HELENA, Mont. -- The Fighting Saints football team treated its fans to a 54-26 shellacking of Montana State-Northern during Homecoming on Saturday at Nelson Stadium in front of 3,849 fans. 

"I thought the kids played out and it was a total team game and total team effort," Saints coach Troy Purcell said. "I think there's a lot of improvement that still needs to happen which is encouraging. There's a lot of sparks out there. Great crowd today. The Carroll fans are unbelievable."

The Saints treated the fans to a good show early on. Carroll (2-1) scored three touchdowns before the Lights (1-3) were able to respond with any offense. 

The Saints opened the scoring with a 43-yard pass from redshirt freshman Devan Bridgewater to Shane Sipes, a part of Sipes' 129-yard day. 

"It's a lot of fun," Sipes said. "We put up 54 points, it's a good day. That's a good day for any offense. We're just going to keep trying to do that, keep being versatile and attack any defense we come across." 

Bridgewater would hook up with Tony Collins for a seven-yard touchdown pass before Major Ali rumbled 15 yards for a score. 

Carroll led 20-0 before the Lights answered when Marvin Williams Jr. caught a pass from Brenden Medina. 

The Saints tacked another field goal on before halftime, as Josh Kraft knocked through a 32-yarder. 

Williams struck again before the halftime buzzer, hauling in a 17-yard pass from Medina. 

Just as the Lights looked like they might have salvaged some momentum at the half, the Saints went back to work. 

Matt Burgess, the freshman running back who earned a weekly offensive nod just days earlier, scored on a 29-yard run early in the third period. 

"We're just having some fun out there," Purcell said of his offense. "We believe in what we're doing. They believe in what we're doing. They're excited about what we're doing."

Bridgewater would find Collins again for a 10-yard touchdown midway through the third. 
 
Williams Jr. broke free for a 58-yard score, but then the Saints would add another 18 points on a run from Major Ali, a Kraft 36-yard field goal and a Griphen Le 38-yard run to grab a safe cushion.

Bryce Bumgardner caught a five-yard pass late, but the Saints' margin of victory left the fans feeling fulfilled on homecoming. 

While the Lights found some offense passing, it was only because the Saints wouldn't let them do anything else. The Saints held the Lights to 39 yards rushing while rolling up 307. 

The Saints recorded another multiple-turnover game, as freshman Zach Spiroff had his second interception of the season and senior linebacker Chase Bowen grabbed his first pick of the season. 

"We really prepared for them and did not take them lightly because they're a good offense," Carroll junior linebacker Nate McGree said. "You can't overlook teams in Frontier Conference. It's a good thing for our defense. With coach (Mike Van) Diest we believed the same thing, we wanted to be a run-first defense and stop the run. Coach (Pat) Haynes is the same way. He wants to stop the run."

While the Saints grabbed a second consecutive win, the team will approach next week's showdown with Southern Oregon (0-4) as if both teams were 0-0. 

These Saints still feel they have a lot to prove.