Buried by Bears: RMC 52, Lights 3

Before Saturday’s highly-anticipated rematch with the Rocky Mountain College Battlin’ Bears, Montana State University-Northern head coach Aaron Christensen predicted the Bears would run right at the Lights’ defense.

As it turned out, Christensen was spot on, and the Lights’ defense seemed helpless to stop it.

The Bears rushed for 372 yards on 60 carries inside windy Blue Pony Stadium, in what turned into a 52-3 Rocky route Saturday afternoon.

“We knew they were gonna do it,” Christensen said of Rocky’s running attack. “We were prepared for it, and we just didn’t do a good enough job of stopping it. They (Bears) executed really well. But we have to do a better job of tackling and getting stops, and we didn’t today.”

In the first meeting between the two teams back on Sept. 2, the Lights got plenty of stops and had the Bears on the ropes in Billings. That was, until Sam Sparks returned an 86-yard kickoff for a touchdown to lift the Bears to the win. In the second matchup, Sparks didn’t return any kicks for scores, but he exploded in the first quarter, scoring on a 29-yard run on the first drive of the game, then adding a 1-yard score following a 50-yard jaunt to put the Bears ahead 14-0 10 minutes.

The Lights held strong and even got a couple of sacks on true freshman starting quarterback Drew Korf, who was filling in for the injured Jacob Bakken, but Rocky answered a short Tommy Langley field goal with more spark from Sparks.

The Bears who attempted just five passes in the first half, drove down into Northern territory early in the second period, but the Lights held Rocky on third down. However, the Bears opted to pick up the first down instead of try a 50-yard field goal, and on 4th-and-1, Sparks struck with a 43-yard scamper to endzone, his third score of the half. Korf added a touchdown pass late in the half, and Rocky trotted into the locker room up 28-3.

“Offensively, I thought we moved the ball pretty well in the first half,” Christensen said. “But we didn’t finish drives. We missed a couple of field goal tries, and field goals are points, that’s still finishing drives. So the bottom line is, we didn’t do a good job of finishing what were some pretty good drives.”

On the other side, Sparks amassed the 100-yard mark in the first 30 minutes of the game on his way to 168 yards via just 12 carries. And even with a big lead, the Bears were far from finished, as they made sure there would be no last-second heroics needed against the Lights a second time.

In the second half, Mason Melby and Jade Olson both scored rushing touchdowns, while Korf threw a 50-yard TD to Prince Shonola, and Griff Amies tacked on a fourth-quarter field goal. The Lights on the other hand, had no answer, as they turned it over three times in the second half and failed to mount any serious scoring charges.

“In the second half, we didn’t play well at all offensively,” Christensen said. “You’ve got to do better than what we did in the second half. That’s the bottom line.”

Rocky played well offensively from start to finish as the Bears improved to 4-2 in the Frontier Conference. Even with Bakken out, the Bears racked up over 500 yards of offense, with Melby adding 90 yards on the ground, Olson piling up 56 more and Korf throwing for an efficient 164 yards and two scores on just 16 pass attempts. Steven Fernandez had a season-high 14 tackles for the Northern defense, while Garet Fowler added 12 and Jaren Maki finished with 10. Josh Wright added a sack.

“Our offensive line did a great job of getting a push,” RMC head coach Jason Petrino said. “We’ve challenged them the last two weeks. We’re at our best when we’re able to move the football on the ground.”

Offensively, Rocky’s defense, and windy conditions foiled a Northern offense that has struggled the last two weeks. In the first meeting, MSU-N went well over 500 yards against the Bears, but Saturday, the Lights totaled just 255 yards and 14 first downs. B.J. Peters rushed for 49 yards, while Tommy Wilson threw for 120 yards. Marvin Williams caught three passes, while Bryce Bumgardner and Jace Koester each hauled in two.

“The last time we played them they got after us pretty good,” Petrino said. “We were on our heels all game long. What we didn’t do was give up any big plays.”

The loss dropped the Lights to 0-6 in the Frontier and 1-6 overall. Things don’t get any easier for Northern either, as the Lights travel to Butte next Saturday for a second meeting with the Montana Tech Orediggers.

Bear Bite

Lights are 0-6 in Frontier, 1-6 overall; Next Up: at Montana Tech, Saturday

Lights Notes: Northern rushed for just 101 yards on 24 carries Saturday. Starting running back Trey Blanchard missed much of the game because of an injury he suffered at Eastern Oregon last week. RMC tight end Darneail Jenkins was a huge threat receiving Saturday, catching five passes for 59 yards and a score. Rocky had 29 first downs, while eight different RMC ball carriers were involved in the running game. On Rocky's first drive of the game, the Bears didn't throw a single pass. Wright had a big game for the Lights, with his sack, seven tackles and a fumble recovery.