Scrimmages highlight of weekend sports
By Ryan Divish/Havre Daily News Sports Editor/rdivish@havredailynews.com
With the regular season looming just a week away, local teams gave fans a
hint of the upcoming season with preseason scrimmages.
The Montana State University-Northern football team gave a crowd of about 100
people plenty of excitement during its first preseason scrimmage on Friday
evening.
The Lights, under new head coach Mark Samson, showed big-play potential on
offense and scrappiness on defense in the hour-long workout.
"We're about where I'd thought we'd be at this point in the fall,"
Samson said. "I liked what I saw on both sides of the ball, but we've
still got a lot of work to do."
Samson's son, Kyle, who transferred to Northern from the
Northern's offense marched down the field in the
opening possession, as Samson connected on a pair of passes with Nick Arnold.
However, Northern's defense held the offense out of
the end zone on a crucial stop on a third-and-goal play from the 4-yard line.
"What I liked was that our defense was
flying around to the football and playing with a lot of the enthusiasm,"
Coach Samson said.
The Lights' offense would get in the end zone on its next two possessions.
Tailback Don Saisbury took an option pitch from Kyle
Samson and rolled 48 yards down the sideline for the first score.
On the next series, Samson scooted 18 yards on a quarterback draw for a score.
The Northern defense stymied the offense for four consecutive possessions,
before Samson connected on a 3-yard scoring pass to
"We did some good things on offense," Mark Samson said. "But we
stopped ourselves with little mistakes. We had some dropped passes and
penalties."
The Lights' offense also produced two more scores. Former Havre High standout
Dan Wirtzberger tossed a 17-yard touchdown pass to
Everett Cornwell, and Saxton Shearer scampered in from 8 yards out.
Northern will scrimmage again on Wednesday at
The Northern volleyball squad didn't scrimmage against itself, choosing instead
to take on a squad of former Skylights.
Northern dispatched its elders by scores of 21-18, 21-15, 21-19, 19-21 and
21-15.
"I've seen them play better in practice," head coach
Katy Engstrom led the Skylights with nine kills,
while Lindsay Garcia added eight kills. Transfer setter Emilee
Madsen dished out 21 assists.
"We're still ahead of where we were last season, even though we brought in
so many new players," Handley said.
The Skylights will play their annual Maroon-Gold scrimmage on Wednesday at
"I don't have any idea who I am going to start, because we have so many
kids that can contribute," Handley said. "Wednesday will be big in
helping me decide. I expect a much crisper performance on Wednesday."