Orediggers bury Lights in season finale

The Montana State University-Northern football team has had to endure its fair share of adversity this fall so the Lights were hoping to end the season on a positive note when they went to Butte Saturday to face Montana Tech. Instead, the Lights suffered a 41-0 loss to the Orediggers as they could not get their offense going, especially the ground game.

“We just struggled to run the football. I think with injuries and where we are personnel wise, we just had a rough time,” MSU-N head coach Andrew Rolin said. “I didn’t want it to end this way for the seniors but our guys left everything on the field. Our guys played hard.”

Both teams started the afternoon slow on offense with neither team gaining much yardage. The Orediggers finally put together some plays to reach MSU-N 27-yard line late in the first quarter. On fourth down, Cade Wyant’s pass to Mark Este in the end zone was overthrown and the Orediggers turned it over on downs.

After another Lights punt, the Orediggers again put a drive together. In place of the injured Jett Campbell, Wyant scrambled for a first down and then completed two passes to get the Orediggers down the MSU-N 34-yard line. He did not overthrow his receiver this time as Wyant threw his first collegiate touchdown deep down the middle to Trevor Hoffman to take the lead.

The Orediggers forced another MSU-N punt and a good punt return from Estes gave the Orediggers great field position at the MSU-N 38-yard line to start the drive. When the Tech offense got back on the field, it was led by Jake Standlee at quarterback right after Wyant led them to a score the previous drive.

It did not matter as the Orediggers again marched down the field. On third and six at the MSU-N 16-yard line, Standlee scrambled left and found Kiley Caprara who took it in for the score to make it 14-0 halfway through the second quarter.

With the half coming to an end, the Lights finally put a drive together. MSU-N quarterback Kaymen Cureton made several plays on the ground and through the air to move the chains. He also tried to stretch the defense with several deep shots to his receivers. However, Cureton was unable to connect with his receivers on those deep throws.

“We just didn’t connect. I thought we had some big play opportunities in the first half that may have changed the momentum of the game,” Rolin said.

The Lights were able to reach the Tech 30-yard line but a sack forced Rolin to burn his final timeout of the half. Cureton took a shot at the end zone that Rolin believed should have been defensive-pass interference but it just fell incomplete. Cureton then completed a pass to Tyrese Rios but it was short of the first down and time ran out before the Lights could attempt a field goal.

On the Orediggers’ first possession of the second half, they again drove down the field. But this time, the Lights forced a stop and Tech had to settle for a 34-yard field goal from Ryan Lowry to make the score 17-0.

The next two drives saw the teams exchange turnovers. Cureton’s pass was intercepted by Spencer Schock and then the Lights recovered the Kaleb Winterbur fumble. Later in the quarter, the Tech offense led by Wyant at quarterback marched down the field. At the MSU-N one-yard line, Tyler Folkes ran it in to make it 24-0.

The Lights responded with a drive to reach Tech territory. But on fourth and two, Canaan Smith’s carry fell short of the first-down markers. Tech continued to move the ball but the Lights made a stop with an Isaiah Paul interception in the end zone that he returned to midfield.

The Lights were unable to turn it into momentum as they punted it back to Tech. Standlee led the Tech offense on this drive and the Orediggers moved the ball to the MSU-N three-yard line. Standlee then connected with Kyle Torgerson for the score.

Later in the fourth quarter, Cureton fumbled the ball on a carry and the Orediggers recovered it in MSU-N territory. The Lights made a defensive stop and Lowry nailed the 47-yard field goal to make the lead 34-0. On the next Lights’ drive, Cureton threw an interception to Kade Wilcox who returned it 42 yards for the touchdown and a 41-0 lead.

Cureton finished the game completing 28.6 percent of his passes for 122 yards and two interceptions. The MSU-N running game struggled as the Lights only ran for 24 yards as a team. After losing Andrez Trahan-Proctor in the spring season and Izayah Boss several weeks ago, the MSU-N ground game had a hard time replacing their production over the past few games.

“We’ve lost two starting running backs in the past year and that’s been tough on the ground game,” Rolin said. “You got to run the ball in this league. If you can’t run the ball, it’s going to make everything else a little bit harder on offense.”

On defense, linebacker Dylan Wampler led the Lights with 14 total tackles to finish the year with 115. Chase Gilbert recorded a season-high four tackles for loss and he tied a season high with ten total tackles. With another interception, Paul finished the season leading the Frontier Conference with seven picks.

The Lights finish the season last in the Frontier Conference with a 1-9 conference record and 1-10 overall record. While the Lights suffered many losses, they did pull out a 22-20 five-overtime victory over Eastern Oregon for their first Frontier Conference win in five years. While he believes they let some wins get away from them, Rolin also believes the Lights showed growth that will hopefully carry over into next season.

“I’m proud of the guys. I’m proud of the effort. We were in a lot of tight games this year and I know in the past that hasn’t been the case at Northern,” Rolin said. “There’s been a ton of growth within this program and I think it’s only going to be better and we got to build off of it, learn from our mistakes, recruit well and let the rest take care of itself.”

Montana Tech 41, MSU-Northern 0

Tech 0 14 10 17 - 41

MSU-N 0 0 0 0 - 0

2nd Quarter

Tech - Cade Wyant 34 pass from Trevor Hoffman (Ryan Lowry kick)

Drive: 9 plays, 75 yards

Tech - Jake Standlee 17 pass to Kiley Caprara (Lowry kick)

Drive: 5 plays, 33 yards

3rd Quarter

Tech - Lowry 34 FG

Drive: 6 plays, 58 yards

Tech - Tyler Folkes 1 yd run (Lowry kick)

Drive: 5 plays, 20 yards

4th Quarter

Tech - Standlee 3 pass to Kyle Torgerson (Lowry kick)

Drive: 9 plays, 57 yards

Tech - Lowry 47 FG

Drive: 5 plays, -15 yards

Tech - Kade Wilcox 42 interception return

Drive: 0 plays, 0 yards

MSU-N Tech

First Downs 9 20

Rushing 27-24 42-238

Passing Yards 122 190

Total Offense 146 428

Kick Returns 5/78 0/0

Punts 10/43.2 4/55.3

Penalties 4/41 11/111

Possession 25:14 34:46

INDIVIDUAL

RUSHING - MSU-N, Canaan Smith 8-17, Kaymen Cureton 13-9, Dylan Wongphachanh 6(-2); Tech, Blake Counts 13-147, Tyler Folkes 18-74, Jake Standlee 2-21, Kaleb Winterbur 3-4.

PASSING - MSU-N, Kaymen Cureton 10-35-122-0-2; Tech, Cade Wyant 8-13-113-1-1, Jake Standlee 8-14-77-2-0.

RECEIVING - MSU-N, Tyrese Rios 4-58, Jake Horner 3-37, Levi Keltner 2-24, Dylan Vongphachanh 1-3; Tech, Trevor Hoffman 4-92, Kiley Caprara 4-51, Kyle Torgerson 4-28, Logan Kennedy 1-11.

TACKLES - MSU-N, Dylan Wampler 14, Lucas Thacker 10, Chase Gilbert 10, Hunter Riley 9; Tech - Naoki Harmer 8, Bridger Johnson 7, Teddy Croft 6, Zach Trumble 6.

Frontier Conference Standings

Conf. All

W-L W-L

Montana Western 7-3 8-3

College of Idaho 7-3 7-3

Rocky Mountain 7-3 7-3

Carroll College 6-4 6-4

Montana Tech 5-5 5-5

Eastern Oregon 4-6 4-6

Southern Oregon 3-7 3-7

MSU-Northern 1-9 1-10

Saturday

Carroll College 21, College of Idaho 6

Montana Tech 41, MSU-Northern 0

Montana Western 50, Rocky Mountain 42

Eastern Oregon 14, Southern Oregon 10