Montana State University-Northern Lights fell 45-14 to Eastern Oregon University Saturday afternoon at Community Stadium.
Eastern Oregon jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the opening quarter, scoring three touchdowns on its first four possessions. The Mountaineers opened the scoring with a one-yard touchdown run by Waylon Riedel before Kallen Gutridge connected with Tyler Creswick on a 20-yard touchdown pass and Coby Tanioka on a 51-yard scoring strike.
Northern answered in the second quarter with a pair of defensive touchdowns to cut into the deficit.
De'Amoni Wright provided the first spark when he returned a blocked punt 24 yards for a touchdown, with
Tate O'Neill adding the extra point to make it 21-7. Just under four minutes later,
Ethan Maroni intercepted a Gutridge pass and returned it 79 yards for another Northern touchdown. O'Neill's PAT brought the Lights within 21-14.
Eastern Oregon responded with a touchdown run from Gutridge and a field goal from Ethan Cutler to take a 31-14 lead into halftime.
The Mountaineers added two more touchdowns in the third quarter, with Gutridge throwing touchdown passes to Dylan Shipley and Malakai Nutter to extend the lead to 45-14. Neither team scored in the fourth quarter.
Northern finished with 173 yards of total offense, including 168 passing yards and five rushing yards.
Griffin Terry completed 21 of 43 passes for 168 yards, while
Juliun Benson led the Lights' receiving corps with 11 catches for 88 yards.
Isaiah Woodley added five receptions for 33 yards.
Eastern Oregon finished with 649 yards of total offense, including 387 passing yards and 262 rushing yards. Gutridge completed 19 of 26 passes for 339 yards and four touchdowns while adding 91 rushing yards and another score.
Defensively,
Jackson Kink led the Lights with 16 total tackles, including 1.5 tackles for loss.
Braydon Cline added 12 tackles, while
Julius Leapai and
De'Amoni Wright each recorded nine tackles. Leapai also forced a fumble.
Northern's defense also produced two interceptions, with Maroni's 79-yard return resulting in a touchdown and
Jesse Brawley recording the other interception.
The Lights will look to bounce back in their next contest on October 10 against Montana Tech.
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