Frontier Notebook: Red-hot Orediggers are coming to Havre

The Montana State University-Northern Lights are coming home, for a homecoming game, and, despite a loss last week at Rocky Mountain College, the Lights should be feeling confident.

Northern played one of its best games of the season in a 21-13 loss last Saturday at RMC, a game in which the Lights controlled throughout. The Northern defense held RMC to just over 200 yards of offense, while the Lights’ offense, behind a big day from Zach McKinley, racked up over 400 yards.

Of course, the only thing that mattered to the Lights was the final score, but still, they had to know how well they played, and that should give them some confidence for their homecoming game.

But confidence is only part of the equation because the Lights are facing an absolute juggernaut.

The Montana Tech Orediggers are starting to put a squeeze on the rest of the Frontier Conference. After being stunned in their season-opener at Carroll College, Tech has won five straight games, and though it’s taken some help from the likes of Eastern Oregon and UM-Western through various games, the Diggers now sit alone atop the Frontier Conference standings with just four games left in the season.

Being in first place was thanks partly to Eastern Oregon beating Southern Oregon for a second time this season, but the Diggers deserve most of the credit. Tech has been extremely balanced in every way this season. The Orediggers average 220 yards passing and 151 yards rushing per game, and they have the players to do both very well. On the other side of the ball, Tech is first in total defense, and is first against the run and third against the pass.

In other words, there’s little the Orediggers aren’t doing well right now, and that’s the team the confident Lights have to face Saturday at Blue Pony Stadium — a team that now has its sights set on closing the deal, and winning an outright Frontier championship.

“They (Orediggers) are playing better than anyone else in our league right now,” said MSU-N head coach Aaron Christensen. “They are just a very solid football team.”

Big Games Down the Stretch

Tech has by no means locked up the Frontier title. Not even close. But, the Orediggers certainly have the edge. Of course, Tech still has to travel to Southern Oregon on the final day of the regular season, but the Raiders have fallen off the pace after losing to EOU last Saturday.

And besides the Tech SOU game, there are others that will help decide the league title. Included in that are two huge games next week with Rocky hosting Tech and Western taking on Southern Oregon. Those are four of the five teams that still have a chance at the league crown, and the playoffs, and at least two of those teams will be eliminated following next Saturday’s games.

Eastern Oregon is also in the hunt and is playing well, but the Mounties don’t have complete control of their own destiny. EOU’s final four games include this Saturday’s visit from UM-Western, followed by games against College of Idaho, Rocky and Carroll College. So with two losses and already having played Tech and SOU, the Mounties need to keep winning, and will probably need a little help from someone else in order to win the Frontier and finally reach the playoffs.

Chase is On

When the Lights and Orediggers meet Saturday in Blue Pony Stadium, it will also mean a clash of perhaps the two best running backs in all of the NAIA in Northern’s Zach McKinley and Tech’s Nolan Saraceni.

And for the second straight season, they’re also battling for the Frontier rushing title. Saraceni, the reigning NAIA Player of the Year, ran away with the crown last season, and he’s leading the Frontier now with 111 yards per game. He’s also rushed for 670 yards and eight touchdowns this fall.

McKinley is close behind though. He’s coming off a 132 yard outburst against RMC and is now averaging 99 yards per game. McKinley has rushed for 593 yards and seven touchdowns this season.

And, the closest pursuer to the top two is EOU’s Alfred Gross, who averages 80 yards per contest, so there’s no doubt, the Frontier’s rushing king for 2016 will be one of the two featured backs in Saturday’s homecoming game in Havre.