Frontier Notebook: Lights trending the right way

Frontier Conference football 2019 got off to an interesting and intriguing start last week. Maybe, some were even surprised.

Of course, the biggest example of interesting and intriguing was the young Montana State University-Northern Lights jetting down to Phoenix to face an Arizona Christian squad that went 8-3 a year ago and came within a rivalry game win of reaching the NAIA playoffs. But, in what's becoming a trend for the Lights, Northern took down ACU 20-14 on a hit August night in the desert.

Trends you ask?

Well for starters, Saturday night's win was the Lights' second straight season-opening victory. Of course, second-year head coach Andrew Rolin was responsible for both of those victories, which means, the Lights, under Rolin, certainly come out of fall camp ready to go.

Another trend that is looking good at Northern lately is the Lights' penchant for winning non-conference games. Dating back to 2013, Northern is now 4-1 in games against non-Frontier NAIA schools. Northern has now won three straight non-conference games, as the Lights won at Mayville State in 2017, beat Mayville in their home-opener a year ago, and now have a win over the Firestorm to start 2019.

The Lights will go for four straight non-conference wins, and three straight season-openers when they host ACU next August in Havre.

Of course, now Northern would like to start bucking a different kind of trend. The Lights haven't won a Frontier game since Sept. 17 of 2016 when they bested Carroll College 28-14 inside Blue Pony Stadium. The Lights get their first chance to change that trend this Saturday when they open Frontier play at Rocky Mountain College.

Bears Back

Speaking of RMC, there were a lot of questions surrounding the defending Frontier champions as 2019 dawned. Rocky lost a ton on both sides of the ball to graduation, including two players who got looks in the NFL. The Battlin' Bears also lost their head coach, Jared Petrino, who took an FCS defensive coordinator job.

But the Bears answered at least some of those questions last Thursday night when they gave new head coach Chris Strutzreim his first win with a 23-21 victory over Dickinson State.

Rocky rode the leg of true freshman kicker Wyatt Brusven of Shelby, as well as the consistent play of new starting quarterback Nate Dick, to the narrow win. Brusven kicked three field goals in his college debut, including the game-winning 24-yarder with 24 seconds left on the clock.

Dick, a former Montana Gatorade Player of the Year, and a Montana Grizzly transfer, also threw two touchdowns and rushed for 45 yards in his debut as the starter.

And despite all those losses to graduation, and having to eke out a tight one against the Blue Hawks, it appears RMC has a squad that can compete for a Frontier title, as the Bears totaled 401 yards of offense and allowed less than 300.

Beginnings

Only one Frontier game was a part of last week's festivities, and it appears as though the College of Idaho being picked to win the Frontier title this season was no joke.

Saturday night, the Yotes opened the 2019 season with a 48-12 dismantling of a good Eastern Oregon squad. So, with that result, the Yotes certainly put the rest of the Frontier on notice.

Southern Oregon also opened its 2019 season last weekend, with a 77-19 loss in a play-up game at FCS Sacramento State.

Carroll College, Montana Tech and Montana Western all get their season's underway this Saturday, as the Frontier has a full slate of games on tap.

Frontier Honors

C of I running back Nick Calzaretta was named Frontier Offensive Player of the Week after rushing for 124 yards and a score in the Yotes' win over EOU. RMC's Jimmy Henderson was named Defensive Player of the Week, while Brusven was named Special Team Player of the Week.

Northern QB Brendan Medina, CB Josh Rose and DB Hunter Riley were all nominated.