off. So, I'm just so happy to see it pay off for these guys, because they have worked hard.

“This win will bring a lot more confidence out in this team,” McKinley added. “It’s huge for us moving forward. We know now, we’ve proved it to ourselves, and we have to look it at as, if we can do this against a really good team like Carroll, then we can do it again the next time out. So this is just huge for this team and this program moving forward.”

The Lights, who improved to 1-2 in Frontier play, will quickly move forward to a showdown with nationally ranked UM-Western next Saturday in Dillon. And while that game won’t be an easy one either, Northern will use the pride of what transpired Saturday at Blue Pony Stadium to try and go out and win again.

“You work hard, it will pay off,” Craig said. “And this team has worked hard. This team went out and earned this one today, through hard work and by playing hard. And we’re not done. We’re just getting started.”

Snapped

Lights are 1-2 in Frontier, 1-2 overall; Next Up: at Western, Saturday

Lights Notes: Saturday's victory over Carroll was the Lights' first win in Blue Pony Stadium since beating Montana Tech Oct. 18, 2014. Before Saturday's loss in Havre, Carroll was 32-1 against the Lights since Northern re-instated football. With his performance on Saturday, McKinley needs a mere 27 yards to reach 4,000 rushing yards for his brilliant career. Not only did the Lights have just one turnover and 16 first downs, but they also had just four penalties the entire day, and dominated the time of possession by more than 13 minutes. Saturday's win was the very first for 50 players on MSU-N's active roster. Northern and Carroll will meet for a rematch Oct. 29 in Helena.