HAVRE — The MSU-Northern football team topped Eastern Oregon 22-20 in 5OT to snap a 47-game Frontier Conference losing streak, dating back to 2016.
Northern’s last victory over a Frontier school was a 28-14 victory over Carroll College on September 17, 2016. Fittingly, the head coach of that Carroll team, six-time NAIA champion Mike Van Diest, is now the defensive coordinator for the Lights.
The Mountaineers (3-4) opened the scoring in the first quarter with a 40 yard field goal from Zahary Cahill. They added a touchdown early in the second quarter when Nathan Reed found the end-zone from six yards out to make it 10-0.
Kaymen Cureton snuck into the end zone from one yard out with 3:30 remaining in the to put Northern on the board and the Lights trailed just 10-7 at halftime.
Sawyer Zook hit a pair of field goals in the third quarter from 42 and 24 yards to give the Lights a 13-10 lead. Cahill hit a 48 yard field goal in the fourth to tie the game at 13, and send the game to overtime.
In the first extra frame, the Lights got possession first and proceeded to score on a two yard touchdown pass from Cureton to Devin Carmona to make it 20-13. Eastern Oregon would answer with a four yard touchdown from Reed to tie the game again and send it to couple overtime.
Neither team scored on their possessions until the fifth overtime, where college football rules dictate each team lines up for successive two-point conversions. In the fifth extra period, Cureton ran in it in, to give Northern a 22-20 advantage.
Eastern Oregon had a chance to tie the game, Carson Bohning found Tyler Brow in the end zone but he was ruled out of bounds, and the Lights rushed the field to celebrate head coach Andrew Rolin’s first league win.
MSU-Northern (1-7) will host Montana-Western (5-3) next week in the Lights’ final home game of the season.
