BUTTE — In a matchup between Frontier Conference rivals looking to stay unbeaten, Montana Tech clamped down on Carroll for a 26-10 victory on a hot Saturday afternoon at Bob Green Field at Alumni Coliseum. It was the Orediggers’ first win over Carroll since 2017.
The teams were locked in a field-goal battle in the first quarter. Carroll’s Stephen Powell started it with a short-yarder to put the Saints in front, but Ryan Lowry followed with consecutive field goals of his own to give Tech the lead.
In the second quarter, Campbell got the game’s first touchdown on a short run at the goal line. Carroll followed with a 1-yard TD run by Matthew Burgess to pull the Saints back within three points, 13-10.
But that was all the scoring the Saints would get as the Orediggers’ defense continued to set the tone. Campbell later extended Tech’s lead with a 30-yard touchdown strike to Wyatt Alexander with 22 seconds remaining before halftime.
After a scoreless third quarter, Tech got in the end zone again as Kaleb Winterburn threw a 31-yard pass to Zach Trumble for a 26-10 advantage.
Both defenses showed up, but Tech limited Carroll’s offense to just 120 total yards on 55 snaps, an average of 2.2 yards per play. Quarterback Jack Prka had 70 yards on 9-of-26 passing.
Campbell threw for 210 yards, and running back Blake Counts had 78 on the ground.
The Orediggers remained unbeaten at 2-0, while Carroll slipped to 1-1.
Elsewhere around the Frontier …
College of Idaho 21, Rocky Mountain College 18
BILLINGS — Hunter Gilbert rushed for two first-quarter touchdowns, Andy Peters threw a long TD pass in the third quarter and College of Idaho held on to spoil Rocky Mountain College’s home opener with a 21-18 victory at Herb Klindt Field.
Gilbert scored twice on 1-yard runs in the opening quarter to give the Yotes a 14-0 advantage. Rocky began chipping away at its deficit in the second quarter, as Austin Drake made field goals of 27 and 23 yards, and as Zaire Wilcox scored on a 2-yard run with 36 seconds before halftime. The Battlin’ Bears went for two on that score but were unsuccessful, and went into intermission down 14-12.
The key play turned out to be a 64-yard scoring pass form Peters to Jon Schofield that gapped a seven-play, 90-yard drive midway through the third quarter to give C of I a 21-12 lead.
Wilcox found the end zone again in the third on a 3-yard run, but Drake’s extra-point attempt was blocked.
Rocky quarterback Nate Dick left the game in the fourth quarter with what appeared to be a lower leg injury. With backup George Tribble in the game, Rocky turned the ball over on downs with 30 seconds left and the Yotes held on.
College of Idaho improved to 2-0 while Rocky fell to 1-1.
Montana Western 48, Eastern Oregon 10
DILLON — A week after struggling offensively in a loss at Carroll, Montana Western jumped out to a huge early lead on the way to a 48-14 victory over Eastern Oregon.
Jon Jund, Reese Neville and Colten McPhee all ran for first-half touchdowns and Jon Mears made a pair of field goals as the Bulldogs took a 34-7 lead after halftime. In the second half, Jund threw for two TDs and ran in another.
Eastern Oregon’s touchdowns were scored on Luke Ross passes to Jonah Blackham and Malachi Spurrier.
Jund finished with 223 passing yards and accounted for four total TDs. McPhee led all players with 80 rushing yards. Neville finished with 55.
Western’s defense held EOU to 221 total yards and forced five turnovers. James Aragon had two of the Bulldogs’ four quarterback sacks.
Ross had 181 passing yards, with 135 of those going to Spurrier. Ross, though, lost two fumbles and was intercepted once.
Western improved to 1-1 heading into next week’s non-league game against Dickinson State. Eastern Oregon is now 0-2.
Southern Oregon 56, MSU-Northern 6
HAVRE — Blake Asciutto threw for 285 yards and four touchdowns to lead Southern Oregon to a 56-6 victory over MSU-Northern.
Ben Rash opened the scoring with a 5-yard touchdown run, and then Asciutto threw all four of his TD passes in the first half. He hit Ben Graziani for 3 yards, Christian Grane for 5 yards, Bryce Goggin for 7 yards and Adrik Lamar for 74 yards as the Raiders grabbed a 35-0 lead.
Northern got on the scoreboard late in the second quarter when Levi Keltner caught a 5-yard touchdown throw from Levi Keltner.
In the second half, Goggin scored on an 8-yard run, Christian Quira got in from 1 yard out and Champ Robertson found the end zone from 15 yards. Robertson led SOU with 117 rushing yards on nine carries. Lamar caught four passes for 142 yards.
Southern Oregon rolled up 565 yards of offense while Northern was limited to 185 yards.
The Raiders moved to 1-1 while Northern fell to 0-2.
