First-half mistakes doom Lights against Western

The Montana State University-Northern football team is looking to make a jump this season but so far this fall, mistakes such as turnovers have held them back. This past Saturday afternoon in Dillon against University of Montana Western, turnovers again put the Lights in a hole that put them down 28-0 at halftime. The Lights did battle back in the second half but UMW held on to win 42-28. While MSU-N head coach Andrew Rolin was proud of his team for battling back, he knows they cannot give the ball away if they are going to compete in the Frontier Conference.

"I'm really proud of our guys and how resilient they were in the fourth quarter but we just cannot start that slow," Rolin said. "We've made so many mistakes and beat ourselves across the field."

The MSU-N defense came out strong to start the game as they forced a three-and-out on UMW's first possession. When the Lights got the ball, they picked up a few first downs to get into Bulldog territory. However, the drive ended with a missed 42-yard field goal on the windy day.

The Lights forced another three-and-out but the MSU-N returner muffed the punt and the Bulldogs recovered at the MSU-N 21-yard line. On the next play, UMW quarterback Jon Jund connected with Nate Simkins in the left corner of the end zone for a 7-0 lead halfway through the first quarter.

Later in the quarter, the Lights got the ball back and were looking to tie the game. However, quarterback Kaymen Cureton fumbled and lost the ball at the MSU-N 25-yard line. The Bulldogs again took advantage of the turnover with a three-yard touchdown run from Colton McPhee to take a 14-0 lead.

On the next Lights possession, the offense was forced to fourth and long and were set to punt in their own territory. However, the MSU-N punter tried to make a play for the first down but was stopped far from the first down marker. UMW again capitalized on the mistake with a two-yard touchdown pass from Jund to Simkins for a 21-0 lead.

"We gave away three touchdowns," Rolin said. "We just can't make those mistakes and put ourselves in those situations. It's not going to end well."

After an MSU-N punt, the Bulldogs got the ball back on their own 38-yard line. On this drive, the Bulldogs marched down the field for their score. The possession ended with Jund's third touchdown pass of the day for a 28-0 lead with 6:50 left in the half.

On their last possession of the half, the Lights tried to score before time ran out. They reached the UMW 23-yard line, but Cureton's pass to the end zone was picked off by Dylan Pope.

Through most of the third quarter, the Lights began to pick it up to get back in the game. Late in the third, the Lights offense got on the scoreboard when Izayah Boss ran for a 50-yard touchdown. When UMW got the ball back, MSU-N defensive back Isaiah Paul intercepted a Jund pass and returned it 45 yards for the touchdown to cut the Lights' deficit to 28-14.

"I thought our defense played as best as we played all year," Rolin said about the pass defense.

Even though Rolin believed the MSU-N defense is trending in the right direction, UMW still made some plays on them. On their opening play of the fourth quarter, Jund connected with Jamison Hermanson for a 69-yard touchdown pass to push their lead to 35-14.

However, MSU-N continued to battle late in the game. With 10:41 left in the game, Boss scored his second touchdown of the game when he ran it in from five yards out to cut the Lights' deficit to 35-21.

"We just played a little bit more mistake-free football," Rolin said about his second-half offense. "We were able to establish the run, we created some explosive plays and just blocked the guys we were supposed to block and executed the plays that we needed to execute."

UMW scored again to push their lead to 42-21 halfway through the fourth quarter. The Lights continued to play hard as they scored a late touchdown but there was not enough time left to make a comeback.

In his third start at quarterback for the Lights, Cureton completed 55 percent of his passes for 218 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He also ran for 82 yards on 4.9 yards a carry. Boss had his best game so far this season as he ran for 122 yards and two touchdowns on 5.5 yards a carry.

With the loss, the Lights fall to 0-3 on the season and 0-2 on the road. While MSU-N has failed to pick up a win this season, Rolin believes their second-half performance against UMW shows they can compete if they stop making mistakes.

"We can't beat ourselves. We've got to put ourselves in position to win football games by taking it one play at a time and just doing our job," Rolin said. "If we play mistake-free football, we got a chance to be a good team."

MSU-N football will next play Rocky Mountain College this Saturday at 1 p.m. at Tilleman Field.

MSU-N 0 0 14 14 - 28

UMW 14 14 0 14 - 42

1st Quarter

Jon Jund 21 pass to Nate Simkins (Mears kick)

Drive: 1 play, 21 yards

Colton McPhee 6 yd run (Mears kick)

Drive: 3 plays, 25 yards

2nd Quarter

Jund 2 pass to Simkins (Mears kick)

Drive: 7 plays, 24 yards

Jund 8 pass to Simkins (Mears kick)

Drive: 11 plays, 62 yards

3rd Quarter

Izayah Boss 50 yd run (Getts kick)

Drive: 2 plays, 55 yards

Isaiah Paul 45 yd interception return (Getts kick)

4th Quarter

Jund 69 pass to Jamison Hermanson (Mears kick)

Drive: 2 plays, 75 yards

Boss 5 yd run (Getts kick)

Drive: 9 plays, 67 yards

Sean Cooney 17 yd run (Mears kick)

Drive: 7 plays, 75 yards

Kaymen Cureton 32 pass to Tyrese Rios (Getts kick)

Drive: 16 plays, 77 yards

MSU-N UMW

First Downs 19 21

Rushing 41-211 38-216

Passing Yards 218 196

Total Offense 429 412

Kick Returns 6/112 3/28

Punts 6/29.7 4/29.0

Penalties 10-152 3-22

Possession 39:13 20:47

INDIVIDUAL

RUSHING - MSU-N, Izayah Boss 22-129, Kaymen Cureton 14-82, Dylan Vongphachanh 5-21; UMW, Colton McPhee 26-161, Sean Cooney 5-29, Trey Mounts 1-21, Jon Jund 4-15.

PASSING - MSU-N, Kaymen Cureton 22-40-218-1-1; UMW, Jon Jund 14-30-196-4-3.

RECEIVING - MSU-N, Tyrese Rios 7-64, Jake Horner 3-43, Dorian Miles 2-40, Dylan Vongphachanh 4-25; UMW, Nate Simkins 8-92, Jamison Hermanson 1-69, Blake Sentman 1-18, Trey Mounts 3-12.

TACKLES - MSU-N, Hunter Riley 10, Chase Gilbert 9, Dylan Wampler 8, Damari Cual-Davis 5; UMW, Joe Caicedo 12, Kyle Schulte 9, Tanner Harrell 9, Latrell McCutcheon 6.