Lights working through bye week

It's almost like starting over. The Montana State University-Northern Lights are working through a rare bye week in August after they opened the season last Friday night against Carroll College.

Northern fell to Carroll 31-6 and suffered several minor injuries in last Friday night's game. But Northern has worked hard this week, as the Lights prepare to jump-start their season with next Saturday's trip to Eastern Oregon.

Northern offensive coordinator Kyle Samson said the Lights have been practicing all week, but opted not to conduct a full scrimmage this week in an attempt to make sure players are healthy for next week's tough road game at EOU. The Lights (0-1) will practice tonight.

In last week's loss to Carroll, the Lights saw receivers Brandon O'Brien and Kyle Johnston leave with injuries, as did senior running back Stephen Silva. None of the injuries appeared to be of a serious nature and Silva returned and played the entire second half.

After opening the season at home with Carroll, Northern will play two straight games on the road. The Lights got to EOU next Saturday, then travel to new Frontier Conference member Dickinson State on Sept. 15.

MSU-N will return home for games against UM-Western on Sept. 22 and Rocky Mountain College on Sept. 29.