Buried by 'Diggers: Montana Tech 63, Lights 16

George Ferguson

Havre Daily News sports editor

[email protected]

The nickname of the Montana Tech football team is the Orediggers. But it was the Montana State University-Northern Lights who found themselves trying to dig out of a massive hole on homecoming.

Thanks to two huge scoring spurts in the first 30 minutes, the No. 8 Orediggers overwhelmed the Lights 63-16 Saturday afternoon at Blue Pony Stadium.

Tech’s school-record 701 yards of total offense, and 21 points in just the first seven minutes of the game was more than enough to spark the Diggers to their fifth straight win, and their sixth straight victory over the Lights.

The Orediggers struck right away when star running back Nolan Saraceni went untouched for a 22-yard score, in what turned out to be a wild first quarter that also saw the Lights fumble the ensuing kickoff and Quinn McQueary throw a 20-yard touchdown pass on the very next play to put the Diggers up 14-0 before the game had barely begun. Saraceni added another touchdown three minutes later, and the Lights found themselves looking up at a 21-0 deficit.

“Tech is one of the best teams in the league and they came out and played well right away,” MSU-N head coach Aaron Christensen said. “And we didn’t play well at all. When you combine those two things, you get an ugly result like the one you saw today.”

And the game would get ugly, but not before the Lights rebounded, if only briefly.

Northern answered Tech’s third score when Caleb McLaren drilled a 55-yard touchdown pass to Ethan Snow to pull the Lights to within 14. Then, the Lights’ defense got a stop, and when Tech went to punt, the snap sailed over Derrick Holt’s head and the Lights recovered deep in Tech territory. They settled for a Tommy Langley 37-yard field goal, but they had weathered the storm and trailed just 21-10 with 2:59 left in the first quarter.

Again though, that was just the first storm. And the second one put the Lights away for good.

Tech answered the Langley field goal with a 45-yard McQueary bomb to Dion Williams. The score was the start of a 28-point barrage which included a halfback throw from Williams for another score, as well as a blocked punt for a touchdown, and Saraceni runs of 67 and two yards — the latter sending the Lights in to halftime trailing 56-10.

“Anytime you play on the road, you want to be sharp, you want to make sure you’re on point,” Tech head coach Chuck Morrell said. “And we definitely were in that first half. Our guys were on fire, in all three phases, and that’s big when you’re playing on the road.”

Tech’s fire didn’t stop either as Saraceni scampered 58 yards in the third quarter to up the lead 63-10. Northern’s defense did play much better in the second half, but the damage had been done, while on offense, backup quarterback Holden Maki threw a fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Donovan Garner.

And while Tech scored just seven points in the second half, the offensive show the ‘Diggers put on against a good Northern defense, and one who was stout against Tech last month in Butte, was staggering. Not only did the ‘Diggers roll up 700 yards of offense, but they needed just 22 first downs to do it. McQueary threw for 423 yards on just 19 completions, while missing on just three passes. And Saraceni, who the Lights held in check the last time out, was even better. On just 17 carries, the 2015 Frontier Conference Player of the Year tallied 232 yards and five touchdowns.

“Give Tech credit, they are a very good football team,” Christensen said. “But for us, we had way too many botched coverages and gave up too many big plays. With those kinds of mistakes, you’re not going to win many football games.”

While it was a rough day for a Northern defense led by 10 tackles each from Garet Fowler and Garrett Jericoff, things didn’t go much better for the MSU-N offense.

McKinley ran for 115 yards on 22 attempts, but the Tech defense held the Lights to just 151 yards rushing. And while Northern got big plays in the passing game as well, McLaren finished just 12-of-27 for 171 yards, with Sam Mix catching three balls, Garner going for a team-high 65 yards and Mario Gobbato and Mike Cocke each hauling in two passes as well.

Special teams was also a nightmare for the Lights, and for the second straight week. Northern’s fumbled kickoff in the first quarter led directly to a score as did the blocked punt, while the lights also missed a PAT.

“We just didn’t play well,” Christensen said. “It’s disappointing to have that happen this late in the season, and when we felt like we played pretty well just last week. But, we just have to learn from what happened today, and get ready to play a good game at Carroll next week.”

While the ‘Diggers improved to 6-1 and remain in first place in the Frontier Conference, the Lights fell to 1-6 and have now lost four straight since beating Carroll College last month. The Lights will get a rematch with the Saints this Saturday in Helena.