BILLINGS — Carroll College pulled victory from the jaws of defeat for the second straight week.
The No. 10-ranked Saints rallied to score three fourth-quarter touchdowns Saturday for a 21-20 come-from-behind road victory over Rocky Mountain College on Saturday at Herb Klindt Field.
Rocky led 20-0 after a 34-yard field goal by Austin Drake with 10:50 remaining, but Carroll followed with 21 unanswered points – a 4-yard touchdown run by Baxter Tuggle and consecutive TD passes from QB Jack Prka to Carson Ochoa, the last of which was a 39-yarder with 1:44 remaining.
The Battlin’ Bears’ ensuing drive went nowhere, and Carroll was able to run out the clock for its second straight comeback win. Last week the Saints rallied to defeat St. Thomas (Fla.) 26-23 on a Prka-to-Chris Akulschin touchdown throw with 55 seconds left.
Rocky built its lead on a 21-yard Luke Holcomb TD pass to Jacob Dwyer in the first quarter. Drake then hit a 38-yard field goal late in the third to make the score 10-0, and Holcomb found DeNiro Killian Jr. for a 36-yard score for a 17-0 lead with 1:28 left in the third.
Rocky’s defense was strong for most of the game and limited Carroll to just nine rushing yards all game and sacked Prka four times, but Prka finished with 407 passing yards, 127 of which went to Chris Akulschin and 105 to Ochoa.
With the win, Carroll improved to 3-0 overall and 1-0 in the Frontier. Rocky suffered its first loss to fall to 2-1 overalll and 0-1 in the league.
No. 16 Montana Tech 49, Eastern Oregon 31
BUTTE – Blake Counts rushed for 122 yards and three touchdown Saturday as No. 16 Montana Tech beat Eastern Oregon 49-31.
Counts’ 2-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter gave the Orediggers a 7-3 lead and they never looked back. Counts added an 8-yard scoring run to give Tech a 35-10 advantage in the third. His final TD came on a 44-yard run in the fourth, making the score 49-24.
Orediggers quarterback Blake Thelen completed 14 of 17 passes for two touchdowns and one interception. Wyatt Alexander and Jordan Jackson each caught TD passes from Thelen.
Montana Tech improved to 2-1 and 1-0 in the Frontier. Eastern Oregon is 0-3 and 0-1.
Montana Western 48, Lewis and Clark (Ore.) 13
DILLON — Montana Western erased a two-score deficit Saturday en route to a 48-13 victory over Lewis and Clark (Ore.) at Vigilante Stadium.
The Bulldogs were down 10-0 in the first quarter but reeled off 28 straight points, highlighted by two touchdown runs by D.J. Kirven, including a scamper of 75 yards to give Western its first points of the game in the opening quarter.
Michael Palandri threw touchdown passes to Dylan Shipley (37 yards) and Eli Nourse (32 yards), the last of which gave Western a 35-13 advantage on its first possession of the third quarter.
Kirven finished with 137 rushing yards on just eight carries, while Palandri threw for 276 and rushed for 77. The Bulldogs finished with 556 total yards of offense.
Kameron Rauser led the way on defense for Western (2-1, 0-1 Frontier) with eight total tackles, a sack, an interception and two pass breakups.
Arizona Christian 21, MSU-Northern 20
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Arizona Christian scored two fourth-quarter touchdown to secure a 21-20 come-from-behind win over MSU-Northern on Saturday.
Justin Wright scored on a 2-yard run with 12:47 left in the fourth and then Jarrod Favors scored the winning touchdown on a 7-yard pass from Tyler Duncan with 11 seconds left to pull out the win.
Northern quarterback Oakley Kopp 171 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. Mason Dionne carried the ball 27 times for 58 yards and a touchdown for the Lights while Kopp rushed for a TD of his own. Cael White caught a TD and had 71 receiving yards.
Elsewhere in the Frontier ...
Southern Oregon 49, Willamette 7
