Bears turn away Lights in a shootout

Over the course of the last couple of season, the Rocky Mountain College Battlin' Bears have literally tortured the Montana State University-Northern football team. And while the Lights didn't come out of their Frontier Conference opener with the Bears with a win, they certainly did some torturing of their own Saturday at Herb Klindt Field.

The Lights lost a 53-34 shootout with the No. 23 Bears, the defending Frontier champions Saturday in Billings — in a game which saw both teams pile up huge offensive numbers, but also commit five turnovers apiece. And yet, despite the loss, Northern proved, early in the 2019 season, things have changed.

"We showed flashes of greatness," MSU-N head coach Andrew Rolin said. "Offensively, and defensively, we were really good at times. We were going toe-to-toe with a very talented, well-coached football team (Rocky). We were right there, late in the game. But we just made too many mistakes. The five turnovers, that's something we know we can't do and expect to beat a good football team like Rocky. Those mistakes cost a chance to win a conference football game, so while we played really well at times, that's something we have to fix going forward."

Turnovers were indeed part of the story for both teams. And in the end, Rocky made the most out of the five Northern miscues. Still, Northern was right where it hoped to be against the Bears, especially, early on.

The Lights trapped the lead on their opening drive with a Troy Dayak field goal, and Brendan Medina responded to back-to-back scores by the Bears by throwing a nine-yard touchdown pass to Damari Caul-Davis after a RMC miscue, to pull the Lights to within 13-10. Dayak would then close a wild first stanza with a 32-yard FG to tie the game at 13-13.

Rocky backup QB Drew Korf, who came on in relief of start Nate Dick, opened the second period by throwing two more touchdown passes to give the Bars a 27-13 lead, but Medina came right back with a 10-yard strike to Keagan Stroop, pulling the Lights back within seven, before Sam Sparks capped off a 10-play, 62-yard Rocky march with a touchdown run, sending the Bears into halftime with a 34-20 advantage.

"We moved the ball well, we drove it up and down the field," Rolin said. "We just had too many turnovers. Our defense did a great job, because we had five takeaways of our own, but we didn't do a good enough job of capitalizing on those."

Still, Northern kept fighting.

Medina threw a TD pass to Marvin Williams midway through the third quarter to get the Lights back within seven, but Korf threw his fourth TD of the game to give the Bears a 40-27 lead with 15 minutes left.

And yet, the Lights refused to go away.

On their first drive of the final stanza, Medina hooked up with Williams for another score, and Northern found itself trailing just 40-34 with 11 minutes left in the game.

That however, would be as close as the Lights would get. Korf threw his fifth touchdown pass with nine minutes left, and while Northern drove into Rocky territory again trying to answer, another turnover ended the threat, and the Bears would tack on an insurance score with two minutes left in the game.

"Just too many costly mistakes," Rolin said. "We're driving in the fourth quarter, with momentum, and we turn the ball over. We just can't do that in this league. It's tough because we feel like we were right there with them (Bears). So that's something we can learn from. And we'll get better in those situations with more and more experience."

The Lights tallied 377 yards of offense, with Medina throwing for 263 yards and four scores. However, four interceptions by the impressive red-shirt freshman were tough for the Lights to overcome. Williams finished a strong day with five catches for 70 yards, while Caul-Davis had five catches, as well. Freshman Cameron Taylor paced the MSU-N running attack with 53 yards on six carries.

Rocky, mostly behind Korf, rolled up 594 yards on 90 plays, with Korf throwing for 344 yards and four scores. Sparks also rushed for 133 yards for the high-octane Bears (1-0, 2-0), who came to Havre next month.

"I don't feel we played bad defensively," Rolin said. "They're (Bears) an explosive team, but we also put our defense in some tough situations."

The MSU-N defense got nine tackles and two sacks from Japperri Powell, while Joe Fehr, Devariej Criss, Jake Norby and Shaderius Jenkins also registered sacks. Jeff Tinae also had a pick, while Powell, Norby, Criss and Justin Pfeifer also forced fumbles.

And while Northern (0-1, 1-1) didn't come away with a win Saturday afternoon in Billings, the Lights did showcase the potential they have, and what they're bringing home for their fans to see in their highly anticipated home-opener this Saturday against Montana Western (1-0, 1-0).

"There are no moral victories here," Rolin said. "That's not what we're after here. But I did love our effort and our fight, and I loved the way we played at times. So we'll learn from this and move on. On Sunday, we were already thinking about Western, and our goal will be to be 1-0 at home this week."

Rocky Mountain 53, Lights 34

MSU-Northern 13 7 7 7 - 34

Rocky 13 21 6 13 - 53

MSN: Troy Dayak 39 field goal.

RMC: Sam Sparks 40 pass from Nathan Dick (kick fail).

RMC: Lucas Overton 15 pass from Drew Korf (Wyatt Brusven kick).

MSN: Damari Cual-Davis 9 pass from Brenden Medina (Dayak kick).

MSN: Dayak 32 field goal.

RMC: Josh Kraft 43 pass from Korf (Brusven kick).

RMC: Kraft 36 pass from Korf (Brusven kick).

MSN: Keagan Stroop 10 pass from Medina (Dayak kick).

RMC: Sparks 1 run (Brusven kick).

MSN: Marvin Williams Jr. 4 pass from Medina (Dayak kick).

RMC: Carter Garsjo 20 pass from Korf (kick fail).

MSN: Williams Jr. 14 pass from Medina (Dayak kick).

RMC: Garsjo 8 pass from Korf (kick fail).

RMC: Victor Ngalamulume 33 run (Brusven kick).

Individual statistics

RUSHING: MSU-Northern, Cameron Taylor 6-53, Andrez Trahan-Proctor 9-21, Marvin Williams Jr. 1-17, Brenden Medina 4-10. Rocky, Sam Sparks 20-133, Colton Williams 9-56, Victor Ngalamulume 2-37, Lucas Overton 1-12.

PASSING: MSU-Northern, Brenden Medina 20-44-263-4. Rocky, Drew Korf 24-42-1-332, Nathan Dick 3-4-0-43.

RECEIVING: MSU-Northern, Marvin Williams Jr. 5-70, Damari Cual-Davis 5-61, Keagan Stroop 4-40, Bryce Bumbgardner 2-37. Rocky, Lucas Overton 10-97, Josh Kraft 7-153, Carter Garsjo 7-75, Sam Sparks 1-40, La'Quante Harris 1-9, Holden Ryan 1-3.