The Fighting Saints opened their season to the Montana Western Bulldogs on August 27, at Nelson Stadium. It was a well-fought battle between both teams but ended with Carroll getting the win.
For the first possession of the game, led by quarterback Jon Jund, the Bulldogs marched down the field into the Saints’ red zone. The drive would be stopped when linebacker Tucker Jones, a redshirt sophomore from Hamilton intercepted the ball and ran for a 63-yard turnaround.
“This is the game we wanted, we felt like we had them on the ropes last year and barely lost it. It felt really good to come out here and get our first win of the season against a great opponent,” said Zach Spiroff, a junior from Helena pursuing a business major.
The Saints were able to get three points on the board after Steven Powell, a sophomore going into civil engineering from Bremerton, Washington kicked it through the uprights to make the score 3-0.
Both teams battled back and forth, stopping each other, and forcing the other to punt. The Saints picked up some momentum when Austin Bedke, a redshirt junior in health science from Oakley, Idaho blocked the punt, giving the Saints the ball at midfield.
The Saints converted as Jack Prka, a sophomore majoring in secondary education from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, zipped the ball to Tony Collins, a senior business major from Fort Worth, Texas for a 43-yard touchdown bringing Carroll to a 10-0 lead.
“I knew that this game was going to be a dog fight. I also knew that if we kept to our game plan, we would have a chance to come out on top. They were giving me a lot of man coverage looks, and that allowed us to take some shots down the field.” said Prka.
The rest of the half would consist of the Bulldogs eating up more than 10 minutes of the game clock with their drive. The Saints were able to hold them to a field goal to end the half, making the score 10-3.
Similar to the first half, the third quarter saw both teams exchange punts. This back and forth continued into the beginning of the fourth quarter until Jund and the Bulldogs started marching down the field. The 50-yard, 12-play series would earn the Bulldogs a touchdown, evening the score 10-10.
Prka responded by marching the Saints down the field and settling with a 31-yard field goal kick from Powell, giving the Saints the lead 13-10.
The Saints’ defense made it a nightmare for the Bulldogs and forced them to punt again. A few plays later, the Saints got close enough for another Powell field goal bringing the score to 16-10.
Western had one last shot to win the game with a touchdown. The Bulldogs ran a QB option with Jund. Jund broke several Saint defenders and had some green field in front of him. Hunter Peck, a sophomore from Windsor Colorado pursued Jund and forced the fumble.
The Saints recovered the fumble and the game was over. The Saints moved to 1-0 on the season, defeating the number one team in the Frontier Conference.
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The Saints aimed to take this momentum forward into their next game against the Montana Tech Orediggers at their first home game, the Copper Bowl.
The Saints started on offense, firing on all cylinders on their first possession. They marched down the field and settled with a field goal kick from Powell giving the Saints the 3-0 lead.
The Orediggers responded immediately. Jett Cambell, a junior, led the Orediggers to midfield then found Trevor Hoffman on a go route that resulted in a 48-yard gain for the Orediggers.
The Saints’ defense would hold strong and force the Orediggers to a field goal.
The Orediggers started where they left off from the last possession. Campbell led his team down the field once again. The Saints showed great composure when the Orediggers were in the red zone and held the Orediggers to another field goal making the game 6-3.
The Saints’ offense started to break down, resulting in back-to-back punts for the Saints. The Orediggers would get the ball at midfield and drive all the way down and score, Bringing the score to 13-3.
Matt Burgess, a redshirt junior pursuing a degree in engineering from Junction-City, Oregon got the Saints offense rolling and down into Oredigger territory.
The Saints were now on the goal line, and in just two attempts, Ryan Rickman, a redshirt Sophomore from Salem, Oregon was able to cash in the touchdown, making the score 13-10.
Just before the end of the half, Campbell drove into Saint territory and threw a back-of-the-end-zone touchdown to make the score 19-10.
The Saints failed to get anything going in the second half. The Orediggers played disciplined at home and maintained their momentum.
The Saints fell to the Montana Orediggers 26-10 but bounced back against Eastern Oregon on September 17 with a score of 25-23.