Saints run over Lights in Helena

The Montana State University-Northern football team was looking to win its first game of a shortened season Saturday at Nelson Stadium in Helena as they played against Carroll College. However, they will have to wait another week to search for a win as the Saints' rushing attack led them to a 49-7 win over the Lights.

"Couldn't have played worse," said MSU-N head coach Andrew Rolin. "We need to come together as a team, decide to be a team. Kids have got to make a decision what kind of team we want to be. The rest will take care of itself."

The loss dropped the Lights to 0-2 on this unusual spring season. Since many conference opponents dropped out, MSU-N will only play four games. With only two games left now, the Lights are already out of the race for a conference championship.

Oakley Kopp started at quarterback for the Lights instead of Brenden Medina, who started their last game against College of Idaho. And the decision showed some promise at the start of the game as the Lights were able to get to the Saints' 35-yard line. However, they failed to convert on fourth down, and they turned the ball over.

On their opening possession of the game, the Saints rushing attack, led by Matthew Burgess, marched down the field. On second and goal on the Lights' 9-yard line, Burgess ran it in for a touchdown to give the Saints a 7-0 lead with 7:01 left in the opening quarter.

Carroll then got the ball back after forcing an MSU-N punt and marched down the field again. With 12:32 left in the second quarter, CC quarterback Devan Bridgewater sneaked the ball in at the MSU-N 1-yard line to extend their lead to 14-0.

MSU-N looked to get back in the game, but Kopp threw an interception to Carroll linebacker Thomas Robitaille. That turnover was cashed in for another touchdown for Burgess to extend their lead to 21-0.

When the Lights got the ball back, they marched down the field to Carroll's 17-yard line. On fourth down, however, Kopp threw a pass to the goal-line that was intercepted by T.J. Abraham. The Saints used that turnover to score again as Bridgewater threw a five-yard pass to Camron Rothie to make their lead 28-0 at halftime.

After another score from Carroll to make it 35-0 to open the second half, Rolin put Medina into the game to replace Kopp at quarterback. Early in the fourth quarter, Medina threw to Jake Horner in the corner of the end zone to finally get the Lights on the scoreboard.

"Just gave the kid another chance," Rolin said. "I'm just constantly evaluating and wanted to and needed to change something up so that's what I did."

Medina finished the game going 7-for-11 for 95 yards and one touchdown while Kopp finished the game 6-for-14 for 35 yards and two interceptions. As the Lights move forward into the season, they will continue to evaluate the quarterback position.

"We'll find the guy that puts us in the best position to win," Rolin said. "We're going to find out who that is and continue to compete and put them in a competitive situation and see who's going to give us the best chance to win a football game at quarterback."

Running back Andrez Trahan-Proctor led the Lights with 20 rushing attempts for 78 yards. Tyrese Rios led the Lights in receiving with five catches for 74 yards. Horner caught three passes for 21 yards and a touchdown. Linebacker Dylan Wampler led the team with 13 total tackles.

Meanwhile, Carroll improved to 2-1 on the season with the win and is now third in the Frontier Conference. Bridgewater went 11-for-18 for 124 yards and one touchdown, and he scored a touchdown on the ground as well. Burgess finished the game with 25 rushing attempts for 152 yards and two touchdowns. Running back Duncan Kraft also had seven rushing attempts for 124 yards and a touchdown. Rolin was disappointed in how his defense performed against the Saints' rushing attack, especially after their performance to begin the season.

"They moved our guys up front. They did a nice job schematically," Rolin said. "We missed a lot of tackles which didn't happen in the first week. I thought we played really well defensively week one and today (we) just didn't tackle."

MSU-N will next play Saturday at home against Rocky Mountain College, who is 0-3 on the season. While the Lights will finally open their new stadium, Rolin is more focused on getting his team focused on getting their first win of the season.

"We need to grow up," Rolin said. "We got the pieces. I think we got a good team. We need to grow up, and we need to move on and respond a heck of a lot better to adversity."

MSU-N and Rocky Mountain College kick off Saturday at 1 p.m. at Lights Stadium.

Carroll College 7 21 7 14 - 49

MSU-N 0 0 0 7 - 7

1st Quarter

CC - Matthew Burgess 9 yd run (Powell kick)

Drive: 9 plays, 65 yards

2nd Quarter

CC - Devan Bridgewater 1 yd run (Powell kick)

Drive: 14 plays, 68 yards

CC - Burgess 8 yd run (Powell kick)

Drive: 9 plays, 50 yards

CC - Bridgewater 5 pass to Camron Rothie (Powell)

Drive: 10 plays, 88 yards

3rd Quarter

CC - Brennen Crawford 2 yd run (Powell kick)

Drive: 9 plays, 68 yards

4th Quarter

CC - Kolby Killoy 15 pass to Carson Ochoa (Powell kick)

Drive: 7 plays, 44 yards

MSU-N - Brenden Medina 6 pass to Jake Horner (Vongphachanh kick)

Drive: 12 plays, 75 yards

CC - Duncan Kraft 70 yd run (Powell kick)

Drive: 1 play, 70 yards

CC MSU-N

First Downs 26 15

Rushing 48-388 36-119

Passing yards 145 130

Total Offense 533 249

Kick Returns 1/12 5/75

Punts 1/26 4/30.75

Penalties 7/40 7/50

Possession 29:26 27:49

INDIVIDUAL

RUSHING - CC, Matthew Burgess 25-152, Duncan Kraft 7-124, Sam Liday 2-46, Brennen Crawford 7-44, Devan Bridgewater 4-14, Jesus Parra-Gutierrez 2-8; MSU-N, Andrez Trahan-Proctor 20-78, Izayah Boss 3-17, Canaan Smith 3-13, Oakley Kopp 7-6, Devin Carmona 1-3, Brenden Medina 2-0.

PASSING - CC, Devan Bridgewater 11-18-124-1-0, Kolby Killoy 2-4-21-1-0; MSU-N, Brenden Medina 7-11-95-1-0, Oakley Kopp 6-14-35-0-2.

RECEIVING - CC, Tony Collins 2-45, Liang Liedle 2-24, Carson Ochoa 2-18, Logan Gilliard 1-15, Matthew Burgess 1-15, Jaden Harrison 2-12, Matt McGinley 1-6, Luke Jensen 1-6, Camron Rothie 1-5; MSU-N, Tyrese Rio 5-74, Dylan Vongphachanh 2-24, Jake Horner 3-21, Marvin Williams 1-6, Dorian Miles 2-5.

TACKLES - CC, Nainoa Soto 6, T.J. Abraham 6, Rex Irby 6, Garrett Kocab 6; MSU-N, Dylan Wampler 13, Joel Hadley 8, Trayvion Rainey 8, Joe Fehr 7.