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Rocky Mountain College fends off fierce Northern rally
By Ryan Divish/Havre Daily News Sports Editor/rdivish@havredailynews.com
The Montana State University-Northern football team played perhaps its
best half of football this season in the second half of Saturday's game
against Rocky Mountain College. Unfortunately, the first half was one of its
worst.
Rocky scored 24 first-half points and fended off a scrappy Northern rally to
hang on for a 27-20 Frontier Conference win.
After falling behind 24-0 in the first half, Northern scored three
second-half touchdowns, but had several possible game-tying drives come up
just short in the fourth quarter.
Lights head coach Walt Currie isn't big on moral victories but he found the
comeback a positive.
"The one plus from this was that the kids didn't throw in the
towel," Currie said. "We showed some pride. That was good to see,
but it took us a half to wake up and start playing."
The first half was far from positive for Northern. The Lights' offense was
anything but crisp, and their defense couldn't seem to get key stops when
they needed them.
"We were awful in the first half,"
Currie said. "We weren't very crisp and didn't play with any sense of
urgency or aggressiveness."
From the opening kickoff, the Lights looked sluggish. Northern hurt itself on
Rocky's first drive with three penalties for 30 yards before Rocky
quarterback Adam Sanchez plunged across from 2 yards out on a quarterback
draw.
On Northern's ensuing possession Rocky's Eric Reis intercepted Neill
Crandell's tipped pass that set up a 50-yard Jeremy Duprey field goal.
Northern appeared to be crawling out of its doldrums, putting a solid drive
together in the first quarter, but Rocky stuffed the Lights on fourth and one
as Tanner Cochrell was wrapped up behind the line of scrimmage on Northern's
37-yard line.
Rocky took over possession and needed just three plays as Sanchez took
advantage of a Northern defender falling down to connect with Darrel
Lockridge on a 57-yard touchdown pass.
Just when it seemed like things couldn't possibly get any worse for the
Lights, they did.
Northern's offense marched to the Rocky 4-yard line but failed to get into
the end zone as Cochrell fumbled an option pitch that was recovered by Rocky.
Rocky then pinned Northern on its own 1-yard line. The Lights tried to get
out of the bad field position as Crandell tried to hit Tanner Woodward on a
short swing pass. Woodward dropped the ball, but the referees ruled that the
pass was a lateral and the ball was live. Woodward tried to pick the ball up
in the scrum, but was drilled by several Rocky defenders and the ball came
loose. Rocky's Jade Small pounced on the ball for a Bear touchdown with just
57 seconds remaining in the first half.
"That was just a bad play from the beginning," Currie said.
"We thought we could get some yardage on it."
Halftime was a blessing for Currie and his team as they tried to regroup from
an all-but-forgettable first half.
As for what was said to his team by the Northern coaching staff, Currie was
coy.
"You probably couldn't put it in print," he said. "Basically,
we challenged them, we challenged their pride, and they responded."
Northern opened the second half by putting together a solid drive that
stalled at the 19-yard line. The Lights lined up for a field goal, but it was
a fake as holder L.D. Matthews scampered 19 yards for the touchdown.
Northern's attempt at a 2-point conversion came up short, but the Lights
picked up some much needed momentum.
"We work on the fake every week," Currie said. "I called it
because I thought we needed a boost emotionally."
Rocky answered on the ensuing possession as Duprey banged home his second
field goal of the game, this time from 49 yards out to push the lead to 27-6.
However, those would be the last points Rocky would see in the game. The
much-maligned Northern defense shut down the vaunted Bear passing attack.
While the defense was slowing down the Rocky offense, the Northern offense
was picking up speed.
The Lights marched 67 yards on six plays as Crandell rolled out and found
Kris Marshall open in the back of the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown.
Northern even caught a break on the point after attempt. A bad snap forced
Matthews to roll out and look for a receiver, but his pass was intercepted.
However, a Rocky player had lined up offsides, which allowed the Lights
another crack at the PAT, which Chris Nagel converted.
The Lights appeared to be heading for another score, capitalizing on a fumble
recovery by Mike Tryon and a facemask call on a fake punt to get deep into
Rocky territory. However, on fourth down and two from the 13-yard line, Jeff
Fischer was stuffed on an option run.
The Lights still managed to get another scoring opportunity and this time
cashed it in. Crandell connected with Herrera on a 24-yard pass which set up
an 8-yard touchdown pass to Herrera as Northern pulled within seven on
Nagel's point after attempt.
But Northern's rally would end there. The Lights recovered two onside kicks
but lined up offsides on one and touched the ball before it rolled 10 yards
on the other.
The Lights had one last-ditch chance to tie the game, getting possession with
37 seconds left. However, Northern was without timeouts and could not drive
the length of the field in the short amount of time.
"It really hurt us burning up our timeouts early in the second
half," Currie said. "We used one when Neill got hurt and wasted two
on some substitution problems."
Offensively, Northern outgained Rocky in total yardage 451 to 315. Crandell
finished with 315 yards passing, completing 29 of 50 attempts. Woodward had
six catches for 64 yards while Marshall snagged six balls for 64 yards. Herrera
also had a solid game, catching five passes for 75 yards.
"We moved the ball consistently in the second half," Currie said.
"Neill shouldered a lot of the blame for the first half and he really
stepped it up in the second half."
Northern's defense held Rocky's pass attack to just 165 yards, but did allow
the Bears to gain 206 yards on the ground.
Matthews led the defense with 12 tackles while Bomont Somerfeld had 10
tackles, including four tackles for a loss.
With the loss, Northern falls to 1-6 overall and 1-4 in the Frontier
Conference. Rocky snapped a five-game losing streak to improve to 2-5 overall
and 2-3 in the Frontier.
Northern will host Montana Tech on Saturday at 4 p.m. The game time was
pushed back from 1 p.m. due to the Havre High playoff game.
Rocky Mountain 10 14 3 0 - 27
MSU-Northern 0 0 13 7 - 20
First Quarter
RMC - Adam Sanchez 2-yard run (Jeremy Duprey kick) 12:20
RMC - Duprey 50-yard field goal 4:37
Second Quarter
RMC - Darrell Lockridge 57-yard pass from Sanchez (kick failed) 12:01
RMC - Jade Small fumble recovery in ends zone (B.J. Charlton pass from
Sanchez) :57
Third Quarter
MSUN - L.D. Matthews 18-yard run (run failed) 10:15
RMC - Duprey 49-yard field goal 7:24
MSUN - Kris Marshall 15-yard pass from Neill Crandell (Chris Nagel kick) 5:29
Fourth Quarter
MSUN - Clint Herrera 8-yard pass from Crandell (Nagel kick) 2:32
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING - RMC: Sanchez 17-82, Venn 17-65, Albin 1-15, Charlton 1-17, Goyen
1-1. MSUN: Tanner Cochrell 25-68, Neill Crandell 11-43, L.D. Matthews 1-18,
Kris Marshall 2-3, Tanner Woodward 1-4.
PASSING - RMC: Sanchez 19-37-165-1. MSUN: Crandell 29-50-322-1
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