Plenty to play for on the last day

There's just one Saturday left of Frontier Conference football. And with Carroll College already having wrapped up another conference championship and an NAIA playoff berth, there really isn't much left to do.

Or is there?

There is still plenty at stake this weekend on what will be the final game of the season for five of the six teams in the league. Only the No. 2 Saints will be in the playoffs this season, marking the third straight year the Frontier has had one representative in the NAIA's postseason.

But other teams still have plenty to play for this weekend.

Perhaps the biggest game on Saturday will take place in LaGrande, Ore., when Rocky Mountain College and Eastern Oregon square off in a regular season finale. And both teams have plenty to play for.

The winner of Saturday's game will finish 6-5 overall and 6-4 in the Frontier. Both teams come in with a 5-5 overall record and are tied for second place in the league standings at 5-4. EOU is looking for its third straight winning season and second straight top two finish in the league.

But RMC has even bigger goals. The Bears haven't had a winning season since 1999 and haven't finished this high in the Frontier standings in just as long. The two teams also have a history with each other. The winner of the last four meetings between EOU and RMC has had to score at least 40 points to come out on top, and in the same four games, the two high-powered offenses have combined to gain over 1,000 yards each time. Saturday will also be the last time the Frontier's two premier quarterbacks square off as senior Kasey Peters of RMC and junior Chris Ware of EOU have developed quite a friendly rivalry over the last three seasons.

And while EOU and RMC have plenty to play for Saturday, so do three other Frontier teams.

A huge congratulations should be offered to the UM-Western Bulldogs for what they accomplished in their 27-20 upset of the Mountaineers last Saturday. The win was Western's first this season, and it came at an unexpected time against an opponent who had dominated them 29-13 earlier this season.

Now the Bulldogs (1-9) will try and pull off one more shocker before their season ends when they host arch rival Montana Tech on Saturday in Dillon. The Orediggers also have some atoning to do. Tech (4-6) has lost four straight games, including getting pummeled by Carroll last week in Butte. It's the first four-game losing streak for Tech this decade, and it will be tough for the Diggers' to snap out of it on senior day at Western.

And like the Diggers', the Montana State University-Northern Lights have plenty to play for Saturday in Helena, including pride. The Lights (3-6) have had a roller coaster season full of exciting wins and difficult losses. Before MSU-N's 49-17 defeat at Rocky last Saturday, the Lights had lost all but one game by nine points or less. That other loss came at the hands of Carroll, when the Saints trucked past the Lights 65-13 last month in Havre.

And while Northern wants nothing more than to spoil Carroll's senior day Saturday at Vigilante Stadium, the important thing will be for the Lights to play well and send its young but talented team into the offseason on a positive note, because with how many players the Lights return next season, expectations will certainly be high.

Meanwhile, Carroll will honor its seniors before one last Frontier home game Saturday. Many of the Carroll seniors have never lost a conference game and will try and put a final stamp on that streak Saturday in Helena. And while former Havre Blue Pony Gary Wagner, who was a redshirt freshman for the Saints the last time Carroll lost a league game, back in 2006 at Northern, has seen a Carroll loss from the sidelines, he too has never lost a league game as the Saints' starter, and he'll play his last conference outing in what has been a memorable six-year odyssey at Carroll.

On an individual basis, Saturday will also determine who wins some statistical battles for 2010. Wagner is among the NAIA leaders in passing efficiency for the second straight year and is again the Frontier's top rated QB. But Ware, Peters and Northern's Derek Lear have the top three spots in passing and total offense heading into the final weekend of the regular season.

EOU's Kevin Sampson already has the league rushing title locked up. He comes into Saturday's game against Rocky averaging a gaudy 113 yards per game and has a total of 1,135 yards on the season. Carroll's John Camino is second at 97 yards per game, while Northern sophomore Stephen Silva is fourth at 80 yards per outing.

On the defensive side of the ball, MSU-N junior linebacker Landry See has run away with the tackling crown. See has a whopping 113 tackles this season, 13 ahead of Western's Curtis Quigley. See is currently second in the NAIA in tackles and is just two behind the nation's leader. EOU's Seath Kimball will look to win the league's sack crown for the second straight season. Kimball comes in with 11.5 sacks on the season, which is tops in the NAIA. MSU-N's Travis Hjort is just behind Kimball with 10 sacks on the year, while EOU's Max Hannah has a league-best seven interceptions, two ahead of MSU-N's Casey Varner and Seth Wildung.

As for the playoffs, with a win against Northern on Saturday, the Saints would likely garner the No. 2 overall seed and host through the semifinals. First-round opponents Carroll might possibly play on Nov. 20 include Dickinson State, Azusa Pacific and South Dakota Mines.