UM-Western edges Northern in Frontier Conference shootout
Ryan Divish
Havre Daily News Sports Editor
rdivish@havredailynews.com
Mark Samson wants no part of moral victories. In his second year as the Montana
State University-Northern head football coach, Samson ranks them up there with
dropped passes and missed tackles - unacceptable.
So don't think for a second he is taking much solace in his team's 34-33 loss
to the
"From a coach's standpoint, it's very frustrating because it's a game we
should have won," Samson said. "It doesn't matter that we played
better than last year. There are no moral victories in this program."
The Lights had a chance for a legitimate
victory late in the game. Trailing 34-33, the Northern defense was able to get
a key stop late in the fourth quarter as Western was trying to run the clock
out.
The Bulldogs even helped the cause as freshman punter Brad Hollen
unleashed a four-yard shank of a punt to give the Lights solid field position
on the Bulldog 49-yard-line with
"We were trying to get into field goal position," Samson said.
"I thought we had the chances to do it, but we just couldn't make the
plays."
But it was countless other plays that the Lights could've made to win the game
that also irked Samson. Northern had several opportunities to take leads and
ultimately put the Bulldogs away earlier in the game, but mistakes on defense
and special teams thwarted those efforts.
The Lights botched a pair of extra points and missed a field goal in the game,
all of which would prove costly in the one-point loss. Defensively, the Lights
bogged down but were unable to contain several Bulldog scoring drives.
"We'd get them in third and long situations and they always seemed to make
just enough yards to keep the drive alive," Samson said. "I don't
know if it was the change from playing
Western got on the board immediately, taking a 7-0 lead as quarterback Justin
Hartman found Caleb Drinkwalter on a 6-yard scoring
strike to cap off a 12-play, 80-yard drive to open the game.
After struggling to establish a lengthy drive, the Lights tied the game on a
7-yard touchdown pass from Kyle Samson to Dan Wirtzberger.
From there the offensive shootout was on. Western answered immediately on its
ensuing possession as Seth McLean hauled in a 28-yard touchdown pass on third
down to go up 14-0.
Northern tied the game at 14 as Don Saisbury scored
on a 3-yard-run with
Western continued to have plenty of success against the Lights' defense as the
Bulldogs needed just nine plays to go 73 yards and find the end zone. Caleb Drinkwalter scored on a 3-yard plunge to give Western a
21-14 lead.
The Lights were poised to either tie the game or at least cut into the 21-14
lead right before the half. Northern drove the ball down to Western's 10-yard
line, but the drive ended scoreless as Chaz Kountz' 29-yard field goal attempt was wide right.
"If I did a better job of calling the plays in that situation, we would
have scored right before halftime," Samson said. "Hindsight is 20-20,
but I made some bad calls down there."
After not getting the score before the half, the Lights came out and got a
score immediately after halftime. They needed just three plays, as Samson
connected with Jake Eldridge on a 65-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at
21-21.
The Bulldogs answered with a big play of their own later in the quarter. Travis
Hartman took an inside screen pass from his brother and broke free for a
65-yard touchdown.
"I think we had five missed tackles on that play," Samson said.
"It was a little screen pass that I thought we had defended pretty well.
We just didn't make any tackles."
Still, Northern wouldn't go away. The Lights put together a 15-play, 71-yard
drive that culminated with a 5-yard Saisbury
touchdown run. However, Kountz's kick was no good on
the point-after attempt, leaving the Lights trailing 28-27.
Western tried to put the Lights away. Josh Illig
hauled in a 52-yard pass from Justin Hartman to set up his 3-yard touchdown
reception. However, the Bulldogs had their own kicking problems and Hollen missed the point-after.
The Lights seemed to have the game tied up and ready to force overtime when
Kyle Samson guided the Lights 70 yards in 10 plays and cut the lead to one with
an 11-yard touchdown scamper.
Down 34-33, Coach Samson played for the tie and sent Kountz
out to kick the extra point. This time his kicker never got the chance to even
kick the ball. The snap from center was low and bounced to Wirtzberger,
who is the Lights holder. Wirtzberger knew the play
was botched and picked up the ball and rolled left and lofted a pass towards Saisbury in the end zone. The attempt was knocked down.
"Dan fielded the ball off the bounce, but the timing was all screwed up
after that," Samson said. "He did what he was supposed to do."
Kicking woes have plagued the Lights every year since the program's
reinstatement, and Samson longs for a day when that will change.
"You're supposed to take point after attempts for granted at the college
level," he said. "I have been here for two years and have yet to
think it's automatic."
But Samson wasn't about to blame just Kountz for the
kicking problems.
"He's only a freshman playing a position that he wasn't even recruited
for," Samson said. "We shouldn't have put him in that situation in
the first place. If we get some stops, it doesn't come down to that."
Northern rolled up 443 yards of total offense, with 196 yards rushing and 247
yards passing. Kyle Samson completed 19 of 34 passes for 247 yards and rushed
for 48 yards. Saisbury had 55 yards rushing on 12
carries and caught five passes for 55 yards. Freshman Saxton Shearer had a
career-high 62 yards rushing on just seven carries.
"Saxton really ran the ball well," Coach Samson said. "Donny had
a nice game running and catching the ball. Offensively, we're head and
shoulders ahead of where we were last year at this time. But you get almost 450
yards of total offense and five touchdowns and you feel like you should win the
game."
Western racked up 434 yards of total offense, including 366 yards passing from
Hartman. Seth McLean had four catches for 78 yards, while the Frontier's
leading receiver Jake Larson had four catches for 69 yards. Travis Hartman
caught three passes for 100 yards. Western fumbled the ball three times in the
game, but was able to recover all three.
"Defensively, we just gave up big plays at important times," Samson said.
"We couldn't get stops when we needed them most."
While Saturday's loss was far from as bad as some of last year's road losses,
Samson found little comfort in that thought.
"It's a tough loss to swallow," Coach Samson said. "I still
think we are a better football team than they are. Sometimes you have to make
your own breaks happen and we didn't do that."
Things don't get any easier for the Lights as they will face top-ranked
MSU-N 7 7 13 6 - 33
UM-W 7 14 7 6 - 34
First quarter
UM-W - Caleb Drinkwalter 6 pass from Justin Hartman
(Brad Hollen kick),
MSU-N - Danny Wirtzberger 7 pass from Kyle Samson (Chaz Kountz kick), :38.
Second quarter
UM-W - Seth McLean 23 pass from Hartman (Hollen
kick), 13:31.
MSU-N - Don Saisbury 3 run (Kountz
kick),
UM-W - Drinkwalter 3 run (Hollen
kick),
Third quarter
MSU-N - Jake Eldridge 65 pass from Samson (Kountz
kick),
UM-W - Travis Hartman 67 pass from J. Hartman (Hollen
kick),
MSU-N - Saisbury 5 run (kick failed), 1:03.
Fourth quarter
UM-W - Josh Illig 3 pass from J. Hartman (kick
failed),
MSU-N - Samson 11 run (kick/pass failed),
MSU-N UM-W
First downs 22 15
Rushes-yards 44-196 33-68
Passing yards 247 366
Comp-att-int 19-34-0 18-32-0
Punts-avg. 5-42.8 6-38.5
Punt ret. 4-25 1-4
Kickoff ret 4-105 5-93
Fumbles-lost 2-0 3-0
Penalties-yards 6-46 5-71 I
INDIVIDUAL STATS
RUSHING - MSU-N: Saxton Shearer 7-62, Don Saisbury
12-55, Zach Wermers 8-31, Kyle Samson 17-48. UM-W:
Caleb Drinkwalter 22-59, Justin Hartman 10-11, Jake
Larson 1-(-2).
PASSING - MSU-N: Kyle Samson 19-34-0-247. UM-W: Justin Hartman 18-32-0-366.
RECEIVING - MSU-N: Danny Wirtzberger 5-57, Don Saisbury 5-55, Zach Wermers 3-18,
Jake Eldridge 2-72, Clint Herrera 2-27, Nick Arnold 2-18. UM-W: Seth McLean
4-78, Jake Larson 4-69, Travis Hartman 3-100, Josh Illig
3-75, Jeff Schultz 2-32, Caleb Drinkwalter 2-12.
|
|