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Lights battle College of Idaho in long-awaited spring opener

It wasn’t the end result the Montana State University-Northern Lights were after. No, they went to Caldwell, Idaho, to win. But it still felt really good to just be playing football again.

Saturday, the Lights fell to the fifth-ranked College of Idaho Yotes, 26-12, in the Frontier Conference spring season-opener for both teams. It was Northern’s first game since Nov. 16, 2019, when the Lights closed out that season against the Yotes, also at Simplot Stadium in Caldwell.

Since that game, there had been no football for more than a year due to COVID-19, but that all changed Saturday when the Lights battled the Yotes to the finish.

As expected, the game showed that both teams were rusty, and both squads were also breaking in new players. C of I struck first with a later first-qaurter touchdown run by star running back Nick Calzaretta. Northern’s defense played tough throughout the half, but with 26 seconds left in the first half, Calzaretta scored again to send the Yotes into the locker room with a 13-0 lead.

C of I added two long TD passes in the second half to lead 26-0 before Northern finally got in the endzone. Brenden Medina first found Dorian Miles for a TD to cap an 11-play, 75-yard drive, and just two minutes later Andrez Trahan-Proctor scored from seven yards out to make the final score 26-12.

Statistically, Northern hung with the Yotes all game long. The Lights finished with 323 yards of offense and 20 first downs with Medina throwing for 230 yards, while Trahan-Proctor rushed for 106. Jake Horner led Northern with 93 yards on four catches, while Miles had six catches for 63 yards. The Lights also had a pair of turnovers, however, and Medina was sacked five times.

Defensively, Northern held C of I to under 400 yards of offense, and held Calzaretta, the league’s leading rusher a year ago, under 100 yards. Joel Hadley and Dylan Wampler each had eight tackles, while Wampler had a sack, as well.

The Lights (0-1) will now have a week off before traveling to Carroll College March 27 for the final road game of the four-game spring season.

 

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