Lights strike gold in the mining city
George Ferguson
Havre Daily News sports editor
gferguson@havredailynews.com
A big play on offense and an even bigger one on defense is all it took for the No. 11 Montana State University-Northern Lights to finally scale a huge hurdle in Butte.
Northern scored a go-ahead touchdown midway through the third quarter, and junior linebacker Dilan Saisbury intercepted former Havre High and Montana Tech quarterback Justin Kegel with less than a minute remaining in the game as the Lights knocked off the No. 14 Orediggers 12-7 at Alumni Stadium in Butte Saturday afternoon.
The win put MSU-N ( 4-1, 5-1) in the driver’s seat in the Frontier Conference standings. Despite still trailing No. 1-ranked Carroll College by one game, the Lights not only gained a game on the Orediggers, but both Tech and the Saints still have to make trips to Blue Pony Stadium before season’s end.
“It does put us in a pretty good position,” MSU-N head coach Marc Samson said. “It is a big win because we do get to play both Tech and Carroll at home. But we still have to take care of our business each and every week.”
While MSU-N took a big step in beating a program that has given the Lights plenty of grief ever since the school reintroduced football, Samson, who was coaching the game after suffering a gall blatter attack on Friday afternoon in Great Falls, couldn’t help but feel a lot of pride after Saturday’s win.
“It’s not that I don’t appreciate all of the success I’ve had at other places I’ve coached, because I do,” Samson said. “But this was as good a win as any I’ve ever had in my coaching career.
“To look back at where we were two years ago in that same stadium in Butte,” he added, “and to see how far we’ve come is pretty special.”
As for Samson’s health, he said he feels fine despite Friday’s trip to a Great Falls’ emergency room and is ready to take the rest of the season on.
The game between the Lights and Orediggers was yet another defensive battle as has every game that the Frontier’s top trio — Carroll, MSU-N and Tech — have played against each other this season.
Tech got on the board first when defensive back Scott Gerken blocked a Don Saisbury punt deep in MSU-N territory and Josh Kling scooped it up and scored from four yards out.
Despite Tech’s 7-0 lead, the Orediggers only ran six offensive plays in the first quarter and couldn’t manage an offensive score the entire game. The Lights’ defense played its best game of the season, and in the process, limited the league’s leading rusher, Tech’s Teague Egan, to 64 yards on 24 carriers.
“The defense played good the entire game,” Samson said. “I mean seriously, I can’t say enough about our defense. They have been playing well all season, but they stepped it up another notch or two on Saturday.”
And the Lights’ offense did just enough despite quarterback Kyle Samson being limited to what he could do with his feet due to lingering effects from a high ankle sprain he suffered two weeks ago in Helena.
Samson got the Lights within a point when he found senior Nick Bodeman on a 35-yard touchdown pass with 8:57 remaining in the first quarter. Luke McKinley missed the point after attempt, and the Lights trailed 7-6.
In all, Northern dominated the opening quarter, running 25 plays and gaining 175 yards. But it was an offensive trend that would not continue.
“We did some really good things in the first quarter,” Mark Samson said. “Actually we really dominated the quarter.
“But throughout the entire game we made a few mistakes on offense that cost us the chance at more points,” he added. “We had some penalties and some things happened where we just shot ourselves in the foot.”
But in the end, MSU-N did what it had to to get by the vaunted Orediggers.
Still trailing 7-6, and having turned Tech’s offense away time and time again in the second half, Samson hit Bodeman with 55 seconds left in the third quarter for what would eventually be the game-winning score.
Having to play from behind in the fourth quarter, Tech’s running game became largely ineffective. Still, Kegel managed two late drive that got the Orediggers deep into Northern territory with less than three minutes to play.
The first drive was stuffed when Kegel tried to scramble for a needed 11 yards on fourth down and came up short.
Tech got one more chance, and down to a last gasp, Kegel was intercepted by Dilan Saisbury on the MSU-N 37-yard line.
“We didn’t play as well as we could have on offense and we made some mistakes,” Mark Samson said. “But tech made a few mistakes too and we just made a couple of really big plays in the second half.
“I am really proud of our kids,” he added. “Tech is a good football team and our kids played really hard throughout. It wasn’t the prettiest win, but it is very gratifying and it puts us in a pretty good position.”
Kyle Samson had solid day passing the football despite the ankle and a sloppy field. Samson completed 13-of-21 passes for 185 yards and a pair of scores. Bodeman caught six balls for 88 yards and was one the receiving end of both of MSU-N’s TDs. Northern also got a hard-fought 81 yards from Saxton Shearer on the ground.
Besides Egan’s day, Tech also got 43 yards from Corey Warner on the ground. Kegel threw 181 yards and rushed for 21 more.
The loss drops the Orediggers into third place in the conference standings at 3-2. Tech is 3-3 overall.
Meanwhile, the Lights are alone in second place with three out of their last five games at home starting with UM-Western (0-5) on Saturday.
The Lights and Bulldogs will kick off at 1 p.m. Saturday at Blue Pony Stadium as part of MSU-N’s homecoming and alumni weekend.
Lights 12, Orediggers 7
MSU-Northern 6 0 6 0 — 12
Montana Tech 7 0 0 0 — 7
First Quarter
MT — Josh Kling 4 yard punt block return (Dan Kleckner kick), 12:11
MSU-N — Nick Bodeman 35 pass from Kyle Samson (kick failed), 8:57
Third Quarter
MSU-N — Bodeman 13 pass from Samson (pass failed), :55
MSU-N MT
First Downs 12 10
Rushes-yards 30-105 43-128
Comp-Att-Int 13-21-1 8-12-1
Passing yards 186 55
Total yards 291 183
Fumbles-lost 6-2 2-2
Punts-ave 5-39.0 6-41.7
Penalties-yards 7-45 7-60
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Northern, Saxton Shearer 11-81, Don Saisbury 10-38, Zach Wermers 3-0, Justin Moe 2-4, Owen Devlin 1-5, Samson 3-(-11), team 2-(-13). Tech, Teague Egan 22-64, Corey Warner 13-43, Justin Kegel 8-21.
PASSING — Northern, Samson 13-21-1-186. Tech, Kegel 8-12-1-183.
RECEIVING — Northern, Bodeman 6-88, Jeff Van Nest 2-46, Saisbury 2-29, Coda Tchida 2-20, Steve Ahrens 1-3. Tech, Egan 3-23, Warner 2-16, Kent Kansala 1-6, Cal McQueary 1-6, Casey Kelly 1-5.