Rocky pulls away from Northern in Frontier opener

The Montana State University-Northern football team was hoping to get the 2016 season started off on the right foot Saturday at Blue Pony Stadium. And, in many ways, the Lights. But, Northern still fell short on the scoreboard as the Battlin' Bears came to Havre and gave new head coach Jason Petrino his first career win with a 31-21 Frontier Conference victory.

The difference in the game was Rocky's ability to turn three Northern turnovers into 21 points, and, the Lights' inability to hold onto the football. In all, MSU-N had three interceptions, and one fumble, which led to most of Rocky's scoring chances.

The Bears struck first when Chase White threw a TD pass, but the Lights answered right back with Zach McKinley's first of two touchdowns. However, two second-quarter turnovers led to 14 more Rocky points and the Bears took a 21-7 lead into halftime.

Northern's defense continued to play well in the third quarter, including coming up with a four-play goal-line stand, but a fumble near its own endzone ended up putting Northern behind 28-7 after three.

The Lights finally got going in the fourth stanza offensively, with McKinley, who rushed for 100 yards, scoring once, and Wyatt McKinlay catching a TD pass from Jess Krhahn, but, it all came to late to pull off the comeback effort.

McKinley sparked the Lights offensively, while RMC QB Chase White threw three TD's. Defensively, Northern got sacks from Jordan Brusio and Tyler Craig, while Logan Sprouse was all over the place, including an interception.

Northern (0-1, 0-1) has a bye this coming week, before traveling to Montana Tech on Sept. 10.

For complete coverage of Saturday's game, see Monday's Havre Daily News sports section.