Carroll capitalizes on Northern mistakes
Havre Daily News Sports Editor
rdivish@havredailynews.com
To beat the
The Lights played unquestionably better against the juggernaut Saints than they
did last year. However, missed opportunities and mistakes cost them a chance
for pulling off the upset in a 31-14 loss.
"We played pretty well, we really did," said Lights head coach
The missed opportunities began early in the
game, though Northern held its own early on.
Carroll got on the board first with a 40-yard field goal from Marcus Miller
early in the first quarter.
Northern seemed poised to take the lead late in the first quarter when
quarterback Kyle Samson connected with running back Don Saisbury
on a 70-yard pass, giving the Lights first-and-goal from the 8-yard line.
However, the Carroll defense shut down Northern on the next three plays. On
fourth down, kicker Chaz Kountz
missed a 21-yard field goal attempt. To get so deep in Carroll territory
without getting points was disappointing for Samson.
"Even if we get the field goal, it would've helped out a lot," he
said. "You have to get points in that situation, especially against a team
like Carroll."
The game stayed close for much of the first half as the Lights came up with a
key goal-line stand to thwart a prime Carroll scoring opportunity.
But it was only a matter of time before the Saints' offense would strike on a
big play. Quarterback Tyler Emmert connected with
Dustin Michaelis on 34-yard touchdown pass.
"We had to play man-to-man quite a bit because of how good they are with
the run and we gave up some big plays," Samson said.
Northern also picked a bad time to commit its first turnover of the season as a
shovel pass play found the turf and was promptly recovered by Carroll with less
than a minute remaining the first half.
Emmert moved the Saints into scoring position with a
pair of quick passes. Carroll set up for a field goal attempt by Miller with
two seconds remaining the half. However, holder Zach Bumgarner
took the snap, rolled away and scored from 7 yards out
for a touchdown as time expired.
"Nobody on the defense reacted to it," Samson said. "It was an
ugly play all the way around."
Instead of being down 10-3, 10-7 or even 10-0, the Lights found themselves
trailing 17-0 at halftime.
The Lights rallied in the second half and got on the scoreboard when Kyle
Samson connected with Nick Arnold a 26-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter
to cut the lead to 17-7.
Carroll answered with a touchdown pass of its own. Emmert
found Bumgarner on a 43-yard scoring strike to open
the fourth quarter to go up 24-7.
Shortly after the score was where things took a turn for the odd.
After forcing Carroll to punt, Northern appeared to get a break as Carroll's longsnapper launched the ball over punter Ben Chaet's head. Northern's Marc McBryan recovered the ball in the end zone for an apparent
touchdown. However, referees flagged Andy Leichtnam
for unsportsmanlike conduct for hitting the longsnapper.
Instead of the touchdown, Carroll was awarded the ball.
"The rule is you can't hit the snapper on a punt until one second has gone
by," Samson said. "The ball went so far over the punter's head and
Andy saw the ball and went after it. He knocked the snapper down. It wasn't a
terribly vicious hit or anything. But after looking at the film, the center
never lifted his head the whole time even after he snapped and I think that's
what the ref saw."
While Samson isn't supposed to comment on referees' decisions in public, the
play had some major ramifications.
"Instead of it being 24-14 and us having a bunch of momentum, it's 24-7 and they have a first down," he said.
Northern was whistled for another unsportsmanlike conduct penalty two plays
later and sophomore linebacker Dilan Saisbury was ejected from the game. The 15-yard penalty set
up a 4-yard touchdown pass from Emmert to Tyler
Peterson.
"We definitely lost our composure after that play," Samson said.
"It's tough because the kids are out there competing hard and they were
pretty upset. But we can't lose composure like that. That's not we want from
our program."
Northern picked up a late touchdown when Saisbury
rumbled in from 4 yards out with four minutes remaining. But it was much too
late for a Lights' comeback.
"Our defense was on the field entirely too much in that game," Samson
said. "I think they ran about 90 plays to our 60. We just had trouble
sustaining drives on offense."
Carroll racked up 562 yards of total offense, including 205 on the ground. Emmert complete 31 of 46 passes for 357 yards and three
touchdowns. He also etched his name in the Carroll record books by eclipsing
10,000 yards passing, 1,000 yards rushing and 100 touchdowns in his career.
Carroll tailback Ryan Grosulak had 113 yards rushing,
while Bumgarner had nine catchers for 143 yards.
"They're very balanced offensively which makes them tough to defend,"
Samson said. "We had to take some chances to stop their running game and
that hurt us a couple times with the pass. They've gone over 500 yards of total
offense in their last three games."
Northern had 355 yards of total offense. Kyle Samson completed 15 of 25 passes
for 254 yards. Saisbury caught five passes for 107
yards, while Nick Arnold and Dan Wirtzberger had four
catches each. The Lights managed just 115 yards of rushing.
"They're very tough defensively," Coach Samson said. "They're so
fast. They get to the ball and tackle. It definitely took our offensive line a
little while to adjust to how fast they are."
The Lights will now return home to face
"We need to start getting ready for Rocky," Samson said. "We
need to get a win and get that good feeling back."
MSU-Northern 0 0 7 7 - 14
Carroll College 3 14 0 14 - 31
FIRST QUARTER
CC - FG Marcus Miller 40, 10:14
SECOND QUARTER
CC - Dustin Michaelis 34 pass from Tyler Emmert (Miller kick), 1:39
CC - Zach Bumgarner 7 run (Miller kick), :00
THIRD QUARTER
MSU-N - Nick Arnold 26 pass from Kyle Samson (Chaz Kountz kick), 7:48
FOURTH QUARTER
CC - Bumgarner 43 pass from Emmert
(Miller kick), 13:33
CC - Tyler Peterson 4 pass from Emmert (Miller kick),
6:05
MSU-N - Don Saisbury 4 run (Kountz
kick), 4:00
MSU-N CC
First downs 15 30
Rushes-yards 31-101 41-205
Passing yards 254 357
Total offense 355 562
Passes 15-25-1 31-47-0
Punts-ave 6-36 3-37
Pen-yards 8-104 6-42
Fum-lost 1-1 2-2
Individual statistics
RUSHING - MSU-N: Kyle Samson 12-38, Don Saisbury
12-33, Zach Wermers 6-28, Saxton Shearer 1-2. CC:
Ryan Grosulak 22-113, Sean Herrin 5-44, Jed Thomas
8-33, Tyler Emmert 5-8, Zach Bumgarner
1-7.
PASSING - MSU-N: Kyle Samson 15-25-1 - 254. CC: Tyler Emmert
31-46-0 - 357, Josh Barnett 0-1-0 - 0.
RECEIVING - MSU-N: Don Saisbury 6-101, Dan Wirtzberger 4-83, Nick Arnold 4-59, Marc Samson 1-7. CC:
Zach Bumgarner 9-143, Tyler Peterson 7-62, Bryce Doak 5-47, Dustin Michaelis 3-62,
Jed Thomas 3-13, Travis Browne 1-12, Marshall McEwen 1-9, Casey Crites 1-5,
Sean Herrin 1-4.
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