George Ferguson Column: Congrats Lights, not only on the win, but for never quitting fighting for it

It kind of felt like it had been building. You could just feel like something was going to happen. And then, just like that, the Montana State University-Northern Lights lost a really difficult game to Simon Fraser University.

And what seemed like a season in which the Lights were headed in the right direction, might have been all for not.

Except, somebody apparently forgot to tell the Lights that.

Instead of sulking and mailing in what has been another really tough season, Northern rallied. And the result was one of the most impressive wins in recent MSU-N history when the Lights upended Eastern Oregon 22-20 in five overtimes last Saturday.

Yeah, I said it, Saturday was one of the biggest wins in modern Northern history. And here's why.

First off, Eastern Oregon is a good football team. The Mounties were picked to win the Frontier Conference, and at one point, were off to a 3-0 start. So that alone makes Northern's win Saturday a big one.

But beyond that, it's the mental aspect of getting to the point the Lights got to Saturday that had to have been a huge challenge.

No one on Northern's roster had ever won a Frontier Conference game in a Lights' uniform. Just put that in perspective. Plus, no one on the roster had tasted a victory since the Lights beat Arizona Christian back in August of 2019. That's a long time ago now.

Through all of that, I've covered the Lights and I've seen and heard the positivity from head coach Andrew Rolin, and, even after difficult losses, the fortitude of Northern's players. They certainly believed that their day was going to come.

But, no matter how much belief, no matter how much confidence the Lights had, not winning still must have been an intensely difficult mental burden, and with each passing week, that burden could only have become more daunting.

And yet, there the Lights were, celebrating an impressive win Saturday on their shiny new Tilleman Field. After all that has happened to Northern, including such a difficult loss just one week earlier, journalistic integrity aside, you couldn't help but root for the Lights and be nothing but happy for them. My guess is, just about everybody around the Frontier Conference feels that way.

I know I feel that way.

I couldn't be happier for the program, for the coaches, and especially the players. To mentally get over that hurdle, it has to feel like a 1,000-pound weight has been lifted off their shoulders, and while the going will certainly continue to be tough for a program that is still fighting for every inch of respect in a crowded Frontier Conference, here's hoping that while Saturday was just one win, it will open the flood gates to many, many more.

But, whatever transpires the rest of this season, we all need to applaud the Lights for never giving up, for not phoning it in, and for not only continuing to pick themselves up and go back to work, but, for becoming a better football team for it.

That's right, we all need to recognize exactly what the Lights showed us Saturday - the art of resiliency.