By Bruce Sayler
Rocky Mountain tried to score from second on a short single, but Jace Thompson blocked the plate.
Rocky Mountain tried to back out into the street, but Jace Thompson blocked the driveway.
Rocky Mountain tried for a diagonal three to win a game of Tic Tac Toe, but Jace Thompson blocked the corner.
None of the above is true, of course, but what Jace Thompson, a Montana Tech senior safety, did block Saturday was a Rocky Mountain extra-point attempt and a field goal try, contributing to the Orediggers’ 34-23 Frontier Conference college football victory over the Bears on Bob Green Field.
(Game story on full stats are available on Montana Tech’s godiggers.com Web site)
Oh, the 5-foot-10, 190-pound senior from Fort Benton, had help from his Montana Tech teammates. Naming a few, Justin Webber intercepted two passes – including a pick-six, Cole Graham recovered a fumble and Kellan Beller picked off a pass, and sophomore Jarrett Wilson took all the quarterback snaps in the winning effort, and grad transfer running back Wykece Johnson scored one touchdown while gaining 139 yards on 27 carries despite sitting out a couple possessions with an injury.
It healed, he returned and provided the team with an obvious morale boost, even though backup Nate Milanowski turned in a credible performance himself.
The rarity, though, weighted Thompson’s two blocked kicks. One block a game is pretty rare, two by the same player is almost unheard of college level or above games. He was tapped for the Montana Tech “Player of the Game” award.
He almost denied the accomplishment in postgame conversation.
“It was just the gameplan,” he said about blocking kicks. “We have great special teams coaches. And we have a great defensive line that let me get through and make a play.”
He knows, so the statement is surely accurate. But, he did it twice.
The blocked extra point was after the Orediggers built a 20-0 lead on two Casey Kautzman field goals – 20 and 42 yards – a 1-yard TD burrow by Milanowski and Webber’s 36-yard pick-six before the Bears got on the scoreboard. Darius Haskin caught a 19-yard TD pass from much-harassed QB Trent Norbach. Thompson smothered Austin Drake’s PAT try.
Montana Tech bounced back with a 6-yard TD pass from the left-handed and frequent pocket escapee Wilson to Nick Michelotti before Drake put three points up on the Rocky Mountain side, adding up to a 27-9 halftime bulge favoring the Orediggers.
The Bears made some adjustments at the intermission and crept to within 27-23 of Montana Tech in the only close part of the game since the earliest moments. Brock Ping’s 62-yard burst right after kickoff and a two-point carry on conversion cut the Oredigger lead to 27-17 and then Haskin hauled in another scoring pass, this one a 60-yard getaway, and the extra-point kick missed.
Johnson, recently of Mississippi State, returned to the Oredigger offense and keyed a drive that ended in him plunging into the end zone from 3 yards out for a lead increase to 34-23.
The score stood to the end, but the Orediggers had to thwart a couple of Rocky Mountain drives in the last quarter to keep order. Thompson’s field-goal block at the Montana Tech 18-yard line was one. Later, Webber picked off Luke Holcomb at the Montana Tech 6-yard line. Holcomb had subbed in for Norbach, who absorbed enough of a beating from the Oredigger pass rush to be sent to the sidelines with what looked could be sore ribs.
In between, Beller stopped Bears running back Dylan Flatt a yard short on fourth-and-three at the Rocky Mountain 42.
The route for Thompson’s second block was similar to the first, he said. He noted that after his first block, the Bears changed their alignment to plug the gap, which he noticed on Rocky Mountain’s first placekick after the foiled extra point. They kept him away.
However, on the late field goal, somebody new was in the lineup and he apparently didn’t get the memo.
So, where Thompson found success the first time, he did again.
“They had a different tight end on my side,” he said.
Thompson pointed out his special teams coach in the crowd on the field after the game and said, “Kody Torgerson drawing up plays is why the blocks.”
The short Rocky Mountain comeback after halftime was of concern, but not fear for the Orediggers. They found themselves digging and scrapping in a physical game that seemed to need delay-of-game penalties for both the media and officiating crew at times. Interruptions were so frequent, fitting in commercials and sorting out infractions. Montana Tech was flagged 14 times, costing 158 yards. Rocky Mountain lost 69 yards on seven penalties. Kyle Samson, Orediggers head coach, will be working his team to improve in the discipline area.
The crowd was good, though, full in the bleachers with others meandering the grounds even though the Bobcats and Grizzlies were both playing home games at the same time, boating was still in play at area lakes and archery season had begun.
“We made some mistakes, but they didn’t matter,” Thompson offered and grimaced and dismissed as he kept his attention on the just-completed game. “The fourth quarter, we didn’t play so well, but we didn’t fall apart, either. Not all wins are pretty, but a win’s a win.”
Samson agreed with a sideline assessment that the team’s resolve was tested and it aced the exam, a big win that required the Orediggers to scrap and deny and wound up being up to the grinding task.
“Yes, sir,” he replied with emphasis.
Montana Tech has a rematch scheduled with Rocky Mountain November 1 in Billings.
Thompson could relax, feeling relief in victory.
“Being 3-and-0 feels great,” he said. “A lot of guys (outside the team) didn’t think we could be, but here we are.”
The Orediggers are also ranked 11th nationally in NAIA and are looking at a conference road game at Southern Oregon in Ashland, Oregon, next Saturday.
Rocky Mountain is 0-2 this season and will hold its homecoming game next Saturday against Montana Western.
