Lights fall at EOU
Monday, Nov. 6
George Ferguson
Havre Daily News sports editor
gferguson@havredailynews.com
The last three weeks, no, the entire season thus far has been one special ride for the Montana State University-Northern football team.
But on Saturday, that ride hit a speedbump in La Grande, Ore., as the No. 7 Lights suffered a heartbreaking 10-7 defeat at the hands of Frontier Conference newcomer Eastern Oregon University.
The Lights, playing without starting quarterback Kyle Samson, struggled to score points throughout the low-scoring affair, and despite another herculean effort from the MSU-N defense, Northern couldn’t overcome a couple of costly mistakes.
The Lights
and Mountaineers played 29 minutes of scoreless football before MSU-N backup
quarterback Kelly McBryan —starting in place of the injured Samson, who
reaggravated an ankle injury in Northern’s 10-3 upset of
MSU-N quickly regained momentum at the start of the second half when Sterling Shearer recovered a Jake Burroughs’ fumble at the EOU 31-yard line. The Lights capitalized on the turnover and tied the game when Justin Moe plowed his way into the end zone from the one-yard line on third and goal. Moe’s score gave the Lights new life heading into the fourth quarter.
The Mountaineers used a couple of trick plays to put together an early fourth-quarter drive that resulted in what would eventually be a game-winning 26-yard field goal by Thomas Akers.
Northern tried to rally, but O’Brien picked McBryan again and also had an important pass deflection late in the contest. And EOU’s defense played tremendously well, especially in the final stanza where the Mounties shut down MSU-N and the EOU offense kept the Lights’ offense off the field.
The Mounties limited Northern to seven points and 295 total yards. The Lights only gained 81 yards on the ground on 41 carries, and the ground game is usually the backbone of the MSU-N offense. Saxton Shearer led the way for MSU-N with just 31 yards on the day. McBryan threw the ball well, going 16-for-28 for 214 yards, but he did have two costly INTs. Northern did outgain EOU in offense and dominated the time of possession. But in the end, turnovers and very few actual scoring chances hurt MSU-N.
The Lights defense was its usual strong self, but a few big plays and some good field position aided EOU in its two scores.The three points MSU-N’s defense gave up Saturday was the third straight game that the Lights allowed only three offensive points.
The win over MSU-N improved EOU to 4-5 in Frontier Conference play this season and 5-5 overall with one game remaining.
Meanwhile, the loss, combined with Carroll’s come-from-behind win at Montana Tech Saturday damaged the Lights’ (7-2, 8-2) hopes of even sharing the Frontier Conference title. Northern is a full game behind the Saints in the loss column, and Carroll only has 1-10 Rocky Mountain College left on its schedule.
Northern is, however, very much alive in the hunt for an NAIA playoff berth. The Lights will close out the regular season on Saturday with a huge game against Montana Tech in Havre. The game between MSU-N and Tech will kick off at noon at Blue Pony Stadium.
Mountaineers 10, Lights 7
MSU-N 0 0 7 0 — 7
EOU 0 7 0 3 — 10
Scoring Summary
2nd 01:05 EOU — Sean O’Brien 77 yd interception return (AKERS, Thomas kick)
3rd 10:16 MSU-N — Justin Moe 1 yd run (Luke McKinley kick), 6-31 3:19
4th 11:24 EOU Thomas Akers 26 yd field goal, 13-84 5:38.
MSU-N EOU
FIRST DOWNS 17 11
RUSHES-YARDS 41-81 38-138
PASSING YDS (NET) 214 106
Passes Att-Comp-Int 28-16-2 12-8-0
TOTAL OFFENSE 69-295 50-244
Fumble Returns-Yards 0-0 0-0
Punt Returns-Yards 2-3 0-0
Kickoff Returns-Yards 2-34 2-54
Interception Returns 0-0 2-88
Punts (Number-Avg) 2-47.5 5-36.4
Fumbles-Lost 6-2 3-2
Penalties-Yards 8-71 8-89
Possession Time 35:28 24:32
Third-Down Conv. 8 of 17 4 of 11
Fourth-Down Conv. 0 of 2 0 of 1
RUSHING — MSU-N, Saxton Shearer 13-34; Justin Moe 7-18; Don Saisbury 5-16; Zach Wermers 3-8; Bryden Vukasin 1-8; Kelly McBryan 11-minus 1; Adrian Largent 1-minus 2. EOU, Travis Morscheck10-71; Jake Burroughs16-34; Cameron Kentner 6-22; Scott Schoeber 5-11; Jomo Wilson 1-0.
PASSING — MSU-N, Kelly McBryan 16-28-2-214.
RECEIVING — MSU-N, Don Saisbury 4-66; Steve Ahrens 4-62; Nick Bodeman 3-41; Jeff Van Nest 2-22; Saxton Shearer 2-19; Justin Moe 1-4. EOU, Jomo Wilson 3-18; Deandre Amos 2-38; Ryan Quarles1-26; Travis Morscheck 1-18; Cameron Ketner 1-6.