Frontier Notebook: Orediggers shake things up

In the Mining City, the earth has shook many, many times. It did again Saturday night, and it sent shock waves around the rest of the Frontier Conference.

The 2019 Frontier football season had its first earth-shattering moment Saturday night in Butte when No. 22 Montana Tech upset 15th-ranked Montana Western in the NAIA Game of the Week.

The Orediggers' 35-12 thrashing of the Bulldogs at Alumni Coliseum ended Western's chance at an undefeated season. It also helped put College of Idaho even further into the Frontier driver's seat. But more on that later.

Western came into Saturday night's rivalry game with one of the top offenses in the Frontier, but the Diggers' completely took quarterback Jon Jund out of the equation. Tech's Frontier-leading defense held Western to just 89 yards passing, as well as just eight first downs. Western came into the game averaging just 300 yards passing.

Perhaps more impressively was the fact that, earlier last week, Tech announced that star running back Jed Fike would miss the rest of the season with a leg injury. Fike led the Frontier in rushing in both 2017 and 2018, and, while the blow was devastating news to Tech, instead of sulking, the Orediggers went out and rushed for nearly 300 yards, with Tyler Folkes and freshman Blake Counts doing the damage for former Montana State Univesity-Northern great Kyle Samson's offense.

The victory, which was also Tech head coach Chuck Morrell's 50th as the Diggers' head man, was Tech's fourth in a row, and now it sets up perhaps another NAIA Game of the Week this Saturday.

C of I, which blasted Carroll College last Saturday in Helena, is now 5-0 and will host the Orediggers Saturday at 1 p.m. inside Simplot State in Caldwell, Idaho. The game will have big-time implications on the rest of the Frontier season because the Yotes already have a win in hand over Tech (C of I beat the Diggers 28-14 last month in Butte), and the Yotes only play Western once, and that game is also at home, Nov. 9. And yet, if Tech can pull the upset at C of I Saturday, things change drastically, and at that point, the league will surely be up for grabs.

Rematch Saturday

This week marks the start of the second half of Frontier play, and several rematches are on the docket, including a showdown between two struggling programs, when Rocky Mountain College comes to Havre to face the Lights.

Northern has lost five straight after its season-opening win at Arizona Christian, and the Lights have scored just seven points in their last eight quarters of football. However, RMC, especially on offense, hasn't been much better the last month either. The Batllin' Bears haven't won since they beat the Lights 53-34 back on Sept. 7, and in their four losses, the Bears' offense has put up just seven points each against Western and Carroll were shut out against C of I, and scored just 14 last Saturday against Southern Oregon.

The Lights' and Bears' scoring woes are a far cry from their game last month in Billings, where they combined to score 87 points and combined for nearly 1,000 yards of total offense. One root cause of both team's offensive struggles has been turnovers. The Battlin' Bears have committed 19 turnovers so far this season, while the Lights have given the ball away 16 times. The two squads did combine for nine turnovers last month in Billings, too, so Saturday's game at Blue Pony Stadium might just come down to who takes better care of the football - literally.

Besides the rematches between Northern and Rocky and C of I and Tech, Western travels to Helena to battle Carroll. The Dawgs beat the Fighting Saints 31-24 back on Sept. 7 in Dillon. Southern Oregon meanwhile, a team on the rise, gets its rivalry rematch with Eastern Oregon Saturday as well. The Mountaineers beat the Raiders 24-21 on SOU's home field last month, so now the Raiders will try to return the favor in LaGrande.

Poll Shakeup

With Montana Tech's upset of Western last Saturday night, the Orediggers rose three spots the new NAIA Coaches Poll. Tech jumped from 22 to No. 29 in the new poll, while Western fell from No. 15 to No. 22. C of I stayed at No. 8 in this week's poll, while Morningside held the top spot yet again.

NAIA Coaches Poll

Rn. Prv. Rec. Pts.

1 1 Morningside (Iowa) [17]5-0 392

2 2 Kansas Wesleyan 6-0 367

3 3 Marian (Ind.) 4-0 365

4 5 Grand View (Iowa) 6-0 346

5 6 Benedictine (Kan.) 5-1 316

6 7 Northwestern (Iowa) 5-0 310

7 8 Saint Francis (Ind.) 4-1 301

8 8 College of Idaho 5-0 295

9 10 Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) 6-0 278

10 4 Concordia (Mich.) 5-1 260

11 11 Cumberlands (Ky.) 5-0 238

12 12 Southeastern (Fla.) 5-0 214

13 13 Saint Xavier (Ill.) 3-2 202

14 14 Dickinson State (N.D.) 5-1 189

15 16 Langston (Okla.) 4-1 180

16 17 Evangel (Mo.) 5-1 160

17 18 Ottawa (Ariz.) 6-0 142

18 19 Keiser (Fla.) 5-0 130

19 22 Montana Tech 4-1 124

20 20 Reinhardt (Ga.) 5-2 121

21 21 Siena Heights (Mich.) 5-1 101

22 15 Montana Western 4-1 88

23 25 MidAmerica Nazarene 5-1 59

24 24 Baker (Kan.) 4-2 57

25 RV Sterling (Kan.) 5-1 42