Notebook: Tech loses, Western gains QB

By Carl Hennell and Bill Foley of The Montana Standard - 09/14/2005

Aaron Johnson

If it weren't for bad luck, Montana Tech quarterback Aaron Johnson would have no luck at all on the football field.

Johnson, who missed all but a game and one possession of the 2003 season with a shattered left forearm, will miss the rest of the 2005 campaign after rebreaking that arm.

Johnson, a senior from Hardin, underwent surgery to put a new plate in his non-throwing arm after a helmet bumped into his old plate and broke the bone in half during the second quarter of Saturday's overtime win at Rocky Mountain College.

"I just took a helmet straight on," Johnson said after Tuesday's practice. "I just threw the ball and the guy came coming in and put a helmet right on it.

"(The plate) makes like a weak point on the bone if you get hit right on it." Johnson, who led the Orediggers to the NAIA national playoffs in his only full season as a starter, completed 40 of 57 passes (70 percent) for 340 yards and a touchdown in two games and a quarter and a half before the injury. He also ran for one TD and didn't throw any interceptions.

"The biggest thing for me is I feel badly for Aaron," Tech coach Bob Green said. "He is a No. 1 guy. He's an outstanding athlete, an outstanding football player, an outstanding quarterback, an outstanding student and an outstanding person." Johnson worked closely with his backup — sophomore Justus Sheets — during Tuesday's practice, and said he'll help the No. 8 Orediggers any way possible.

"I'll just try to contribute as much as I can with Justus — try to help him out with where to throw and the reads to make," Johnson said. "Basically, just a coach I guess. That's about all I can do." Johnson, who is married and carries a 3.93 GPA, received a medical redshirt after the 2003 injury and is actually eligible to play again in 2006. But he'll graduate this year in petroleum engineering and already has accepted a full-time job in Denver.

"That's what's tough about it — already making the decision to be a senior, making plans," Johnson said. "I've kind of been in shock the last couple of days." Sheets isn't the only one who has to fill in for Johnson's injury.

Senior receiver Brian Styck will replace Johnson as the holder for field goals.

Styck passed his first test, See QB, Page B6 holding on Dan Kleckner's 43-yard game-winner in overtime.

Tech's backup quarterback will be true freshman Hunter Kerkes, a product of Class C Centerville High School who has drawn praise from Green for his work on the scout team this season.

Justin Kegel, who started games two years ago, is still recovering from spring shoulder surgery and not medically cleared to play football.

Hartman entrenched: It looks like Great Falls sophomore Justin Hartman, a University of Montana Grizzly transfer, will be the University of Montana-Western starting quarterback for some time.

Hartman, who supplants Billings junior Travis Blome — who passed for 2,050 and 14 TDs last year, registered his first 300-yard collegiate passing game against Montana State University-Northern Saturday and was named the NAIA national offensive player of the week. He hit 18 of 32 passes (56 percent) for 366 yards and three touchdowns. He has completed 39 of 65 pass (60 percent) for 608 yards and five touchdowns in three appearances this year.

But don't count out Blome. He started just as slowly last season en route to leading the Bulldogs to upsets of top-ranked Carroll College and Montana Tech and a share of the Frontier Conference crown by winning six of his last eight games.

"Every time you get competition, some guys handle it OK, but others try too hard and start pressing themselves and make mistakes," Western coach Tommy Lee said. "They just aren't as relaxed as if they were ‘the guy.' He's been really good about it and I've talked to him a lot." First regular sesaon poll: The first regular-season NAIA poll came out Monday and Montana Tech is eighth. The Orediggers were picked No. 11 in the preseason poll before beating the University of Montana-Western, Jamestown College and Rocky.

Of course, Carroll College remains No. 1.

UM-Western was ranked No. 25 in the preseason poll but fell out after losses to Tech and Central Washington.

Defensive minded: Much has been made about quarterback Tyler Emmert and the Carroll College offense.

But at least one coach thinks the Saints' defense might be the strength of the three-time defending national champions.

"We've played them three times and scored a grand total of 17 points,"Azusa Pacific coach Peter Shinnick told The Helena Independent Record after Saturday's 27-7 loss to the Saints. "That pretty much tells you all you need to know. Their defense dominates our offense, there's no doubt about it." Also, the Carroll offense racked up more the 500 yards of total offense.

The No. 1-ranked Saints led 24-0 before Azusa scored. The loss dropped Azusa from No. 4 to No. 20.

Carroll beat Azusa 12-0 and 14-10 last season. The later came in the NAIA semifinals.

Samson says: With nearly every Frontier Conference football fan eyeing MSU-Northern and second-year head coach Mark Samson, who coached Helena Capital to four state championships in six years, and his two sons — Kyle, the junior do-all quarterback, and Marc, the kick-punt returner and cornerback — no one was really surprised about the Northern Light's opening-season, upset victory over No. 6 Dickinson State in North Dakota then second-week, one-point loss to Western.

But after that one-point loss, Samson said his team in not even close to being a contender.

"We are a long ways away," he said. "Everybody got excited last week because we beat Dickie, but we are a long ways away. We are young and have got to get better.

"We didn't cause them (Western) to make any mistakes. We aren't getting any kind of pass rush right now. We just aren't very good at our down linemen right now. Maybe if we could have brought some pressure things would have been different.

"We just didn't make plays. We, defensivley, were not ready to play. I thought that during pregame warmups when they were just going through the motions in getting ready. There was no emotion or enthusiasm." Samson has got to deal with Carroll Saturday.

More Rolaids, please: By beating MSU-Northern Saturday, UM-W got some relief with its first victory of the season after beginning with two lopsided losses on the road.

"The kids are battling back," Lee said. "It stung for a couple of days (after the Central Washington loss) but we know we can play better than that — we just have to protect the ball. We were a little road weary. That week was a short week for us. We had to get on the road Thursday. But we had a long week before Northern and have had time to prepare and get back on track." But it's back to more stress for the next two weeks for the Bulldogs. They travel to NCAA Division I-AA Idaho State next week then host top-ranked Carroll Collge the week after that.

Mirroring scores: MSU-Northern and UM-Western not only traded touchdowns Saturday, but scored in nearly identical ways.

The Northern Lights tied the game late in the first quarter, 7-7, when senior receiver Danny Wirtzberger caught a 10-yard TD pass from Kyle Samson that was first tipped by UM-W defensive back Albert Distajo of Hawaii. Western got quick revenge six plays later when senior receiver Seth McLean of Twin Bridges caught a 23-yard TD pass from Hartman that was first tipped by MSU-N defensive back Kyle Elliott.

MSU-N scored on its next drive to tie it, 14-14, when running back Don Saisbury plunged in from 3 yards. Nine plays later, UM-W running back Caleb Drinkwalter plunged in from 3 yards to put the game at its halftime score, 21-14.

On Northern's first drive of the second half, junior Jake Eldridge took a catch and ran 65 yards to paydirt to tie the game. It capped a three-play drive. Three series later, UM-W freshman Travis Hartman took a receiver screen 67 yards to paydirt in capping a five-play drive.

In mirroring non scores, the place kickers on each team followed one another in missing the game's final three extra points.

Where's Jake: After a record-breaking performance by UM-W receiver Jake Larson to open the season, Larson has been kind of absent the last two games.

Larson caught 12 passes for 230 yards and two touchdowns against Montana Tech three weeks ago and has been held to seven catches for 93 yards and no TDs since.

Larson got off to an extremely quick start Saturday against MSU-Northern. All four of his catches came in the first quarter and the first three came on the Bulldogs' first drive. In fact, the first three passing plays for the Bulldogs went his way. Two of them he were third-down catches that he got the first down on, including the second one — on 3rd-and-17.

But near the end of the third quarter, he dropped a sure 68-yard touchdown pass when his defender fell down while covering him on a deep post pattern. On the next drive, he dropped another one and three plays later Hartman had to scramble off tackle towards Larson and was hammered by the MSU-N defender next to Larson.