Bear Pawed: Rocky Mountain 57, Northern 39

On the opening weekend of the 2019 Frontier Conference football season, the young Montana State University-Northern Lights found themselves in a shoot out with Rocky Mountain College.

So Saturday must have felt like deja vu, for both teams.

In a Frontier rematch, the Lights started fast but could only watch as RMC raced past Northern 57-39 in front of a big crowd at Blue Pony Stadium. The loss dropped the Lights to 0-6 in the Frontier and 1-6 overall.

"All I can say is, we're close, we're so close," Northern head coach Andrew Rolin said. "I told the guys that after the game. It's frustrating, but the bottom line is, we have to mature as a team. We have to take that next step, and no matter how well we've played this season, and I thought we played pretty well today, we haven't taken that next step yet, and we need to."

The Lights looked like they were well on their way to taking that step when they the took opening kickoff and marched 74 yards on just seven plays for a 7-0 lead. Jett Robertson broke off two 20-yard runs on the drive, while freshman Cameron Taylor finished things off with a 27-yard scoring run.

The drive was positive in more ways than one for the Lights. They started fast and didn't fall behind, and they asserted themselves on the ground. Northern ran for a season-high 213 yards.

"Running the ball was a big point emphasis today," Rolin said. "I thought we were pretty good in the run game."

The Lights were pretty good offensively all day, but so, too, were the Battlin' Bears, who came to Havre on a four-game losing streak, once they woke up.

The Lights took their 7-0 lead all the way to the end of the first period, but in the first four minutes of the second stanza, Drew Korf threw a pair of TD passes to put the Bears in front 14-7.

Northern, though, answered right back. First, Brenden Medina connected with Damari Caul-Davis on a 57-yard pass play, and on the very next throw, Medina hit Levi Keltner for a 32-yard TD to even things back up at 14-14.

"I thought we got off to a pretty fast start today, and that was big," Rolin said. "But at the end of the day, Rocky made more big plays than we did. And that kind of consistency was the difference."

The Bears did start hitting on some big plays, but Northern's defense held up in the redzone and forced the Bears to settle for three straight Riley Garrett field goals, which would send RMC into halftime with a 23-14 edge.

The Bears then opened the second half, with third-string quarterback Kamden Brown at the controls, and he took Rocky to the house in just five plays to up the score to 30-14.

In what was a wild second half, though, the Lights had answers at times, including when Hunter Riley, who had two interceptions on the day, successfully executed a fake punt by completing a pass to Keltner, then doing the same on a fake field goal try where he scored on a hard-fought two-yard run.

"It was a couple of really great plays by Hunter," Rolin said. "He did just about everything out there today."

The two trick plays helped pull the Lights back to within 10, at 30-20, with seven minutes left in the third quarter, but Northern just didn't have enough answers for the Bears on the either side of the ball. Brown rushed for a 27-yard score to put Rocky ahead 37-20, and while Robertson answered with a two-yard touchdown run of his own, to make the score 37-27 with four minutes left in the quarter, the Lights just couldn't hold down Rocky long enough to mount a more serious comeback.

The Bears would score 17 more points in the fourth quarter, and while Medina threw a 22-yard TD pass to Marvin Williams Jr., and a 66-yard score to Caul-Davis, the Bears were still able to win going away, for the second time this season.

"We played very well in stretches," Rolin said. "But we couldn't step up and stop their big plays enough defensively, and we didn't make enough big plays offensively."

The Lights finished the game with 496 yards of offense, their best output since their loss at RMC last month. They also had 26 first downs and averaged nearly eight yards per rush attempt. Taylor was the catalyst with a career-high 134 yards on 19 carries, while Robertson had a season high 98 yards on 12 totes. Medina also threw for 229 yards and three scores, while Caul-Davis had 113 yards, Williams Jr. added 59 and Keltner had 62 yards receiving.

But, as good as Northern's offensive numbers looked Saturday, a familiar pattern emerged. The Lights committed four turnovers, with two interceptions and two fumbles, and Rocky turned three of those four miscues into points.

"Can't have those mistakes and expect to win in this league," Rolin said. "We know that, we understand. We're still a team having to learn the hard way sometimes. So we just have to keep learning, keep growing. But the bottom line is, we have to execute better. We've all got to be better."

Rocky snapped its four-game losing streak by being much better offensively. The Bears came into Saturday's game averaging just 17 points in league play. But thanks to the combination of Korf and Brown's passing, as well as a huge day from tight end Holden Ryan, Rocky racked up 591 yards of offense en route to the 57-point outburst.

That's not to say, however, that Northern didn't have its moments defensively. The Lights forced three turnovers, while Japerri Powell had 15 tackles, and linebackers Jaren Maki and Dylan Wampler combined for 21 more. Joe Fehr had two sacks and Justin Pfeifer added one as well.

"We did do some good things defensively," Rolin said. "We forced them to kick a lot of field goals today.

"All-in-all, I thought we played better today," he continued. "I think we improved. But, at the end of the day, that's not good enough. We're not here for moral victories or excuses. We're here to win football games. So like I said, we're close. I really believe that. But at some point, we've got to get over that hump."

The Lights will try again to get over that Frontier hump when they travel to Dillon to take on the reeling Montana Western Bulldogs this Saturday at 1 p.m.

Battled by Bears

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

Lights Notes: Riley, a true freshman who plays safety and kicks and punts for the Lights, now is tied for the Frontier lead with four INTs. Powell, another freshman, had his second 15-tackle game of the season. Keltner caught his first career TD for the Lights. Brown is an ex Montana State QB, and the fourth to play for RMC this season. Ryan is an ex Montana Grizzly, who had a career-high 122 yards on just six receptions. The Lights have now lost 34 straight conference games.