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Carroll's running game brings a rough week for Northern football to a tough end
Montana State University-Northern receiver Marvin Williams tries to escape Carroll College tacklers during Saturday's Frontier Conference game at Blue Pony Stadium. The Fighting Saints rushed for over 500 yards in their 59-7 win.
Montana State University-Northern red-shirt freshman quarterback Dylan Cook runs away from the Carroll defense during Saturday's game at Blue Pony Stadium. Cook was Northern's leading rusher and threw for the Lights' only touchdown of the game, which the Saints won 59-7.
Northern's Brooks Dunn tackles a Carroll runner during Saturday's game at Blue Pony Stadium.
MSU-N's Seth Roemmele, right, tries to haul in a pass during Saturday's game at Blue Pony Stadium.
Montana State University-Northern quarterback Bryce Missey, left, hands the ball off to Trey Blanchard during Saturday's game at Blue Pony Stadium. The Lights' offense was shut down by a dominant Carroll College defense.
MSU-N's Caymus Thomas stretches for a ball during Saturday's game at Blue Pony Stadium.
Northern red-shirt freshman quarterback Dylan Cook runs away from the Carroll defense during Saturday's game at Blue Pony Stadium. Cook was Northern's leading rusher and threw for the Lights' only touchdown of the game.
The Montana State University-Northern Lights finally returned to some sense of normalcy Saturday - meaning, they were playing football. Unfortunately for the Lights, on the field, Carroll College made it more of the same.
Three days removed from head coach Aaron Christensen's decision to step down, the Lights returned to Blue pony Stadium, but ran into a buzz saw in Carroll, in what turned out to be a 59-7 Frontier Conference loss to the Fighting Saints.
Still, with all that the Lights have been through over the last seven days, MSU-N showed heart and effort by just taking the field, and they left it all there Saturday.
"We talked this week about sticking together," MSU-N interim head coach Jake Eldridge said. "We talked about doing this for each other. We had a great week of practice, and our effort was very good today. Unfortunately, we're really banged up and really short-handed, and then you have Carroll playing as well as they did, it was tough."
Defensively, the Lights have suffered a rash of season-ending injuries, leaving them razor-thin. And it showed Saturday as Carroll rushed for 539 yards and totaled 658 on just 76 offensive plays.
The Fighting Saints, who won for just the third time this season, scored three times in the first quarter, opening with a touchdown run from Major Ali, and finishing with a 44-yard TD pass from freshman QB Reese Hiibel to Shane Sipes. The Lights' defense, which created a turnover on Carroll's first possession of the game, held strong for much of the second, but Hiibel broke free on a scoring run late in the second stanza to send Carroll into the halftime break leading 28-0.
And the Saints were far from done.
They scored 24 points in the third quarter, while Northern's lone answer came on a 52-yard strike from Dylan Cook to Beau Wilhelm, making the score 48-7. The Saints tacked on a Dylan Torgerson field goal and a Ryan Arntson 60-yard TD run in the fourth to pile up their highest point total of the season. Hiibel ran for 145 yards and Arntson rushed for 128, while Ali and Ryan Walsh combined for 140 more.
Garet Fowler led the Northern defense with 11 tackles, while Dakota Schelling had 10 and Steven Fernandez added nine. Ian Sparrow and Josh Wright each recorded sacks.
"We knew they (Saints) wanted to run the ball, and, when they committed to it, they ran it really well today," Eldridge said. "For us, we just couldn't match their physicality up front, and we had too many missed tackles in the open field. It was just tough because Carroll is such a physical football team, and we just weren't able to match it today."
Northern also sputtered offensively against a physical Carroll defense, which has allowed just 10 points in its last two wins. The Lights had an abysmal 97 yards of total offense, rushing for just 26. They also had just 12 first downs to Carroll's 34. Starting quarterback Bryce Missey completed just 5-of-25 passes, while Cook lead the Lights with 33 yards on 13 carries and 52 through the air. MSU-N also turned the ball over twice, and both resulted in points for the Fighting Saints.
"We just couldn't seem to get anything going offensively," Eldridge said. "Credit Carroll's defense. They are a physical and tough group and they put a lot of pressure on us up front."
It was a rough day for the Lights, in all phases. But at the end of it all, Northern was still playing. The Lights showed up, took the field, and battled to the very end. And after what they went through this past week, that's an accomplishment in and of itself.
"Proud of the guys," Eldridge said. "They're sticking together. They're not giving up. We didn't play good enough today. To win in this conference, you have to play better than how we did today. But we fought hard, the effort was there. And we'll just go right back to work and keep trying to get better, moving forward."
The Lights (0-8, 1-8) will play their final home game of 2017 this Saturday when they host undefeated Southern Oregon at noon at Blue Pony Stadium.
Saint Style
Lights are 0-8 in Frontier, 1-8 overall; Next Up: vs Southern Oregon, Saturday
Lights Notes: Northern has lost as many as 12 players to season-ending injuries, including recent injuries to second-leading tackler Dequincy Bergen, and starting linebacker Jake Norby, both of whom missed Saturday's game. The Lights were also without captain and starting offensive lineman Clint Willis. Saturday's game was the third time this season the Lights have surrendered over 500 yards rushing. Fernandez forced one of two Carroll fumbles on the day, while Wright recorded a sack for the third straight game.
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