Rocky Mountain shuts down the Lights

The Montana State University-Northern football team was back on the field this past Saturday with a contest against Rocky Mountain College in Billings. The Lights are a young team that has not won a game yet this fall, and that showed against the Battlin’ Bears as the Lights lost 56-0 at Herb Klindt Field.

The Lights offense failed to gain any traction as they finished the game with only three first downs and 20 total yards of offense. Kaymen Cureton started the game at quarterback where he completed four of his 15 pass attempts for all 20 of the Lights’ yards. Even though Mason Dionne finished the game with 32 rushing yards, several sacks caused the Lights to finish the game with no rushing yards as a team.

The offensive woes began for the Lights early on as they started the game with a three and out. Once they got the ball, the Bears quickly got to work as they got their run game going. The Lights were able to make a stand as they got a stop on fourth down in their own territory, but the defense could not hold out forever.

The Lights were aggressive on their next drive, but were stopped on fourth down. Starting at the MSU-N 42-yard line, the Bears took advantage of the good field position. After the Bears got to the 28-yard line, quarterback George Tribble connected with Trae Henry for a touchdown to give the Bears a 7-0 lead.

Over the next few minutes, the Lights and Bears exchanged punts. The Bears then put a drive together to start the second quarter. After some runs to get things going, Tribble connected with Andrew Simon for a 28-yard gain to the MSU-N 18-yard line. Two plays later, Tribble completed an 11-yard pass to Joseph Dwyer for the touchdown to extend the lead to 14-0.

On the ensuing drive, the Lights picked up a first down thanks to a four-yard run from Cureton on third and three. But that was all they could produce as they once again punted. With the ball back, Tribble began to dissect the MSU-N defense. After back-to-back completions for first downs, Tribble threw a 43-yard touchdown to Henry to make it 21-0 early in the second quarter.

The Lights continued to stall as the Bears quickly got the ball back. After a slow start to the drive, Tribble connected with DeNiro Killian for a 32-yard gain to midfield. After some more positive plays, an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the Lights made it first down at the MSU-N 12-yard line. Tribble then found Killian for the score to push the lead to 28-0.

Along with their strong starts on offense and defense, the Bears began to make plays on special teams as well. On the ensuing Lights punt, Kaysan Barnett returned the punt all the way for a 70-yard score to give the Bears a 35-0 lead heading into halftime.

On their opening drive of the second half, the Bears did not relent. On this drive, the Bears got the ground game going with Zaire Wilcox getting several carries. On the MSU-N one-yard line, Wilcox got the call once again as he ran it in for a score to make it 42-0.

Later in the third quarter, the Lights defense did force and recover a fumble by the Bears. But it did little to change the momentum. The Lights offense continued to struggle, which culminated in a fumble that Rocky Mountain’s Cade Reynolds returned 30 yards for a touchdown to make it 49-0.

The Bears scored another touchdown in the fourth quarter before the contest finally came to an end. The Bears improved to 3-1 on the year with the win while the Lights dropped to 0-4 on the season.

The MSU-N football team will next play against Montana Tech in Butte this Saturday at 1 p.m.

MSU-Northern 0 0 0 0 - 0

RMC 7 28 14 7 - 56

1st Quarter

RMC - George Tribble 28 pass to Trae Henry (Drake kick)

Drive: 5 plays, 42 yards

2nd Quarter

RMC - Tribble 11 pass to Joseph Dwyer (Drake kick)

Drive: 6 plays, 57 yards

RMC - Tribble 43 pass to Henry (Drake kick)

Drive: 6 plays, 74 yards

RMC - Tribble 12 pass to DeNiro Killian (Drake kick)

Drive: 7 plays, 75 yards

RMC - Kaysan Barnett 70 punt return (Drake kick)

3rd Quarter

RMC - Zaire Wilcox 1 yard run (Drake kick)

Drive: 10 plays, 75 yards

RMC - Cade Reynolds 30 fumble return (Drake kick)

4th Quarter

RMC - Ben Rooney 3 yard run (Drake kick)

Drive: 13 plays, 90 yards

MSU-N RMC

First Downs 3 30

Rushing 31-0 52-282

Passing Yards 20 214

Total Offense 20 496

Kick Returns 6/85 0/0

Punts 10/45.2 2/39.5

Penalties 6/59 4/44

Possession 22:47 37:13

INDIVIDUAL

RUSHING - MSU-N, Mason Dionne 14-32, Jeremiah Benson 1-2, Hunter Riley 1(-5), Kaymen Cureton 14 (-10); RMC, Zaire Wilcox 18-94, Ben Rooney 8-55, Cade Lambert 7-42, Isaiah Adams 6-25.

PASSING - MSU-N, Kaymen Cureton 4-15-20-0-0; RMC, George Tribble 15-22-206-4-0, JT Allen 1-1-8-0-0.

RECEIVING - MSU-N, Caymus Thomas 3-12, Luke Triplett 1-8; RMC, Trae Henry 3-82, DeNiro Killian 4-61, Joseph Dwyer 3-35, Andrew Simon 3-31.

TACKLES - MSU-N, Hunter Riley 13, Dylan Wampler 9, Dustin Long 8, Johkyreian Shealey 8; RMC, Kyle Frazier 5, Wyatt Brusven 4, Ethan Hurst 4, Cade Reynolds 3.