Lights finish spring with an offensive outburst

For the first time under head coach Andrew Rolin, the Montana State University-Northern football team held a spring game and in front of a sizeable crowd, the Lights gave fans a glimpse at what they might see this fall.

And if Saturday was any indication, fans will see a lot of smash-mouth football.

In a simulated scrimmage, on a sunny Saturday afternoon at the Northern practice field, the Lights offense won the day, rushing for well over 200 yards in the scrimmage and racking up a total of five rushing touchdowns. Three of those came from running back Jett Robertson, who rushed for more than 100 yards himself. In all, the offense scored seven times, with four of the seven drives covering 60 yards or the more. The other three scoring drives started in the red zone.

“The offensive line, they were just rolling,” Robertson said. “They executed great and they opened some giant holes. A diesel could have driven through some of the holes that they created. Without those guys working their tails off, I wouldn’t have gone anywhere.”

“I couldn’t be more pleased,” Rolin said. “The offense did a nice job of executing and up front, I couldn’t be more proud of those guys. They were physical, they did their job and we had little to no penalties. We executed up front, we played fast and physical. I told them that I wanted great execution and great effort and we got that.”

Robertson’s big day didn’t take long to get going. On the first drive of the scrimmage, the Lights offense got the ball at its own 20-yard line and right away, Robertson ripped off a 50-yard run, putting the ball on the opposing 40. Following a 38-yard completion from Tommy Wilson to Fotios Jordanoglou, Wilson scored on a two-yard run, which was the first of two rushing touchdowns for the signal caller.

“I enjoyed getting a chance to run the football,” Wilson said. “I just tried to make some good reads and make sure that guys just can’t tee off on our running backs. Jett does a great job of working everything and he sucks everyone in, so after you give it to him a couple of times and he’s gashing them, I want to have the ability to pull it and keep the defense honest.”

Leading up to the game, coach Rolin was trying to decide whether to go live with his quarterbacks. Saturday, he made the decision to do so and Wilson said he and the others were all for it.

“We were really excited,” Wilson said. “When you go through all spring and you have to wear that gold jersey and anytime anyone gets near you it’s a tackle, so they are always those arguments of whether or not you got sacked or whether you get out of it, so when we knew we were going to go live, it gave us the opportunity to show that we could get out of trouble and extend plays.”

After the offense scored on the opening drive, the defense forced a stop and led to the first drive of the game with quarterback Bryce Missey under center. And just like Wilson did with his first drive, Missey engineered an 80-yard touchdown drive that included four completed passes and featured a 33-yard touchdown pass to tight end Kitrell Willingham.

Wilson was back under center for the next series and following a 20-yard run by Jordanoglou, as well as a 14-yard run by the quarterback himself, Wilson scored again from two yards out, giving the offense three 80-yard touchdown drives in four possessions.

“The quarterbacks got the keys to the car and they just drove it all day long,” Rolin said. “I was really proud of them.”

While the defense forced some stops as the game went on and even notched a sack, there were no turnovers, although Caymus Thomas and Devariej Criss both ended drives with pass breakups.

After Wilson led two of first three scoring drives, Missey led the next two. The second scoring drive he managed covered 60 yards and included a 30-yard completion to tight end Jordan Pugh, which set up Robertson’s first rushing touchdown of the day. Robertson would score another touchdown in a red zone drill and Missey would fire his second touchdown pass of the scrimmage, when he hit Seth Roemmele from 20 yards out for a score. The final drive of the game started at the opposing 10-yard line in a goal-to-go situation. Robertson ended the scrimmage after scoring from 10 yards out on the first play.

“We established the run and we didn’t turn the ball over,” Rolin said. “Those are two key components to winning football games offensively. We took care of the football at quarterback and that was the most exciting thing for me to see was the decision making of these guys and how physical we were up front. But I was proud of the entire team. I thought the defense did some good things as well and we have come a long way. We are not where I want us to be yet and we are still going to have those high expectations but we are headed in the right direction.”

The spring game wrapped up spring football for the Lights after 15 practices. Northern will be back on the field in August for fall camp with the 2018 season-opening game set for Aug. 25 against Mayville State.