SPORTS

Carroll, S. Oregon meet to kick off Frontier season

Scott Mansch
smansch@greatfallstribune.com

Late last November in the quarterfinals of the NAIA playoffs, Southern Oregon’s Raiders came to Helena and edged top-ranked Carroll College 45-42.

On Saturday afternoon at 1 at Nelson Stadium in Helena, the Saints would like to even the score.

Defending NAIA national champion Southern Oregon meets a powerful Carroll program that’s a perennial contender for the top under coach Mike Van Diest as the Frontier Conference season gets underway.

It’s quite a kickoff to the season.

Carroll has won six NAIA national titles under Van Diest, who is 186-30 in his 16 seasons. The Saints, 10-2 last year with both losses to Southern Oregon, have won 59 of their last 61 home games.

The Raiders, 13-2 in 2014, are without star quarterback Austin Dodge, who earned NAIA national Player of the Year honors after throwing for a staggering 5,607 yards and 52 touchdowns.

“It’s like us trying to replace Tyler Emmert,” Van Diest said of the former Carroll quarterback, a two-time national player of the year. “There will be new guys who come in. We won a lot of games with Tyler Emmert, but there’s been a lot of quarterbacks after Tyler who have won a lot of games, too. I don’t really see them taking a step backward in terms of their offensive production.

“They’ve very talented.”

In other Frontier Conference games Saturday, Montana Tech (0-0) is at Montana State-Northern (0-1), Montana Western (0-0) is at Rocky Mountain (1-0), Pacific is at College of Idaho (1-0) and Eastern Oregon (0-1) is at Sacramento State.

VAN DIEST, who also serves as the Saints’ defensive coordinator, figures to have another solid unit on that side of the ball.

“We’re OK,” he said. “We go ahead some pretty good players here with our quarterback and receiving corps (in practice) and we’ve held our own at times. The biggest adjustment is to the speed Southern Oregon has. It’s tremendous. They’re big-time. The class of NAIA right now.”

Running back Melvin Mason returns after rushing for 1,013 yards and 17 touchdowns. Matt Rezlaff caught 105 passes for 1,594 yards and 12 touchdowns.

The Saint defense, which lost All-American linebacker Sean Blomquist to graduation, features defensive back James Dowgin, and linebackers Shayne Durbin and Adam DeBruycker.

The Carroll offense is led by senior quarterback Mac Roche, who passed for 2,942 yards and 28 scores in 2014. He won’t be able to hand off this season to graduate halfback Dustin Rinker, Carroll’s career rushing leader.

Dylan Green and Ryan Walsh are expected to share duties at running back.

“They’re good football players,” said Van Diest, whose team is ranked No. 4 in the NAIA preseason poll. “They’ve been champing at the bit. We recruited them. We have faith in them. I know our offensive coaches like them and they’ll test their mettle on Saturday against a great defense.”

Dylan Simac leads the Carroll receiving corps. Tight end Eric Dawson of Great Falls could be a frequent target.

“He’s a big kid (242 pounds) and he’ll be a blocking tight end who can maybe open up some holes for us and come out of the backfield (as a receiver),” Van Diest said. “He’s probably a better athlete at that tight end that we’ve had in the past.”

IN HAVRE THIS afternoon at 1, the MSU-Northern Lights of new coach Aaron Christensen look to even their record after dropping a 17-7 decision at Dickinson State on Aug. 29. Defensive end Tyler Craig had three sacks in the game and fellow C.M. Russell High product Zach McKinley ran for 96 yards and a touchdown.

The Lights are looking for more production for a passing attack that produced very little on an extremely blustery day at Dickinson. Jess Krahn was 4-for-18 passing for six yards.

Montana Tech is led by quarterback Quinn McQueary, a Manhattan native and transfer from Montana State who will be starting his first game for the Orediggers. Coach Chuck Morrell’s Diggers can rely on star linebacker David Meis, excellent receiver Alec Bray and swift halfback Nolan Saraceni.

IN BILLINGS THIS afternoon at 1, Rocky Mountain seeks its second straight victory. The Bears of coach Brian Armstrong opened last week with a 23-13 victory over Dickinson State.

Shelby native Mike White passed for 297 yards and a touchdown for Rocky, which relies heavily on All-American receiver Andre McCullough.

The UM Western Bulldogs of coach BJ Robertson have a pair of fine halfbacks in former Centerville star Sam Rutherford and Dylan Kramer of Laurel. Rutherford last season became the first Bulldog to top the 1,000-yard rushing mark.

Veteran linebackers Joe Coker and AJ Wilson are leaders defensively.