By Bruce Sayler
Copper clad for the Copper Game, Montana Tech struck football gold Thursday night.
There was no panning, no sluicing. This was a direct blast and Oredigger basketball-player-turned-football-
Of course, it was a touchdown. Eleventh-ranked Montana Tech went on to whip fifth-ranked Montana Western 38-27 in an NAIA game at Bob Green Field that was never close, not after Torgerson’s game-starting sprint, anyway.
Coach Kyle Samson was the spoiled relative on Christmas morning with his team’s show of power and speed in a both drizzly and sunshiny evening. As big a crowd as Montana Tech has ever had at a football game was on hand and probably re-set whatever noise records that might have been established before.
“Big-time players make big-time plays,” Samson said of Torgerson’s big-time performance. “We talked about starting fast and you couldn’t start any better. He took it to the house.”
Torgerson was on the same page in a plan so effective it he scored again on a 91-yard punt return in the next quarter and tossed a TD pass to Parker Johnston off a trick play.
“We wanted to get a chance at it,” Torgerson said about how the clash started. “We have a lot of pride in our special teams. Credit my teammates. They do all the dirty work and all I have to do is run with the ball. I knew that if I got it (the kickoff) I wanted to take it to the house.
“You just have to run down the field and try to not get caught. That’s the worst thing that can happen. It’s my last Copper Game. The atmosphere here was the best ever. We have the best fans in NAIA.”
Montana Tech led 31-7 at halftime. Montana Western played better in the second half and closed to within 31-21 behind the play of returning starting quarterback Michael Palandri.
Torgerson looked untouched on both, but said he thought a Bulldog did get a hand on him somewhere in the strides. Both returns were superbly designed. Both veered right and Torgerson deftly picked his way through the defenders while reading blocks. On the kickoff, a block at the 30-yard line set him free.
“Not a lot of people knew about Levi,” Samson said. “The whole country will know about No. 2, now.”
National special teams player-of-the-week recognition would not be a surprise.
Torgerson’s older brothers, Kody and Kyle, both played football for Montana Tech, too, and they were together for a short time in the program. Kody Torgerson is an assistant coach. He and Kyle both had to give up football for medical reasons and Levi said he missed playing with them, now plays for them.
Montana Tech led 31-7 at halftime. Montana Western played better in the second half and closed to within 31-21 behind the play of returning starting quarterback Michael Palandri.
Grad transfer running back Wykece Johnson, a previous member of the Mississippi State attack, bolted 74 yards for Montana Tech’s second touchdown and teased onlookers about what he may be capable of this fall against lesser opponents than Montana Western. His strong-guy carry of 16 yards for a first down late in the game likely iced the victory. He moved the pile. It was a mound. He finished with 167 yards on 24 totes.
Nashville recording artist Kyle Rife began the show with a guitar solo rendition of The National Anthem. It was the first hit of the night.
Montana Tech prof Rick LaDouceur, recipient of a prestigious national TRIO Award (for overcoming adversity to achieve excellence) flipped the coin and Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte oversaw the ceremony. The announcement of his presence failed to generate any applause from the crowd, a similar reaction to Gianforte’s previous attendance at Oredigger games.
Samson called Johnson’s touchdown one of the “most important” ones of the game and said he thought the prowess his offense showed was unexpected outside of the Montana Tech huddle and noted during the talk his team felt a bit disrespected by the preseason accolades given Montana Western leading up to the game. Torgerson mentioned, too, that the Orediggers played with a “chip on our shoulder” as the underdog to the Bulldogs.
“All we heard about was their offense,” Samson said. “I thought our offense played well today. It was a great effort by our defense, too.”
However, if Samson was looking for a solution to what might actually be a good problem to have at quarterback, more time will be needed for an answer to develop. Two QBs are in use, possibly auditioning for the No. 1 role.
“Both directed touchdown drives and neither turned the ball over,” he said about left-handed Jarrett Wilson from Polson and 6-foot-3 Jake Casagranda from Bozeman.
Both are sophomores. Wilson is more of a runner, scrambler and kept the defenses at bay rolling out to his right. Casagranda is more of a dropback passer type, similar to last year’s starter, Blake Thelen, who graduated out of the program.
Torgerson said it wasn’t a situation he or his teammates fretted about.
“Sometimes, we couldn’t tell (which QB was in the game),” he said about the quality of execution.
Montana Tech is at Carroll next Saturday while Montana Western will be home against Montana State-Northern. The season is off and running.
So is my 53rd year reporting on Montana sports. Thanks for reading.
