HAVRE, Mont. - The No. 9-ranked Carroll College Football team cruised to a 43-3 victory over MSU-Northern on an overcast day at Tilleman Field in Havre on Saturday.

The Fighting Saints (5-0, 3-0) did not have much resistance en route to their fifth victory of the season, and 11th-straight win over the Lights (1-3, 0-2).

For the second straight year, Carroll received the opening kickoff in Havre, and for the second straight year, the Lights managed to get a stop followed by a field goal to lead the Saints 3-0 early in the game. 

Unfortunately for Northern, the end result would be nearly identical.

After finding themselves down 3-0 just five minutes into the game, Carroll would go on to rattle off 43 unanswered points to cruise to a win heading into their bye week.

Following the Northern points, Carroll responded with an 11-play 64-yard drive that would culminate in a Duncan Kraft (Billings, Mont. / R-SR) 11-yard touchdown run to put Carroll up 7-3.

On their next possession, Baxter Tuggle (Laramie, Wyo. / R-SR) would punch in a touchdown run from just one yard out to cap a six-play, 42-yard drive and give Carroll a 14-3 lead.

Spencer Berger (Billings, Mont. / SO) knocked down a 42-yard field goal on the next Carroll possession to extend the lead to 17-3.

With just under three minutes remaining in the first half, the Carroll defense got in on the scoring action. On second down, the Saints would force a fumble that went backwards and was recovered by the Lights deep in their own territory. On third down, Tucker Jones (Hamilton, Mont. / R-JR) sacked Oakley Kopp in the end zone for a safety, giving Carroll a 19-3 advantage.

After the ensuing free kick, Berger would again hit from 42-yards out to extend the lead to 22-3 at the halftime break.

At the half, Carroll had 188 yards of total offense, all while holding Northern to just two total yards.

Duncan Kraft would cash-in on his second rushing touchdown of the game late in the third quarter, this one from 5-yards out to give Carroll a 29-3 lead, and then just minutes into the final quarter, Jack Prka (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho / JR) pushed the line forward from one yard out for a rushing touchdown of his own to make things 36-3.

Cormac Benn (Bigfork, Mont. / R-SO) made the most of his opportunity in the final quarter. Benn burst through the defense for a 37-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 43-3 with just over eight minutes remaining, and the scoring would end for the day.

Benn would end up leading a very effective Carroll rushing attack on the day. The redshirt-sophomore finished with 97 of Carroll's 204 rushing yards on the day.

Carson Ochoa (Yorba Linda, Calif. / R-SO) led all receivers with four catches for 54 yards.

Prka had a quiet day, finishing 14-22 for 142 yards and one interception on the afternoon, but the junior signal caller will be plenty happy with the complete team effort and win.

Defensively, Carroll simply wouldn't allow the Lights to get anything going. The Saints defense finished the game having allowed just 28 total yards.

Jake Walk (Boise, Idaho / R-SR) finished with four tackles, .5 TFL and .5 sacks to lead a defensive unit that saw production from nearly every single position.


*Please note: There are several inaccurate statistical attributions that will be corrected from this contest*

The win gives Carroll its first 3-0 start in Frontier play since the 2013 season, and the Saints remain the conference's lone unbeaten team in both league play and on the season.

Now at the halfway point of the 2023 season, Carroll will have a much-deserved bye week before a back-end of the conference slate that features two trips to Oregon, as well as three home games against teams currently ranked or receiving votes (No. 11 Montana Tech, No, 12 College of Idaho, (RV) Montana Western).

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