Box Score
HELENA — It seems like Matt Ritter saves his best for his hometown team.
The Butte Central product scored three touchdowns Saturday afternoon to lead defending NAIA national champion Carroll College to a 28-14 Senior Day victory over Montana Tech at Nelson Stadium.
Ritter, a senior receiver, scored on a pair of 2-yard runs and a 42-yard reception to lead the Saints (9-1, 8-1) to their eighth straight win and at least a share of the Frontier Conference title.
“I don't care about the three touchdowns or the individual success,” Ritter said. “The team effort, the team win is what my main focus is, and that's what the team's focus is.”
The No. 3 Saints beat the Orediggers for the 16th straight time. The Saints are 21-1 against the Orediggers dating back to 2001.
Ritter's scoring runs came when he lined up as quarterback in the Wildcat offense.
His TD reception was a back-breaker.
Ritter ran a post rout and caught a perfectly-thrown pass by Dane Broadhead for the 42-yard score on third and 19 midway through the second quarter.
That made it 14-0 Carroll on the possession after Tech saw the tying touchdown slip threw its hands.
The Orediggers faked a 27-yard field goal with 14:31. The play failed because of a dropped Trent Thomas pass in the back of the end zone.
Twelve plays later, Ritter was in the end zone for the Saints.
“I got an outside leverage corner, and it was just a post into the
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middle of the field,” Ritter said. “Lat (Wipplinger), he took the two safeties out of the field. They both jumped him and left the field wide open. Dane just put the ball right on the money, just like he always does. He's a stud.”
Tech coach Chuck Morrell said that score was hard to swallow.
“We knew what the play was before it was run,” the coach said. “We've got to be able to execute in that situation. That made a big difference in the game.
“We had some big opportunities. We really could have put it in a situation where it was 7-7 at half.”
Instead, the Orediggers trailed by two TDs at the break.
The Saints took the second-half kickoff and marched 78 yards on nine plays to make it 21-0.
Ritter's second touchdown run capped the drive that saw Rinker run for 64 yards on five carries.
Rinker, a redshirt freshman, ran for a career-high 171 yards. All but 17 came in the second half after Chance Demarais, the Frontier Conference's leading rusher, left the game with a knee injury.
“I'm a little disappointed how we started out of the gate in the second half,” Morrell said.
The Saints struck quick to make it 28-0.
One play after Rinker broke free for a 66-yard run, Dakota Stonehouse came in and hit Drew Clausen for a 20-yard touchdown with 6:32 left in the third quarter.
At that point, the Orediggers were 54-0 by the Saints on the season.
It wasn't reason for the Orediggers to give up, though.
“They didn't get rattled, they weren't intimidated,” Morrell said of his team that battled until the very last play. “They came out and played as hard as I've seen them play all year.”
Sophomore quarterback Nick Baker scored on touchdown runs of 3 and 6 yards to make things interesting.
Time wasn't on Tech's side, though, and the Saints ended the game when Ted Morigeau picked off a tipped pass and returned it 51 yards to the Oredigger 9-yard line with 1:12 left in the game.
“We don't go through the motions,” Morrell said. “Guys know that every snap that they're on the field is valuable. You never know how many in your life you're going to get, and you've got to take advantage of every one.
“That's a mind set of our team, and in the long run it's going to lead to great things.”
Ritter said he wasn't surprised that Tech went down swinging.
“We knew that they were going to come hard every play,” he said. “ Coach (Mike) Van Diest told us that we need to match their intensity and push forward.
“They're a great team and we knew we were going to get a great game from them.”
The Orediggers fell to 2-8 overall and 1-8 in the Frontier. They were left with yet another week of wondering what might have been had a handful of plays went differently.
“I told our guys after we got done here that the deference between being a championship-caliber team and being where we're at, the line is so small,” Morrell said. “You've got to be able to execute and make plays whenever you've got the opportunity.
“In that facet, right now they're better than us.”
Broadhead, one of 21 seniors the Saints honored before kickoff, threw for 133 yards on 12 of 19 passing.
Ritter caught a team-leading five passes for 76 yards.
“I couldn't have done it without the O-line pushing ahead for those sneaks into the end zone or giving Dane time to just sit back there and throw the ball where he wants to,” Ritter said. “It's great to see him have success and doing what we know he's capable of because he's a stud.”
Demarais ran for 53 yards on 11 carries before leaving with the injury.
Tech freshman Pat Hansen ran for 82 yards on 18 carries.
That total included a run of about 30 yards that was called back by a hold.
“Pat had some tremendous runs today,” Morrell said.
Hansen has 1,046 yards on the season, unofficially.
Baker completed 20 of 39 passes for 147 yards.
He hit Thomas nine times for 5 yards. Hansen caught four passes for 34 yards, while Craig Halko caught three passes and Corey Eisenzimer hauled in two.
James Roberts and Phil Antonioli also caught passes.
Defensively, senior linebacker had another Monster day for the Orediggers, racking up 14 tackles — 10 solo.
Last week's Frontier Conference Defensive Player of the Week also had a pair of tackles for a loss and a pass defense to his credit.
Jake Helbling and Nathan Kobold were both credited with 11 tackles, while Mike Waldman had eight and Marcus Johnson registered seven.
Jacob Workman had a sack.
“I'm very proud of our guys,” Morrell said. “They fought their behinds off. They kept it alive and kept coming every snap. I can't fault them for effort.”
Sean Bomquist, David Simmons and Rahkeem Harris each had sacks for the Saints.
Mike Siegersma and Stetson Koffman also got in on a sack for Carroll.
The Saints will likely move up in the national poll because No. 2 Marian beat No. 1 Saint Xavier Saturday.
Carroll closes out the regular season against MSU-Northern in Havre next week.
Then the Saints will likely begin another playoff run at home.
Saturday, the Saints honored their seniors like another home game isn't guaranteed.
“It's great to be able to go out on a win against a hometown team,” Ritter said. “I couldn't ask for anything better for Senior Day.”
The Orediggers will hold their Senior Day next Saturday when they play host to Montana Western at noon at Alumni Coliseum.
