Carroll uses record-setting day to blow by Northern

On a sunny, windy day in Helena, either the Montana State University-Northern Lights, or the Carroll College Fighting Saints were going to see a frustrating losing streak come to an end.

Thanks to Ryan Arntson, it was the Fighting Saints who snapped their streak.

Saturday at Nelson Stadium, Arntson set Carroll’s single-game rushing record with 286 yards in Carroll’s 56-7 win over the Lights. The win ended a four-game slide for the Saints, while it extended two streak for Northern. MSU-N fell to 0-8 in the Frontier Conference, and, the Lights have still never won a game in Helena.

"We played poorly on defense," MSU-N head coach Andrew Rolin said. "We just didn't play fundamentally sound at all. We didn't play gap-sound football, and we didn't get guys on the ground when we had a chance to make tackles. The bottom line is we just didn't play well enough on defense. At times, we didn't play that well on offense, either. So overall, we've just got to keep getting better."

But as tough as the outcome was Saturday, there were bright spots for Northern.

The Lights rushed for 200 yards on a normally-stingy Carroll defense, as true freshman Sam Braboy racked up 94 yards on just nine carries, while Jett Robertson added 67 yards on 17 totes. As a whole, Northern tallied over 400 yards of offense, but once again, scoring was an issue as the Lights lost two fumbles on key drives.

Rushing, and scoring weren’t problems for the Saints Saturday, however. Carroll had been averaging just 11 point and less than 120 yards on the ground coming into the game, and the Saints were without starting tailback Major Ali. But Arntson picked up the slack in a big, big way.

The former Helena High star opened the game with a 92-yard touchdown run, and he would score a 68-yarder in the fourth quarter on his way to breaking the school record on just 19 carries.

Carroll would go on to rush for 408 yards on the afternoon, getting running scores from Griphen Le and Eric Dawson, while Hunter Bledsoe threw two TD passes. Shane Sipes also returned a kickoff 64 yards for a score.

Still, as potent as Carroll’s ground attack was, the Lights weren’t in bad shape early on. Carroll led just 14-0 after the first 15 minutes, and when Tommy Wilson scored on a 1-yard keeper late in the second stanza, the Lights went into halftime trailing only 28-7. From there, however, Northern was shut out, and the Lights could do little to stop Carroll on the ground.

While Arntson had a record-setting day, Le added 79 yards on the ground, while Bledsoe threw for 97 on just 12 pass attempts. Jaren Maki led the MSU-N defense with 10 tackles.

Offensively, Wilson finished with 187 yards and a rushing score, while Bryce Bumgardner had 94 yards and Keagan Stroop had a career-high nine grabs.

Now, Northern will try and regroup when they travel to another team with a four-game losing streak. This Saturday, the Lights are in Ashland, Oregon, to take on Southern Oregon, before coming home to finish the season against College of Idaho Nov. 10.

"This game (Carroll) is in the past now," Rolin said. "We've got another tough road game ahead of us, and we need to go fown there (Southern Oregon) and get better. I want to see us take a step forward this week, and we're going to work extremely hard to make that happen."

Saints 56, Lights 7

1st Quarter

CC - Ryan Arntson 92 run (Josh Kraft kick)

CC - Troy Arntson 24 pass from Hunter Bledsoe (Kraft kick)

2nd Quarter

CC - Eric Dawson 21 pass from Bledsoe (Kraft kick)

CC - Dawson 4 run (Kraft kick)

MSU-N - Tommy Wilson 1 run (Diego Morales kick)

3rd Quarter

CC - Shane Sipes 64 kickoff return (Kraft kick)

CC - Dawson 1 run (Kraft kick)

4th Quarter

CC - Ryan Arntson 68 run (Kraft kick)

CC - Griphen 45 run (Kraft kick)

INDVIDUAL

RUSHING - MSU-N, Sam Braboy 9.94, Jett Robertson 17/67, Tommy Wilson 13/13, Keagan Stroop 1/8, Marvin Williams 1/6; CC, Ryan Arntson 18/268, Griphen Le 12/79, Troy Arntson 2/25, Eric Dawson 5/11, Hunter Bledsoe 1/3.

PASSING - MSU-N, Tommy Wilson 23-36-0-187; CC, Hunter Bledsoe 8-12-0-97, Kolby Killoy 2-5-0-33.

RECEIVING - MSU-N, Bryce Bumgardner 4/94, Keagan Stroop 9/53, Jett Robertson 4-32, Seth Roemmele 2/20, Jared Eisenbarth 1/3, Marvin Williams 3/-15; CC, Eric Dawson 4/38, Troy Arntson 2/36, Ryan Arntson 2/28, Joe Farris 1/12, Shane Sipes 1/12.

TACKLES - MSU-N, Jaren Maki 10, Caymus Thomas 9, Chase Gilbert 7, Devariej Criss 5; CC, Reece Quade 7, McBride Galt 7, Parker Bernhardt 6, Chase Bowen 6.

Lights are 0-8 in

Frontier, 1-8 overall; Next Up: at SOU

Saturday

Frontier Conference Standings

Conf. All

W-L W-L

Rocky Mountain 6-2 7-2

UM-Western 6-2 6-2

Eastern Oregon 5-3 5-3

Montana Tech 4-4 4-4

Southern Oregon 4-4 4-4

College of Idaho 3-4 4-5

Carroll College 3-5 4-5

MSU-Northern 0-8 1-8

Saturday

Carroll College 56, MSU-Northern 7

Montana Tech 38, Southern Oregon 31

College of Idaho 48, Eastern Oregon 24

Rocky Mountain 43, UM-Western 14

Saturday, Nov. 3

MSU-Northern at Southern Oregon

Carroll College at Montana Tech

College of Idaho at UM-Western

Rocky Mountain at Eastern Oregon