’Diggers sneak up on Bears

By Bill Bighaus of The Billings Gazette - 09/10/2006

BILLINGS — Rocky Mountain College may be an improved football team, but the Bears left Herb Klindt Field Saturday afternoon with a very familiar result.

Montana Tech tallied two touchdowns inside the game’s final three minutes in beating Rocky 24-13 — and giving the No. 10-ranked Orediggers 13 straight victories over the Bears dating back to the 2000 season.

In what was the Frontier Conference opener for both NAIA schools, Tech grabbed the lead for keeps,17-13, with 2:41 to play after Corey Warner scored on a 2-yard run.

The Orediggers tacked on another TD with a 30-yard jaunt by Teague Egan with 47 seconds remaining to make it an 11-point spread at the end.

Tech, 1-1 on the young season, intercepted five Rocky passes — and the final one by junior cornerback Jason Watkins set up what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown by Warner.

“We expected a tough game,” said Tech coach Bob Green. “We knew it would be a fight. We knew it would be a four-quarter game.” Watkins, who is from Missoula, perfectly read a quick screen pass by the Bears and picked off the Vance Vincent aerial on the Rocky 17 with 3:09 to play. He returned the ball to the 2, and the 222-pound Warner got into the end zone on the next play.

“We drew that out in the huddle. We knew it was coming,” Watkins said of his game-breaking See ’DIGGERS, Page B5 pick. “He threw it right to me. I was pretty excited.” For Rocky, the final result was depressing.

“This one is disappointing because the kids expected to win,” said Rocky coach David Reeves. “Home game, home opener, it’s a tough one.” The Orediggers intercepted four of Vincent’s passes in the second half. One of them was a tipped ball, and a couple of them happened on first-down plays with Rocky on the Tech 35-yard line.

“We made mistakes and Tech capitalized on them late … bottom line,” said Reeves. “When you step into conference (play) you can’t make mistakes. That’s why the Frontier is so tough.” While the miscues proved costly, the Bears were still able to make a game of it despite losing two starters in the first quarter. Bruising fullback Clint Franklin aggravated a strained knee ligament, while all-conference middle linebacker Jason Rixford of Butte also left the field with an undisclosed injury.

“But the kids rallied and it didn’t affect them too much,” said Reeves.

Rocky clung to a 13-10 advantage before Tech pulled away in the final minutes.

“On both sides of the ball it looked like we were putting forth a pretty good effort,” said Matt Kolden, a defensive lineman for the Bears. “It’s just some things didn’t go our way. We’ve just got to step up in the crunch time and make it happen.” The game was played in sunny, 80-degree weather, with a crowd of 2,500-plus looking on.

“That’s one of the hottest games we’ve ever played in Montana, I’ll tell you that,” said Green afterward. “We don’t get them like this in Butte … at 6,000 feet. There was a lot of fluid lost out there on that field.” With both teams sweating it out, Rocky, 1-1 overall, led 13-10 at halftime on a 29-yard field goal by freshman Bjorn Nelson as time expired.

Tech jumped ahead 3-0 on a 32-yard field goal by Dan Kleckner with 10:26 to play in the first quarter.

Rocky cornerback Darin Muri scooped up an Oredigger fumble to set up a 20-yard scoring pass from Vincent to a wide-open receiver Jason Hagadone. Nelson’s PAT kick made it 7-3 in favor of the Bears at the 8:23 mark of the opening quarter.

The Bears moved ahead 10-3 on a 38-yard field goal by Nelson at 9:34 of the second quarter, but Tech marched 67 yards on nine plays for the tying TD. Justin Kegel scored on a 1-yard quarterback keeper and Kleckner tacked on the point-after to make it 10-10 with 4:26 left in the first half.

Rocky’s Mike Williams blocked a Kleckner punt with 13 seconds left before intermission, but the Bears had a short TD pass from Vincent to Justin Airola wiped out by a holding penalty and they had to settle for Nelson’s field goal.

“It was a big fight, back-and-forth the whole time,” Watkins said of the tussle.

And Watkins’ interception was indeed the backbreaker.

“That excited our offense a lot and the defense was fired up,” Watkins said. “I think it put their heads down.” “They’re very good at that quick screen play,” coach Green said of the Bears. “Jason took a chance. He’s an experienced player.” Rocky outgained the Orediggers 319 yards to 257, but had five turnovers to Tech’s two.

Vincent completed 21 of 48 passes for 265 yards, with Hagadone notching five catches for 91 yards.

Tech’s Egan rushed for 81 yards on 20 carries and the Orediggers gained 144 yards on the ground.

“We’ve got talent. We can play with teams in this league,” said Reeves. “We’ve just got to execute. I didn’t think we had a great game and we were still in the game.” Rocky will play at Montana State-Northern on Saturday. The Lights, 2-0, won at Montana-Western 34-16 in their conference opener.

“We came into this game expecting a win,” said Kolden. “We know we’re a good ballclub. We’re just going to try and get better and go out and compete next week.” Montana Tech will play its home opener next Saturday, a conference contest with league newcomer Eastern Oregon, which lost 49-3 at four-time defending conference and national champion Carroll Saturday.

NOTES — Muri, a junior from Miles City, had a pass interception to go along with his fumble recovery. … Rocky’s Spencer Cooney, Brigham Rowe, Daniel Compton and Kolden recorded sacks for the Bears. … Tech doesn’t make a big deal over its 13-game winning streak against Rocky. … “We never think about that,” said Green. “None of our guys talk about that. We’re always trying to win one game.” Montana Tech 3 7 0 14 — 24 Rocky Mountain 7 6 0 0 — 13 Scoring plays First quarter MT — Dan Kleckner 32 FG, 10:26 RMC — Jason Hagadone 20 pass from Vance Vincent (Bjorn Nelson kick), 8:23 Second quarter RMC — Nelson 38 FG, 9:34 MT — Justin Kegel 1 run (Kleckner kick), 4:26 RMC — Nelson 29 FG, 0:00 Third quarter No scoring Fourth quarter MT — Corey Warner 2 run (Kleckner kick), 2:41 MT — Teague Egan 30 run (Kleckner kick), 0:47 Tech Rocky First downs 13 20 Rushes-yards 47-144 18-54 Comp-Att-Int 10-18-1 21-48-5 Passing yards 113 265 Total yards 227 319 Punts 6-43 4-38 Fumbles-Lost 3-1 1-0 Penalties-Yards 5-45 7-52 Individual Statistics Rushing — Montana Tech: Teague Egan 20-81, Justin Kegel 13-21, Corey Warner 13-36, Jens Jensen 1-6. Rocky Mountain: Clint Franklin 1-16, Jimmy Beal 13-11, Vance Vincent 4-27.

Passing — Montana Tech: Justin Kegel 10-18-1, 113 yards. Rocky Mountain: Vance Vincent 21-48-5, 265 yards.

Receiving — Montana Tech: Corey Warner 1-6, Koa Bartlett 2-16, Cal McQueary 1-15, Casey Kelly 4-59, Teague Egan 1-4, Justin Hansen 1-13. Rocky Mountain: Jimmy Beal 2-7, Toby Rundle 4-34, Jason Hagadone 5-91, Taylor Harris 4-59, Clint Franklin 1-3, Justin Airola 4-58, Brian Guisti 1-13.

Tackles — Montana Tech: Cole Salo 8, Skippy Sims 7. Rocky Mountain: Spencer Cooney 19, Roger Larson 10, Darin Muri 6.

Interceptions — Montana Tech: Jared Koskela, Kyle McCall, Cole Salo, Josh Kling, Jason Watkins. Rocky Mountain: Darin Muri.

Fumble recoveries — Rocky Mountain: Darin Muri.