MSU-N Notebook: McLaren, young Lights stepping up

Saturday night was fun, exciting and difficult all rolled into one for Montana State University-Northern quarterback Caleb McLaren. That's because McLaren hadn't played a lot of live football in what felt like a long time.

That all changed in the Lights' 52-31 loss to the No. 16 Eastern Oregon Mounties Saturday night at chilly Blue Pony Stadium.

McLaren, who transferred to Northern a year ago, was making his first career start for the Lights, and while Northern didn't get the victory, McLaren certainly provided the MSU-N offense with a spark and a different dynamic.

"It felt good to be out there playing again," McLaren, an Alaska native said. "I really hadn't played in over a year because I red-shirted last year. So it felt good to be out on the football field again."

And McLaren made the most of his first start in the Frontier Conference. Facing a tough, blitzing EOU defense, McLaren threw for 118 yards, but he did even more damage with his feet. The speedy QB picked up crucial yards with his legs, ultimately rushing 58 yards, as Northern's second-leading rusher. Two of his biggest plays were back-to-back first-down runs which set up a Northern score in the third quarter, and he also didn't turn the ball over, another big plus in his debut.

"Caleb did a nice job for making his first start," Northern head coach Aaron Christensen said. "He did some good things out there, especially for it being the first game he's played in a while."

And while getting the win was the only thing that mattered to McLaren at the end of the night, he still assessed his first start as a positive step, and credited his teammates for helping him do it.

"The o-line played really well tonight, and everybody else on the offense did, too," McLaren said. "I was happy with some of the things I did, but I also made some mistakes. I thought we executed good at times as an offense, and at times we didn't. So we'll work on those things and go out and try to get a win at Rocky next week."

Emerging

McLaren wasn't the only player Northern fans might not have heard much about to make an impact on Saturday night's game. In fact, the Lights have young players all over the field who are growing and maturing.

Dequincy Bergen, a freshman from Billings West, had a breakout game at safety with 10 tackles and a fumble recovery for a touchdown, while freshman wide receiver Dylan Rychtarik made some key catches in the second half, and also had a couple impressive kick returns.

More young players on defense shined under the lights as well. Freshman Sam Schuler got a sack at linebacker and Elijah Dennison made some plays along the line, while receiver Ethan Snow had two big runs on reverses.

And those were just a few of the names to step up Saturday night, and, while Northern has an incredible senior class leading the way, the Lights will continue to see young starts emerge as they build for the future.

EOU Veterans

Eastern Oregon has talent. That was on full display Saturday night. But a big bonus for head coach Tim Camp's team is that talent is also experienced.

Zach Bartlow is in his third year of starting at QB for the Mounties, and he looked poised at all times against what is a ferocious Northern defensive line. And the weapons around Bartlow, many of them are fourth- and fifth-year seniors.

Of course, the most dangerous is junior Calvin Connors, but the Lights did well to defend one of the NAIA's most explosive players. So Bartlow instead threw to senior quarterback turned WR T.J. Esekielu, who happened to also run some wildcat effectively. Bartlow has a pair of senior running backs in A.J. Prom and Alfred Gross, who combined for 108 yards on the ground against a Northern defense which had only allowed one 100-yard rusher all season long.

Things were no different on the EOU defense either. Kyle Lanoue and Dalton Morgan are a dominating defensive tandem, and each had sacks Saturday night, while veteran linebackers Tucker Stanley and Michael Arenas combined for 21 tackles against the Lights.

Festive

Saturday night was a rare game in the Frontier Conference, with the 6 p.m. kickoff. But it was also a special night. For one, many former NFL players were introduced at halftime, as they were in town for one of the NLSAF's biggest events, the Legends for Lights weekend.

After that part of halftime, Northern also introduced Havre Blue Pony Naomi Terry as the newest signee to the MSU-N women's basketball team, as well as a pair of potential future Lights' football players in Blue Pony Nate Korb and Cut Bank standout Justin Pfeifer.

And though the Lights couldn't catch the Mounties on the scoreboard, the rare Northern night game, usually reserved for when the Lights have to move games due to Havre High playoff football games, was an exciting event for the players and the fans.