2
October 5, 2018
www.havredailynews.com
www.havredailynews.com
October 5, 2018
11
Pride for both sides of the Border Too much parity in the Frontier? Northern senior Seth Roemmele grew up playing a different brand of football. Now though, he's a proud Canadian playing college football in the states George Ferguson Havre Daily News sports editor gferguson@havredailynews.com Havre is just 40 miles from the Canadian border. But no matter how close Canada and the United States are in relation to Havre, and Montana State University-Northern, when it comes to football, the two countries are worlds apart. No one probably knows that better right
George Ferguson Havre Daily News sports editor gferguson@havredailynews.com
now than MSU-N senior wide receiver Seth Roemmele. And that’s because he’s played both. Football in Canada is a 12-man game, as compared to 11-man football, but, it’s not only the rules that are much different, the popularity is too. In Canada, hockey is, and will always be king. In America, hockey certainly is popular, but it doesn’t come close to how highly thought of the game of football is. Again, no one knows that better than Roemmele, who came to Northern five years ago out of Willow Creek High School in Claresholm, Alberta. “The difference football-wise are pretty big,” Roemmele said. “Obviously, 12-man football is a lot different, but I also came here from a really small school. My graduating class only had 80 kids, so I went from not only a different kind of football, but I went from being a big fish in a small pond at
n
The Frontier Conference has reached the bye week. And it’s unusual because every single team in the league has the week off. So, with most teams having played four or even five games thus far, it’s time to review where we’re at. And here’s the first thing that’s becoming clear as we head into October — the Frontier is probably once again only going to get one team in the NAIA playoffs. Is it a done deal? No. But, it looks like that’s where the league is headed. Southern Oregon is once again the only team left with a chance to be undefeated. Meanwhile, UMWestern and Montana Tech each have one loss, but the Orediggers and Bulldogs haven’t played each other yet, so one of them is going to have at least two losses on its resume after Oct. 6. Then there’s the curious cases of Rocky Mountain College and Carroll College. The two met in the season-opener, a game domi-
See Pride Page 5
Havre Daily News/Colin Thompson Montana State University-Northern senior Seth Roemmele goes up for a catch during a 2016 Frontier Conference football game between the Lights and the UM-Western Bulldogs in Havre. Roemmele has played a ton of snaps in his four years as a Light, but, more importantly than snaps, he says it's the pride and passion he feels for being a Canadian-born football player playing college football in the United States. Roemmele hails from a small high school in southern Alberta, where he grew up playing hockey, but, also fell in love with football, including both Canadian rules football, and the football played in America. Roemmele and the Lights return to action this Saturday when they host the Eastern Oregon Mounties at 6 p.m. inside Blue Pony Stadium.
MSU-Northern Lights vs Eastern Oregon Mounties Montana State University-Northern
2017 record: 1-10, 0-10 Head coach: Andrew Rolin
Location: Havre, Mont.
Stadium: Blue Pony Stadium
Nickname: Lights
Streak: Saturday night's game between the Lights and EOU will be the thirs straight night game in the series. They met in Havre in Oct. 2016
Colors: Maroon and Yellow 2018 record: 0-4, 1-5
Saturday, October 6, 2018 Blue Pony Stadium ~ 6 p.m. Eastern Oregon Location: LaGrande, Ore. Nickname: Mounties Colors: Navy and Gold 2018 record: 2-2, 2-2
2017 record: 4-6, 4-6 Head coach: Tim Camp Stadium: Community Stadium Streak: The Mounties are riding a six-game winning streak against the Lights coming into Saturday night's game.
nated by Rocky 19-0. However, the Bears used an ineligible player, and they later forfeited the victory. Now, Rocky is 2-2 in the Frontier and had to barely squeak by winless College of Idaho last week to get there. On the other hand, the forfeit could have given the Fighting Saints a big boost, and for a time, it did. But, last Saturday, Carroll was shut out at home by SOU. So, now Rocky and Carroll each have two losses in Frontier play, meaning, the only way either one has a chance at the playoffs at this point is to run the table, and since they, too, still have to play each other, there’s only a chance for one of them to do that. Eastern Oregon has also climbed back to 2-2 this season, and running the table could get the Mounties in the playoffs, but they still have a road trip to
SOU looming, so even that seems unlikely. No, for yet another year, it just looks like there’s too much parity in the Frontier. In a way, that’s a great thing because the league is so highly respected. It’s really hard to win in the Frontier, and it’s really, really hard to win a Frontier championship. But as it relates to the playoffs, it’s been a big negative for the league because by the time everybody’s done beating the stuffing out of each other in November, no one is left with a strong enough resume to earn an at-large bid to the playoffs, and that’s something the conference really needs to figure out how to fix at this point. Every year, there’s at least one, sometimes two teams in the Frontier that are
Today in the Frontier Conference RV Eastern Oregon University Mounties (2-2, 2-2)
At Montana State University-Northern Lights (0-4, 1-4) Carroll College (2-2, 3-2) at College of Idaho (0-4, 0-5) in Caldwell, Idaho
#20 Montana Tech (3-1, 3-1) at #22 UM-Western (3-1, 3-1) in Dillon
#2 Southern Oregon (4-0, 4-0) at #21 Rocky Mountain Collee (2-2, 3-2_ in Billings
Full Coverage on Twitter @HavreDaily
undoubtedly one of the 16-best teams in the country, but they don’t get in the playoffs. And while it’s only the end of September, it looks like that’s exactly what’s going to happen to the Frontier in 2018. Stars So far, there’s been a lot of exciting games and performances around the Frontier, and here’s a few names that are really making some noise. Montana Tech junior Jed Fike is ninth in the NAIA in rushing, averaging 125 yards per game. Fike had a breakout season a year ago, and he’s at it again this fall. Teammate Dion Williams is also No. 11 in the country in receptions with 27. Perhaps nobody is having a bigger breakout season than EOU’s Kai Quinn. He’s currently third in the NAIA in passing, at 330 yards per game, and he’s third in total offense as well. SOU’s Rey Vega, Carroll’s Ma-
n
See Notebook Page 12
2018 Frontier Conference Preseason Coaches Poll 1. Southern Oregon; 2. Rocky Mountain; T3. Montana Tech; T3. College of Idaho; 5. Carroll College; 6. Eastern Oregon; 7. UM-Western; 8. MSU-Northern Havre Daily News Frontier Conference Week 6 Power Rankings 1. Southern Oregon 2. Montana Tech 3. Rocky Mountain College 4. UM-Western 5. Eastern Oregon 6. Carroll College T7. College of Idaho T7. MSU-Northern