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THIS WEEK IN CARROLL FOOTBALL
Carroll travels to face Rocky Mountain Saturday at Herb Klindt Field in Billings. The Bears topped the Saints 40-14 in the first meeting of a home-and-home series. The Bears are 4-3 on the year, and 4-2 in Frontier play with their losses coming against Montana Tech and Southern Oregon. The Carroll offense showed promise in the first game under the helm of redshirt freshman quarterback Reese Hiibel, but they will look to earn his first win Saturday.
LAST GAME: SAINTS FALL TO MONTANA TECH
The 11th-ranked Orediggers outscored the Saints 13-0 in the second-half to earn the 23-10 win Saturday at Nelson Stadium.
Carroll held the NAIA's leading rusher, Jed Fike, to 80 yards on 21 carries, well short of his 158-yards per game average coming into Saturday. He had just 28 yards through three quarters, and the final 58 yards came on the Diggers' final two drives.
Carroll opened the scoring in the first quarter. A forced fumble by Isazah King was recovered by Tucker Johnson and returned to the Montana Tech 33-yard line. The short field set up a nine-yard QB keeper touchdown for Eric Dawson out of the wildcat formation to put Carroll on top 7-0 with 3:56 to play in the first quarter. The Saints added a 28-yard field goal from Dylan Torgerson with 5:58 left on the clock in the second quarter after a long drive from the Saints.
On the ensuing drive, the Saints had the Diggers pinned back at their own 15-yard line on third-and-15 when Quinn McQueary made a pinpoint throw to Sean Sullivan at the 50-yard line to keep the drive alive. The big completion would be the turning point in the game as the Diggers drove the field to and scored on a one-yard run by Fike to cut the lead to 10-6, a score which would hold until halftime.
After a Carroll three-and-out to start the second half, Montana Tech drove 75-yards on 10 plays, capped by a 15-yard touchdown throw from McQueary to Dion Williams to give Montana tech its first lead, 13-10.
After trading possessions, the Saints looked to be driving when a pass from redshirt freshman Reese Hiibel, who was starting his first game in relief of senior Tanner Gustavsen, bounced off of a receiver's hands and was intercepted and returned to the Carroll 27.
The Carroll defense played tough, but on back-to-back third downs, the Saints were called for penalties that extended drives, leading to a four-yard touchdown from McQueary to Chris Kelly to put Montana Tech up 20-10.
Montana Tech added a fourth-quarter field goal and held off late Carroll attempts to get back into the game to earn the 23-10 win.
The Diggers improve to 5-1 while Carroll falls to 1-5.
While the Saints limited the run, Montana Tech was efficient with the short passing game, McQueary finished the game with 398 yards on 34-51 with an interception and two touchdowns. The Saints held Tech to 46-total yards rushing, which was highlighted by six tackles for loss, including four sacks. Before Saturday, Tech had only allowed three sacks all season.
Hiibel performed admirably in his first start. He was 17-33 for 172 yards and an interception, but also had multiple receivers drop balls, including a pair that looked like they were heading to the end zone.
Ryan Arntson tallied 61 yards on nine carries to lead the Saints to 128-yards rushing. Shane Sipes had four catches for 57 yards, but seven receivers caught balls for the Saints.
ABOUT ROCKY MOUNTAIN
Rocky Mountain has surpassed expectations under second-year coach Jason Petrino. The Bears topped MSU-Northern twice and the College of Idaho along with beating the Saints in the first meeting. Starting quarterback Jacob Bakken was lost to injury, but Drew Korf has been efficient in his stead, throwing for 325 yards and four touchdowns in two games as the primary quarterback. The Bears average 237 yards per game on the ground.
Defensively, the Bears have 13 interceptions on the year, led by Keenan Fagan with five and Terrance Williams with four. Rice Ryder had 6.5 sacks on the year.
