4 days Ago By DANIEL SHEPARD 406 MT Sports
HELENA — While Frontier Conference football fans avoided the greatest version of chaos (a potential 4-way conference championship tie) during regular-season finale week, they received a dose with Southern Oregon, a potential second at-large playoff bid, losing to unranked College of Idaho. That, and a Carroll College loss, limited the Frontier to a pair of postseason qualifiers. Saturday’s 42-14 loss to Montana Tech completed the Saints’ second straight collapse, taking Carroll from the cusp of an outright Frontier title to out of the NAIA playoffs.
It happened in 2023, too, when Carroll plummeted from No. 6 in the NAIA to fourth in the Frontier standings. Facing a mirrored schedule the last two seasons, Carroll is a combined 0-4 against Montana Western and Tech in the regular-season’s final two weeks.
Quarterback Jack Prka, who played in his final game Saturday, tossed nine combined interceptions against seven touchdowns in those games as Carroll lost by an average margin of 17 points. This season, Carroll mustered just 14 points in back-to-back season-ending losses, with one of those touchdowns coming on defense. Consider this.
In 2022, Carroll’s last appearance in the NAIA playoffs, the Saints won five straight games to end the regular-season following a 3-2 start. The last two seasons, Carroll began a combined 13-1, just to complete the regular-season a combined 1-5. It took three years, but Jerome Souers finally won a Frontier Conference game.
Nineteen points scored were the Lights’ most since Oct. 12 and 339 yards of offense was just the second time Northern eclipsed 300 this season. Havre’s Mason Dionne headed a season-best rushing attack and back-to-back games with 200-plus yards on the ground.
For the third straight year, Northern improved its defense (by points per game). to see his Lights project through following Saturday’s win, but it feels like ending a 28-game conference losing streak needs to be a permanent turning point for Northern’s program. Whether or not that happens could determine Souers’ future, and the future of college football, in Havre.
One-quarter of 2024 NAIA Football Championship Series second-round home games will be played in Montana. Three years ago, when the Frontier was perpetually stuck sending only its automatic bid into the playoffs, that felt impossible. Now, the National Selection Committee’s decision to leave a third Frontier program from the playoffs turned a few heads.
The Frontier’s best candidate for a second at-large bid was 8-3 SOU ranked 22nd in the final NAIA Coaches’ Poll. Carroll, who joined SOU in losing its regular-season finale, was withheld from that poll, and in turn, at-large consideration. With wins, it was possible four Frontier teams would compete in the 20-team playoff, Nevertheless, , signaling an overall national growth of respect for the Frontier.
Landers Smith’s 170 rush yards Saturday placed him on the cusp of breaking onto Tech’s top-5 all-time single-season rushing list. Entering the postseason, Smith is 211 yards shy of becoming the third Oredigger running back to eclipse 1,500 yards in a single season (Nolan Saraceni, Don Heater). He is Tech’s first 1,000-yard back since Jed Fike in 2018 and carries six 100-yard games and three 150-yard games into the playoffs.
Smith’s 33 carries Saturday overtook SOU’s Gunner Yates for the Frontier lead (229) and propelled him past 2,000 career rushing yards. Saturday was the regular-season finale of the one-division Frontier Conference. Next season, with five new teams joining, the league expands to a pair of seven-team divisions, producing two automatic playoff berths.
Expect some finalization this off-season on which Montana teams are headed to the East Division and which rivalries will be retained with division crossover games. Dickinson State – (won North Star) Dakota State – Mayville State – Valley City State – Simpson University – (first varsity season) Montana Western – (no change) Montana Tech – (no change) Southern Oregon – (-8) Carroll College – (previously No. 23) , Eastern Oregon 19 , No.
23 Carroll College 14 F/OT // College of Idaho , No. 14 Southern Oregon 24 , Rocky Mountain College 13 Arizona Christian , Simpson University 27 : Senior running back , Montana Tech : Junior defensive back , College of Idaho : Graduate student kicker , Arizona Christian Montana Tech running back – 170 rush yards, 4 TDs Arizona Christian running back – 261 rush yards, 4 TDs Eastern Oregon quarterback – 28-for–51 passing, 281 yards, 3 TDs; 40 rush yards College of Idaho quarterback – 132 rush yards, 4 TDs Montana Western quarterback – 18-for-25 passing, 253 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT Carroll College wide receiver – 6 receptions, 111 yards, 2 TDs Rocky Mountain College wide receiver – 4 receptions, 119 yards, 1 TD Carroll College quarterback – 24-for-37 passing, 301 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT College of Idaho defensive back – 9 tackles, 2 INTs MSU-Northern linebacker – 7 tackles, 5 sacks, 5 TFLs, 2 forced fumbles College of Idaho linebacker – 12 tackles, 3 sacks, 3.5 TFLs, 1 pass break-up Eastern Oregon defensive back – 12 tackles, 1 sack, 1 TFL Montana Tech defensive back – 8 tackles, 1 INT, 1 pass break-up Montana Western linebacker – 9 tackles, 0.
5 sacks, 0.5 TFL Carroll College linebacker – 8 tackles, 1 INT Southern Oregon linebacker – 8 tackles, 1 sack, 1 TFL Arizona Christian kicker – 8-for-9 extra-point, 8 points Arizona Christian wide receiver – 86-yard kickoff return TD; 4 kickoff returns, 163 yards, 40.8-yard average Southern Oregon kicker – 3-for-3 field goal, long 40, 1-for-1 extra-point, 10 points Montana Western kicker – 2-for-3 field goal, long 40, 3-for-3 extra-point, 9 points No.
4 seed Montana Western vs. TBA ( ) No. 7 seed Montana Tech vs.
TBA ( ) Montana Western – (9-1) Montana Tech – (9-2) Carroll College – (7-3) College of Idaho – (7-4) Southern Oregon – (8-3) Eastern Oregon – (5-6) Arizona Christian – (2-8) MSU-Northern – (1-9) Rocky Mountain College – (2-8).
