Story of the Game
In a game that saw two Northern Lights football team records broken, the Lights came away with their first win of the 2017 season over the Mayville State University Comets 43-29.  Northern's all-around play showed great improvement from a week ago when they dropped a 7-61 game against Montana-Western.  The Lights broke a team record in rushing yards (340 yards, held since 2009) when they racked up an impressive 376 yards on the ground.  On the defensive end, the Lights smashed the old record of least rush yards allowed in a game (7 total yards, held since 2000) when the Comets ran for a negative rushing total (-2 yards total).

Stats of the Game
Along with Northern's record breaking day, they also tied a 12 year old record for most rushing touchdowns in a game with five.  Junior running back Trey Blanchard had a game-high performance on the ground as he rushed for 179 yards and a touchdown.  Freshman QB Dylan Cook ran for two touchdowns on 11 yards, sophomore Bryan Peters tallied 85 yards and a touchdown, and junior QB Tommy Wilson collected 54 yards and a solo touchdown.

Turning Point
Northern used a first quarter drive (17 plays, 89 yards) early in the game to get on the board first with a 22-yard field goal by senior kicker Tommy Langley to go ahead 3-0.  A huge defensive stop on the next Mayville State drive (coming in the form of a safety when senior linebacker Garet Fowler brought down the quarterback in the endzone) put the Lights ahead 5-0.  The second quarter saw two straight rushing touchdowns by the Lights that moved the score to 19-0.  Before the half, the Comets scored their first touchdown of the game on a five-yard touchdown pass to push the score to 19-7 going into the locker room.

Mayville staged a comeback after the half and tied the game at 22-22 in the final seconds of the third quarter.  The Lights went on to score three touchdowns in their next three drives to put the game out of reach for the Comets at 43-22.  

The Lights So Far
Northern moves to 1-4 overall and stays at 0-4 in Frontier Conference standings.

Up Next
The Lights now travel to La Grande, OR as they look for their second win of the season against the Eastern Oregon University Mountaineers.  Game links will be posted on the Northern Football schedule page as they are made available.  Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 PM (6:00 PM PST).

PHOTO COURTESY of Catlin Solum, Mayville State University Sports Information Dept.