HELENA, Mont. - The Carroll College Football team improved their record to 4-1 following a dominant 43-12 win over MSU-Northern on Saturday afternoon at Valley Bank Field at Nelson Stadium.

The Fighting Saints (4-1, 3-0) controlled all three phases of the game on Saturday, picking up their 12th-consecutive victory over the Lights (0-4, 0-2) since the 2016 season.

Right from the opening play, it was clear that the Saints were poised for a big win.

On the first play from scrimmage, Hunter Peck (Windsor, Colo. / SR) scooped up a fumble recovery deep in Northern territory to provide the Saints with an instant scoring opportunity. Five plays later, Archie LaFurge (Great Falls, Mont. / R-FR), making his first career start, punched in his second rushing touchdown of his career to give Carroll an early 7-0 advantage.

The Lights' ensuing drive was aided by numerous Carroll penalties. Northern pushed the ball near the red zone, before the nation's No. 9 defense bowed-up and forced a turnover on downs.

Carroll went on a 12-play 67-yard drive on their second possession, but would be forced to settle for a chip shot field goal from 20 yards out. Spencer Berger (Billings, Mont. / JR) got the job done, knocking it through the uprights to give the Saints a 10-0 lead.

The Saints put together a highly-efficient drive the next time they touched the ball. Quarterback Jack Prka (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho / SR) marched the team downfield on a 7-play, 84-yard scoring drive that culminated with a beauty of a Chris Akulschin (Gig Harbor, Wash. / R-JR) 25-yard end around rushing touchdown to extend the lead to 17-0.

Akulschin wasn't finished, as on the next series Prka would emerge from the pocket after evading a would-be sack, hitting Akulschin in stride in the endzone for a 29-yard touchdown pass that would put the game out of reach, 24-0.

Prka added a rushing touchdown of his own the next time the Saints offense saw the field, capping a quick-hitting 5-play, 13-yard drive. Carroll would again see their lead balloon, this time to the tune of 30-0 at the break following a blocked PAT attempt.

After a series of exchanged punts, Northern would find their first points of the game on special teams. A fair catch was botched inside the 10-yard line, and several opportunistic bounces of the pigskin would see the ball crawl into the endzone where the Lights would pounce on it for their first touchdown in four-games against Carroll. The muffed punt score for the Lights brought the game to 30-6 heading into the late stages of the third quarter, following a snuffed-out fourth down attempt, and Carroll would lead 30-6.

On the first drive of the fourth quarter, Asher Croy (Bozeman, Mont. / R-JR) found his first receiving touchdown of his young Carroll career on a great play action from Prka. The big back looked swift on the edge, racing in from 29-yards out to give Carroll a 36-3 lead.

Mason Dionne, the lone bright spot in the Northern office. Heading into the fourth, the sophomore back found his first and oly score of the afternoon, punching on one out from 4-yards to trim the Carroll lead down.

Henry Gross (Helena, Mont. / R-FR), for the second time this season, absolutely blew up the Lights' Line all game long. His punt block in the fourth would lead to Forrest Suero (Helena, Mont. / JR) picking up his second career scoop and score touchdown.

The big man touchdown would put Carroll on top 43-12 with just a few minutes remaining, and Carroll would walk out with their fourth-straight win of the season.

Defensively, the boys in the Purple and Gold were flying around. Gross led all players with 10 total tackles, 3.5 TFL, and 1.0 sack on the afternoon.

While the Carroll shutout streak came to an end, the defense did their part once again. For the fourth-straight game, the Carroll defense held their opponent to fewer than 200 yards of total offense (MSU-N, 152).

Prka did everything he needed to in the win, finishing 13-16 for 181 yards and two touchdowns on the afternoon.

Up next, a well-deserved week of rest for the Saints. Carroll will into the bye week with a 4-1 record, while sitting atop the Frontier Conference standings with a perfect 3-0 mark in league play.