Lights strike again: MSU-N thrashes RMC
George Ferguson
Havre Daily News sports editor
gferguson@havredailynews.com
In many ways, the list of accomplishments that the Montana State University-Northern football team has compiled this season includes many firsts.
On Saturday
in
The convincing win improved Northern’s record to 7-1 this season and 6-1 in Frontier Conference play. The seven wins is a school record and one that Northern will likely improve on in its last three games.
Saturday’s game was also the second time this season that the Lights completely dominated the Bears. And that is something that hasn’t happened too often since MSU-N reinstated football almost a decade ago. In two games, Northern outscored RMC 90-3. The win made this the second straight year in which the Lights swept the Bears in conference play.
“We pretty much controlled the game again from start to finish,” MSU-N head coach Mark Samson said. “Our total offensive numbers won’t jump out at anybody, but from a productivity standpoint, we were very, very good offensively.
“It’s a pretty good feeling to go out and play that well,” Samson added. “I am really happy with how the game went. We were very dominate on both sides of the ball. We got a lot of kids into the game, and we were very sharp and focused. You can’t ask for much more than that.”
The Lights’ offense didn’t get many opportunities to build up big numbers in the third quarter, because Rocky gave the Lights some extremely short fields in which to work.
The Lights led at halftime 14-3, thanks to two stellar drives. MSU-N scored first on a Zach Wermers five-yard touchdown run. Rocky basically closed out the quarter with a long drive of its own that resulted in a 39-yard field goal. Northern answered with a long drive in the second quarter that was finished off on a 10-yard TD pass from Kyle Samson to Don Saisbury.
“Even though we were only up 14-3 at halftime, I told the guys in the locker room that I was really happy with how we were playing,” Mark Samson said. “The first half was fast. We only had the ball three times and we scored two touchdowns. That is pretty efficient.”
As efficient as MSU-N was in the first 30 minutes, the Bears were still in the game when the third quarter got under way. But a five-minute stretch of turnovers and personal fouls by RMC gave the Lights a chance to blow the game wide open. And Northern was all too happy to oblige.
The Bears fumbled on the second play of the third quarter, giving the Lights the ball on the RMC 23-yard line. And that is where things got out of control. The Lights quickly went ahead 20-3 on a Saxton Shearer touchdown. And on the next two possessions, the Bears turned the ball over two more times, both of which led to MSU-N scores, one coming on another Wermers’ score and the second by way of a 14-yard TD scamper by Kyle Samson. In that stretch, Rocky coughed up the ball three times and had several personal fouls that moved MSU-N closer to scoring. By the time the quarter was over the Lights had a commanding 34-3 lead and the game was all but in the books.
“That was a tough stretch for them,” Mark Samson said. “They really hurt themselves with the turnovers and some bad penalties when we already had the ball deep in their side of the field. And we really took advantage of that. Our offense scored every time they turned it over, and that is what you want to have happen. You want to win the turnover battle.”
MSU-N capped off the scoring in the fourth quarter when linebacker Dilan Saisbury intercepted RMC quarterback Vance Vincent for the second time and went into the end zone untouched.
On the day, Northern’s offense had no turnovers compared to five for the Bears. The Lights were 5-for-5 scoring touchdowns inside the 20-yard line and they were a solid 8-for-11 on third down conversions.
Kyle Samson threw for 90 yards and a TD on 7-of-14 passing. He also rushed for 40 yards on six carries. Wermers and Justin Moe both ran well for the Lights with 50 and 41 yards, respectively.
Defensively, the Lights were once again dominate. Northern limited Rocky to just 12 first downs and three points. The Lights held RMC running back Jimmy Beal to 40 yards on 14 carries, and the Bears only gained 191 yards of offense despite having the ball for almost 10 more minutes than the Lights. Saisbury had two picks and Jake Eldridge also got his second interception in as many weeks. Sterling Shearer and Stetson Koffman both had fumble recoveries, and Cory Stich and Kennedy Anderson led the Lights in tackles with 11 and 10, respectively.
“We had a lot of great performances on defense again,” Mark Samson said. “Basically, we felt like they were going to try to run the ball at us, and we pretty much shut that down. Our defense has been sharp all year, and they were very dominate on Saturday.
“Again we didn’t put up big numbers offensively, but that was a result of the their turnovers and the fact that we just didn’t have to throw the ball a lot,” he added. “But I couldn’t be more pleased with how the kids played. They were focused and they played well on both sides of the ball. This was a game we worried about a little bit, and the kids really showed up and took care of business.”
Now that
MSU-N has the Bears out of the way, the Lights can focus on their highly
anticipated rematch with top-ranked
“I am glad we played well against Rocky, and I am proud of the kids for staying focused,” Samson said. “Now we can turn our attention to Carroll, and I don’t think anybody is going to have any trouble getting excited this week.”
Lights 41, Bears 3
MSU-N 7 7 20 7 — 41
RMC 3 0 0 0 — 3
First quarter
MSU-N — Zach Wermers 5 run (Luke McKinley kick), 12:59
RMC — Bjorn Nelson 39 FG, 4:24
Second quarter
MSU-N — Don Saisbury 10 pass from Kyle Samson (McKinley kick), 2:53
Third quarter
MSU-N — Saxton Shearer 1 run (kick blocked), 11:41
MSU-N — Wermers 5 run (McKinley kick), 9:28
MSU-N — Samson 14 run (McKinley kick), 1:04
Fourth quarter
MSU-N — Dilan Saisbury 17 interception return (McKinley kick), 10:12.
MSU-N RMC
First downs 20 12
Rushes-yards 44-180 34-102
Comp-Att-Int 7-15-0 13-22-3
Passing yards 90 89
Total yards 270 191
Punts 2-31.5 2-38
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 4-2
Penalties-Yards 5-50 9-106
Team statistics
Rushing — MSU-N, Adrian Largent 1-5, Don Saisbury 8-8, Kyle Samson 6-40, Saxton Shearer 9-35, Zach Wermers 9-50, Justin Moe 4-41, Josh Adams 4-6, Kelly McBryan 3-(-5). RMC, Clint Franklin 17-73, Jimmy Beal 14-40, Vance Vincent 2-(-8), Cavan Cooney 1-(-3).
Passing — MSU-N, Kyle Samson 7-14-0, 90 yards; Kelly McBryan 0-1-0, 0 yards. RMC, Vance Vincent 13-22-3, 89 yards.
Receiving — MSU-N, Don Saisbury 3-35, Steve Ahrens 2-27, Zach Wermers 1-7, Saxton Shearer 1-21. RMC, Justin Airola 4-25, Jason Hagadone 6-51, Toby Rundle 1-3, Daniel Ghormley 1-6, Taylor Harris 1-4.