Tech tames Bears

By Bill Foley of The Montana Standard - 10/15/2006

Montana Tech’s Josh Kling intercepts a pass by Rocky Mountain’s quarterback Vance Vincent during the last few seconds of the first half Saturday afternoon in Alumni Coliseum. The Orediggers defeated the Battlin’ Bears 23-16. Lisa Kunkel/The Montana Standard

The Orediggers changed up their uniforms Saturday afternoon and came out in solid green.

But that was hardly the biggest surprise the Montana Tech football team had in store for Rocky Mountain College in front of 3,156 at Alumni Coliseum.

The Orediggers opened the game with a no-huddle offense that gave the team just enough spark for its seventh-straight season sweep over the Bears.

What was not surprising, however, was that the Orediggers and Bears played another nail-bitter, and Tech needed a fourth-quarter touchdown from Teague Egan for a come-from-behind 23-16 Frontier Conference victory.

The homecoming battle was played in front of a couple dozen members of the 1996 Montana Tech team. The squad, which played for the national title, was honored at halftime.

“Nobody’s ever seen us do it before so we thought we’d come out and surprise them with a little quick ‘O,’” junior receiver Casey Kelly said of the Tech no-huddle approach. “We didn’t want to give their defense a chance to get set, and we really started moving the ball well.” Tech coach Bob Green said the scheme is called the “Indy” package.

Sophomore quarterback Justin Kegel, who passed for 187 yards and a pair of touchdowns, called the plays at the line of scrimmage.

“It’s semi-fast, but it’s no-huddle,” Green said. “I want to congratulate our offensive staff and our offensive players. They work and work and find different ways to attack.” The offense worked for a 12-play, 51-yard drive that exhausted the Rocky defense and forced the Bears to call a time out.

But freshman linebacker Degan Barber blocked a Dan Kleckner 31-yard field goal, so the Orediggers came away empty handed.

The next offensive play for the Orediggers, however, resulted in a touchdown.

One play after sophomore safety Cole Salo returned a punt 31 yards to the Northern 40, Kegel hit Kelly on a receiver screen. He juked a few tacklers and took it the distance for a 7-0 lead.

“We had a screen put in the previous game that kind of failed See TECH, Page B5 because we couldn’t get one guy blocked,” explained Kelly, who hauled in 10 passes for 93 yards. “We made an adjustment on it, had the linemen pull out and it just came open.

“It got us going for the rest of the game,” Kelly said. “Every game we that score first we usually end up taking over and winning.” Tech slowed things down after that, and the Bears cut the lead to 7-3 on a a Bjorn Nelson 45-yard field goal before the Orediggers got on the board.

Kegel hooked up with sophomore Alex Grevas for a 14-yard TD strike in the back corner of the southern end zone early in the second quarter.

The extra point was blocked.

The scoring play was set up by perhaps the Orediggers’ prettiest offensive play of the season. Kegel pump faked to Kelly on a screen before going over the top to sophomore Zach Soukup for a 52-yard gain to the Northern 15.

Kegel took a big hit after throwing the ball.

“He had to have guts to keep his eyes wide open and run through the pump fake,” Green said. “He got hit right in the mouth.” Rocky bounced back to cut the lead to 13-9 when Jimmy Beal bounced off a tackler behind the line of scrimmage and broke free for a 56-yard touchdown run.

Rocky took at 16-13 lead four plays into the third quarter when Beal, who ran for 77 yards on 12 carries, scored on a four-yard run.

The big play on the drive was a 37-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Vance Vincent to 6-foot-5 senior tight end Justin Airola. That moved the ball to the Tech 7, and two plays later Rocky led.

“That was a great opening drive,” Rocky coach David Reeves said. “But we’ve got to put one more together.” After that, the Oredigger defense completely shut the Bears down.

Junior safety Josh Kling and junior cornerback Kyle McCall picked off passes in the second half. Kling and redshirt freshman Scott Gerken, the nickel back, intercepted first-half passes.

Junior linebacker J.J. Perino, who left the game briefly with a knee injury, was in on all three Tech sacks, while redshirt freshman Quincy Bourne had the hit of the game.

Gerken and senior linebacker Rory Clark also had a hand in a sack.

But the Orediggers were looking up at the Bears until Kleckner booted a 43-yard field goal with 3:01 left in the third quarter to tie the game at 16.

Kleckner thought he tied the game a couple minutes earlier when his 38-yard field goal apparently missed wide right. Kleckner ran down field about 10 yards with his arms open to argue the call.

Egan’s game-winner — a two-yard burst where he bounced off a tackler — capped a 41-yard drive. It was the third straight Oredigger possession that began in Rocky territory.

The Orediggers killed the clock by holding the ball the final eight plays of the game.

“Every game we say is a championship game,” Kelly said. “But this one is really big for us.” The win lifted Tech to 4-3 overall and 4-2 in Frontier play. It kept the Orediggers’ hopes of a conference title and playoff spot alive, though the team is still two games behind Carroll College and one behind MSU-Northern.

Rocky fell to 2-5 and 1-5 in yet another close loss.

“I want to congratulate coach Reeves and his staff,” Green said. “They haven’t had a lot of success, but boy did they play hard.” Tech improved its record against the Bears to 26-4 since 1992, but the last four have gone down to the wire.

“We end up with close games with most people,” Reeves said. “It gets frustrating, doesn’t it? It makes you go gray, it makes you go crazy.” Rocky is at home next Saturday when they take on Northern.

“It would be nice to put a couple good halves together on somebody, and show everybody what we can do,” Reeves said. “It’s for the kids and the alums. All these close games, it would be nice to get a couple of them for those guys.

“Obviously we’re better than we have been,” Reeves added.

“But we’ve still got to get over that hump. The tight games need to go our way.” The Orediggers head to La Grande, Ore., to try to sweep the season series with Eastern Oregon.

“Now we’ve got to worry about beating a really good Eastern Oregon football team,” Green said. “But you know what, we got better.” Rocky 0 9 7 0 — 16 Tech 7 6 3 7 — 23 First Quarter MT — Casey Kelly 40 pass from Justin Kegel (Dan Kleckner kick), 7:59 Drive — 1 play 40 yards. Key play — Cole Salo 31 punt return to Northern 40.

Second Quarter RM — FG Bjorn Nelson 45, 14:52 Drive — 3 plays, minus 4 yards. Key play — Michael Williams blocked Tech punt.

MT — Alex Grevas 14 pass from Kegel (kick blocked), 11:19.

Drive — 6 plays, 78 yards. Key play — Zach Soukup 52 pass from Kegel to Northern 15.

RM — Jimmy Beal 56 run (kick failed), 5:58.

Drive — 2 plays, 72 yards. Key play — scoring play.

Third Quarter RM — Beal 4 run (Nelson Kick), 13:25 Drive — 4 plays, 65 yards. Key play — Justin Airola 37 pass from Vance VIncent to Tech 7.

MT — FG Kleckner 43, 3:01 Drive — 3 plays 3 yards. Key play — Kyle McCall 14 interception return to Rocky 29.

Fourth Quarter MT — Teague Egan 2 run (Kleckner kick), 12:50 Drive — 7 plays, 41 yards. Key play — Corey Warner 10 run to Rocky 23 on 3rd and 2.

RM MT First downs 15 18 Rushes-yards 20-70 45-167 Comp-Att-Int 21-35-4 16-22-0 Passing yards 208 187 Total yards 278 340 Punts-Ave 5-35.4 6-32.2* Fumbles-lost 1-0 1-0 Penalties-yards 8-50 10-80 *Total includes blocked punt INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING — Rocky, Beal 12-77, Clint Franklin 2-2, Vance Vincent 4-(-4), Hendrick 1(-5). Tech, Egan 29-132, Warner 11-31, Kegel 3-(-9), Kelly 1-9, Levi Briese 1-4.

PASSING — Rocky, Vincent 14-24-4-178, Hendrick 7-11-0-30. Tech, Kegel 15-21-0-173.

RECEIVING — Rocky, Taylor Harris 5-60, Toby Rundle 5-33, Airola 4-53, Daniel Ghormley 3-43, Jason Hagadone 2-10, Franklin 1-11, Beal 1-(-2). Tech, Kelly 10-93, Grevas 3-32, Soukup 1-52, Craig Tippett 1-7, Justin Hansen 1-3.