BUTTE — For the second straight year, Montana Tech is off to a 3-0 start.
Wykece Johnson rushed for 139 yards — his third straight 100-plus yard game — and the No. 11 Orediggers built a sizable first-half lead and then fended off Rocky Mountain College in the second half for a 34-23 victory Saturday at Bob Green Field.
It was a non-division game and the Orediggers and Battlin' Bears — both members of the Frontier Conference East — will meet again in a divisional clash Nov. 1 in Billings.
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Tech raced to a 20-0 lead early in the second quarter thanks to a pair of field goals from Casey Kautzman (20 and 42 yards), a goal-line rush from Nate Milanowski and an interception return for a TD by Justin Webber.
The Orediggers led 27-9 by halftime before Rocky scored twice in the first five minutes of the third quarter off a 62-yard touchdown pass from Trent Nobach to Brock Ping and a 60-yard scoring pass from Nobach to Darius Haskin to cut Tech's lead to 27-23.
But the Bears (0-2) didn't score after that and Johnson found the endzone on a 3-yard run for the game's final score.
The Orediggers will travel to Southern Oregon for a game next week while Rocky Mountain College will host Montana Western.
