BILLINGS – Rocky Mountain College opens the back half of its football season Saturday at home, and it figures to be an instant test against one of the nation’s top-ranked teams.
The Battlin’ Bears are 3-2 as they get set to deal with Southern Oregon, but Rocky could certainly be 4-1 or even 5-0. Its record includes the season-opening forfeit against Carroll College. Rocky beat the Saints 19-0 in that contest but fielded an ineligible player.
Since then, the Bears have beaten Montana State-Northern, Dickinson (N.D.) State and the College of Idaho. Their lone loss in that span was 24-21 at Montana Western.
Now, all Frontier Conference teams are fresh off the league’s bye week.
“Kind of gets us away from football for a little bit,” said Rocky linebacker Chase Bertelsen. “It’s like getting a little break. Physically it helped a lot. We got a couple days off, getting our bodies back, rested. And then we had three hard practices getting our legs back underneath us.”
“Going back to working on the things we were working on the first few days of camp and really focusing on doing the little things right,” said offensive lineman John Boogaard. “That’s kind of what the bye week is about. A good week to get some rest, but kind of focus on us and get ready for SOU, too.”
Saturday’s home game is at 1 p.m. for the Bears, who are hosting Southern Oregon, ranked No. 2 in the nation. In their past two games the Raiders have combined to outscore Montana Tech and Carroll College 71-12.
