Blue Hawks dim Lights' season debut

The Montana State University-Northern Lights had high hopes, and were hoping to shine bright under the lights of Dickinson, North Dakota, for their season-opening game.

Instead, things turned stormy for the Lights, just as the weather did Saturday night inside the Besiot Activities Center.

Northern, which had won its two previous games against Dickinson State, was stymied on offense, and a couple of special team’s miscues helped lead the Blue Hawks to a 17-7 win.

However, the game, which was played in a 40 mph wind and intermittent rain, didn’t start out that way as MSU-N’s Jake Messerly took the opening kickoff 76 yards and set the Lights up with a great scoring chance. From there however, the Lights came up empty, and it would be a tough night for the Lights’ young offense.

"That first drive after the kickoff return, that kind of summed up our night," said MSU-N first-year head coach Aaron Christensen. “We had great field position and we would gain nine or 10 yards and then seem to back five years. On that series, we went for it on fourth down and had an off-sides penalty that killed it. So we could just never put two positive plays in a row together. And that's kind of how it went for us on offense the whole game."

On the other side of the ball, backup DSU quarterback Reid Sterling surprised the MSU-N defense by rushing for 80 yards on 24 carries and throwing a 29-yard touchdown pass to Dalton Reid to give DSU an early 7-0 lead. Sterling came on in relief of starter Ryan Moerkerke, who himself was starting for injured veteran Kaler Ray.

Still, the Lights’ offense answered the bell by putting together an excellent drive midway through the second stanza, a drive that was capped by Zach McKinley’s first touchdown of the season, a 9-yard scamper to paydirt.

However, that would be all the Lights would get and, thanks to an errant snap on a punt attempt deep in MSU-N territory, the Blue Hawks were able to take a 14-7 lead into halftime after Sterling scored on a 6-yard run.

Northern’s defense played admirably, and allowed only a 23-yard field goal the rest of the way, but Sterling continued to elude defenders all night, including several runs on third down which kept the clock running and the ball away from the Lights in the second half.

"I thought our defense played pretty well," Christensen said. "I don't think we gave them (Blue Hawks) much. They made some plays but they weren't plays where we gave them to them. So, I thought our defense definitely played well enough for us to win the game."

Sterling would finish the game completing eight passes to go with his rushing total. But despite the struggles to stop the elusive quarterback, the Lights were stout on defense. Northern held the Blue Hawks to just 10 first downs and 222 yards of offense. The Lights also had five sacks, including three by star defensive end Tyler Craig. Tucker Dunn and Garet Fowler also had sacks, while Craig led the way with 11 tackles and a forced fumble.

Still, the strong defensive effort couldn’t offset the special team’s miscues, or the inability of the MSU-N offense to generate any momentum, especially in the second half. Several promising drives stalled in the third and fourth quarters, and by game’s end, the Lights managed just 189 yards of offense. In windy conditions, Northern’s passing game struggled the most as sophomore Jess Krahn was just 4-of-18 on the night. McKinley did rush for 96 yards, while Mario Gabotto added 62 on 13 carries, but DSU’s defense stood tall for much of the night, and handed the Lights their first loss against the Blue Hawks since 2013.

"The special team's plays were probably the difference in the game," Christensen said. "The two touchdowns they scored were both off of special team's mistakes by us. So special teams was definitely a difference in the game, and we knew that it would be.

"As far as how we played offensively, credit Dickinson State," Christensen said. "They did their job against our offense. I thought our offensive line executed pretty well, but we just had too many plays that set us back offensively and stopped drives. Just too many little things that we didn't do right at times."

The Lights (0-1) have some time to figure things out. Because of agreeing to an early start date, Northern will now get a bye before opening Frontier Conference play Sept. 5 against Montana Tech at Blue Pony Stadium.

"A lot of the issues we saw in the game are very correctable," Christensen said. "I think we saw some very positive things from that game, but also things we need to get fixed. So that's what we're going to focus on during the bye week.""

Dickinson St. 17, Lights 7

MSU-N 0 7 0 0 - 7

DSU 7 7 3 0 - 17

First quarter

DSU - Dalton Reid 29 pass from Robert Sterling (Joshua Perry-Kruse kick), :11

Second quarter

MSU-N - Zach McKinley 9 run (Jaime Toscano kick), 5:14

DSU - Sterling 6 run (Perry-Kruse kick), 1:06

Third quarter

DSU - Perry-Kruse 23 field goal, 10:00

Fourth quarter

No scoring

MSU-N DSU

First downs 14 10

Rushes-yards 49-183 51-123

Passing yards 6 99

Comp.-Att.-Int. 4-18-0 9-22-0

Total yards 189 222

Fumbles-lost 2-2 0-0

Penalties-yards 2-31 8-51

Punts-Avg. 5-20.2 6-33.3

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: MSU-N, Zach McKinley 22-96, Jake Messerly 3-70, Mario Gobbato 13-62, Jess Krahn 9-(minus 9), Dillon Barnes 2-(minus 38). DSU, Robert Sterling 24-80, Jake Hardy 19-58, Seth Moerkerke 2-(minus 4), Seth Ewoniuk 3-(minus 5), TEAM 3-(minus 6).

PASSING: MSU-N, Krahn 4-18-0 6. DSU, Sterling 8-17-0 90, Moerkerke 1-5-0 9.

RECEIVING: MSU-N, Gobbato 2-(minus 2), McKinley 1-5, Messerly 1-3. DSU, Ewoniuk 3-16, Dalton Reid 2-34, Austin Brown 1-25, Brian Cronnelly 1-14, Dylan Skabo 1-10, Jamion Lindsey 1-0.

TACKLES: MSU-N, Tyler Craig 11, Garet Fowler 9, Jonathan McGinnis 7, Tucker Dunn 6, Jordan Brusio 5, Logan Sprouse 5. DSU, Devin Martin 7, Awa Poggi 6, Thomas Sease 6, Noey Tauave 6, Colby Wartman 5, Drew Johnson 5.