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Lights beat Mayville State for their first win of 2017
In the last three seasons, their backs have been against the wall on numerous occasions. And like most young teams struggling for victories, on many of those occasions, things have not gone well for the Montana State University-Northern Lights.
On Saturday in Mayville, North Dakota, though, all of a sudden, they did.
After jumping out to an early lead, the Lights found themselves trailing the Mayville State Comets 22-19 late in the third quarter of Saturday’s first-ever meeting between the two border rivals.
But in a dramatic showing of power and resiliency, the Lights wouldn’t stay down for long.
Northern ripped off 24 unanswered points to overtake the Comets and beat Mayville with a 43-29 win — MSU-N’s first of the season, and just its second in the Aaron Christensen era.
“It’s kind of part of that growing up and maturing process,” Christensen said. “In that third quarter, the ball wasn’t bouncing our way. But our kids just kept fighting, kept on playing. I was really proud of the way they stepped up to those challenges.”
Tommy Langley started the rally with a field goal just before the third quarter ended, which tied the game at 22-22. Then, MSU-N’s running game completely took over. Trey Blanchard, who had a breakout day, ripped off a long run, and set up backup quarterback Dylan Cook’s second rushing touchdown of the day, putting the Lights back in front. Just minutes later, Blanchard would score again, and when B.J. Peters raced to the endzone untouched with 6:27 left in the contest, the Lights went from trailing 22-19 to leading 43-22. MSU would add a late passing touchdown from quarterback Creighton Pfau, but, the damage had been done.
And the damage was done by Northern’s rushing attack, and its run defense. Blanchard finished with a career-best 179 yards on 28 carries, while also catching three passes. Peters added 85 yards on just six totes and starting QB Tommy Wilson rushed for 54 yards on 15 carries. The Lights, who rushed for a season-high 376 yards, and racked up over 500 yards of offense, also got two big chunks from Marvin Williams on end-a rounds. Williams also caught four passes, while Caymus Thomas hauled in five grabs from Wilson. Cook added 11 yards on the ground, but scored on two goal-line package touchdowns.
“What we do on offense is take what the defense is giving us,” Christensen said. “We had some success running the football early on, and they (Comets) kind of kept backing off us. So we continued to run the ball and had a lot of success doing it. I think we set the school record for rushing yards in a game, so we had a very good day running the ball for sure.”
Meanwhile, the Northern defense may have surrendered a big day to Pfau, who came in as the leading passer in the North Star Athletic Association, and threw for 349 yards and four scores, but, the Lights were stingy where it mattered most. The Comets managed just -2 yards rushing, while Garet Fowler had an interception, and Steven Fernandez, Pete Hamilton and Josh Wright all sacked Pfau on key third downs. Jake Norby had 10 tackles and Fowler added nine stops to his crucial interception.
“Defensively, we held them (Comets) to minus two yards rushing, and that was also a school record,” Christensen said. “That was big. I thought our defense really stepped up.”
Northern’s victory, a much-needed one after last week’s humbling homecoming loss to UM-Western, was also the result of a great start by the Lights.
Langley connected on an early 22-yard field goal, and the Lights made it 5-0 when they sacked Pfau in the endzone for a safety. Wilson padded the early lead when he scored on a run midway through the second period, and the Lights finished off 19 unanswered points with Cook’s first-career touchdown, a run from eight yards out.
By the time the half expired the Lights led 19-7.
"Finishing those drives early was big for us,” Christensen said. “Putting points on the board, getting off to a good start is always critical. We’ve moved the ball well all year long, but finishing drives is really important, and we did that early in the game. And honestly, if we had been able to do that in a couple of the other games earlier in the year, those games might have been a lot different. So it was good to see us get off to that kind of start.”
But as well as Northern played in the first half, the adversity they have faced for much of this season would rear its head in the third quarter, as Pfau led the Comets on three straight scoring drives, while the Lights failed to answer until Langley’s field goal knotted things up at 22-22 as the third quarter came to an end.
And that’s when the Lights showed a ton of heart and character, as they didn’t let the opportunity for a coveted win slip away.
“It’s a good win for our football team and out program,” Christensen said. “The kids just fought hard and kept playing. They did a great job of just staying with it.”
Northern is now 1-4 on the season, but remains 0-4 in the Frontier. The Lights return to conference play this Saturday night when they battle the Eastern Oregon Mounties in LaGrande, Oregon. MSU-N then returns hoem to host Rocky Mountain College Oct. 13.
Lights 43, Mayville State 29
MSU-Northern 5 14 3 21 -- 43
Mayville 7 15 7 -- 29
1st Quarter
Northern: FG Tommy Langley 22
Northern: safety
2nd Quarter
Northern: Tommy Wilson 2 run (Langley kick )
Northern: Dylan Cook 8 run (Langley kick )
3rd Quarter
Mayville: Joshua Portillo 5 pass from Creighton Pfau (Jonathan Rodriguez kick )
Mayville: Trent Momon 39 pass from Pfau (Rodriguez kick )
Mayville: - Trent Momon 6 pass from Pfau (Momon pass )
Northern: FG Langley 31
4th Quarter
Northern: Cook 3 run (Langley kick )
Northern: Trey Blanchard 17 run (Langley kick)
Northern: Bryan Peters 7 run (Langley kick )
Mayville: Momon 14 pass from Pfau (Rodriguez kick )
MSU MSU-N
First Downs 20 28
Rushing 25 (-2) 55/376
Passing Yards 349 127
Total Offense 347 503
Kickoff Returns 10/103 2/25
Penalties 8/74 9/73
Possession 26:56 42:51
Individual
RUSHING – MSU-N, Trey Blanchard 28/179, B.J. Peters 6/85, Tommy Wilson 15/54, Marvin Williams 2/48, Dylan Cook 2/11, Jace Koester 1/0; MSU, Obie Wilder 12/21, Desmond Earles 1/1, Creighton Pfau 12/-24.
PASSING – MSU-N, Tommy Wilson 18.30/0/127; MSU, Creighton Pfau 30/52/1/349.
RECEIVING – MSU-N, Caymus Thomas 5/33, Trey Blanchard 3/27, Kagen Khameneh 2/24, Marvin Williams 4/17, Fotios Jordangolou 1/9, Bryce Bumgardner 1/7, B.J. Peters 1/5, Seth Roemmele 1/5; MSU, Trent Momon 8/136, Josh Portillo 6/64, Jacob Lawrence 4/60, Adrien Carillo 4/36, Obie Wilder 5/33, Chris Pope 3/20.
TACKLES – MSU-N, Jake Norby 10, Garet Fowler 9, Alec Wagner 6, James Sullivan 6, Devariej Criss 5; MSU, Jason Holmes 18, Skyler Berry 12, Jason Smith 7.
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