JOHN LETASKY 406 MT Sports
BILLINGS -- Montana State-Northern earned a long-sought football win at home on Saturday.
Behind 242 rushing yards as a team, including 106 on 26 carries from Mason Dionne, the Lights (1-9 overall, 1-7 league) earned their first victory of the season and in the process snapped an 18-game losing streak.
Zach Brooks threw for one touchdown and ran for another, and Lucas Thacker also rushed for a TD in the Lights' 19-13 victory over Rocky Mountain College (2-8, 1-7) at Tilleman Family Field in Havre. Prior to beating the Battlin' Bears, the Lights last win was a 2023 season-opening 14-0 victory against Mayville State University in Havre on Aug. 26, 2023.
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Third-year Northern coach Jerome Souers told The Billings Gazette and 406 MT Sports in a phone interview after the game that he was happy for his players.
"It certainly does (feel good)," said Souers. "It's been quite a journey since coming to Montana State University-Northern and a lot of things have happened. And to be honest, today I couldn't be prouder of a young group of guys that have stayed with it and I'm just glad to see their tenacity rewarded with a victory against a rival like Rocky. It's always a tough game. It's always a very emotional and spirited (game). I'm very proud of our guys."
Northern also avenged a nonconference 27-12 setback to Rocky at Herb Klindt Field on Sept. 7.
The win for the Lights also ended a 28-game conference losing streak. The Lights' last Frontier Conference win was 22-20 over Eastern Oregon in Havre on Oct. 23, 2021.
"We knew this wasn't going to be easy and we accepted the challenge," said Souers of trying to battle to turn around the Lights' fortunes. "We knew it was going to be some hard sledding and it has been. But we're resolute in the vision of what we have here and what we do is try to be here for each other every day and try to work to get improved. And that's been the mentality of our culture is to every day get better and hard work and staying with it. Your determination will be rewarded eventually. It's taken a little longer than we had hoped, but our offense came alive today ... and defensively we came up with some big plays when we had to. At the end of the day it gave us enough to come away with a win."
The Lights celebrated senior day and honored nine seniors. While RMC took the lead at the 11:33 mark of the first quarter on a 46-yard touchdown pass from Graedyn Buell to Joseph Dwyer and an Austin Drake kick, Northern scored the next two touchdowns.
Devin Shelton hauled in a 22-yard pass from Brooks at the 11:25 mark of the second quarter and Lucas Thacker scored on a one-yard run with 18 seconds left in the half and it was 12-7 Lights at intermission as Northern missed both conversion points.
Brooks scored on a one-yard run at the 14:19 mark of the fourth for a 19-7 advantage after a PAT kick by Cyrus Tebay. RMC finished the scoring when Buell found Jack Waddell for a five-yard pass. Drake's PAT kick failed.
Rocky, which ended its own six-game losing streak the previous Saturday with a 49-24 league win over Arizona Christian, finishes its season 2-8, 1-7.
While he would have liked to have had a few more wins, Souers was happy to see the progression of his team this year, saying, "I know it seems awkward to say that at the end of the season that these guys haven't been together very long. The key now is retention and adding to that with the right mix and continuing to grow as a program and we expect to be more competitive next year than we were this year."
All-in-all, though, a win and ending the season on a high note felt pretty good on Saturday in Havre.
"The people around here were pretty excited," Souers said. "That might be an understatement. It's fun to see for them. They've been very patient with us."
Email Gazette Sports Editor John Letasky at john.letasky@406mtsports.com or follow him on X/Twitter at @GazSportsJohnL
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