BUTTE, Mont. -- The No. 15-ranked Montana Tech football team cruised to a 38-0 victory over Frontier Conference rival Rocky Mountain College Saturday afternoon on Bob Green Field.

It was the second-consecutive shutout for the Oredigger defense, the first time since 1939 a Montana Tech football team accomplished that feat.

Blake Thelen quarterbacked Tech to victory, going 18-for-25 from the pocket for 336 yards and four touchdowns. Two of those scores went to fellow Great Falls product Levi Torgerson, whose four catches totaled 68 yards. Nick Michelotti led the Oredigger receiving corps with three catches for 95 yards and a touchdown, while Landers Smith led the ground attack with 83 yards on 19 carries and a TD of his own.

Cole Wyant led the Digger D with nine tackles, while fellow linebacker Matt Whitcomb made two tackles-for-loss.

Montana Tech (6-2, 3-2 Frontier Conference) took control from the opening drive. The Orediggers took just seven plays from scrimmage to find the end zone. Facing third down early on, Thelen found Michelotti for a 41-yard gain to put the Orediggers in Rocky territory, and an 18-yard Torgerson run got Tech into the red zone. Thelen then found Logan Kennedy, again on third down, for a 20-yard touchdown. Dylan Root's extra point made it 7-0 Tech at the 12:03 mark in the first.

After the Montana Tech defense forced the Battlin' Bears to punt, the Digger offense again went to work. Deep in its own territory, Tech again converted on third down, a Thelen to Wyatt Alexander connection for 23 yards to get the drive moving. Later in the drive, Thelen found Kennedy on fourth-and-8 for a key first down and capped off the drive with a 4-yard strike to Torgerson for a two-score lead. Montana Tech held that advantage to lead 14-0 after the first quarter.

Thelen engineered another long Tech drive on its first possession of the second. Starting at the home 15, the quarterback hit Kennedy again for a 24-yard first down and later hit Smith and Derek Pearse for first-down completions that put the Diggers inside the Rocky 5. Smith put the game squarely in the Orediggers' grasp with a 2-yard touchdown run, and Root's kick made it 21-0.

Tech drove twice more in the quarter, both of which ended in touchdowns. With 3:24 left until halftime, Thelen completed a 20-yard TD pass to Torgerson, their second scoring hookup of the game, and Tech executed a two-minute drill late in the half to make it 35-0 on a 42-yard strike from Thelen to Alexander.

After Rocky Mountain drove down the field on the opening possession of the third, the Oredigger defense held on fourth-and-8 at its own 35 thanks to a key Payton Gonser pass breakup. Tech made use of the stop, pushing upfield to set up a 28-yard field goal from Root's right foot.

Tech's defense took care of the rest, stopping four more Rocky Mountain drives to preserve the shutout. 

Montana Tech will hit the road Saturday for a 7 p.m. kickoff at Arizona Christian as the Frontier schedule continues.

Visit Montana Tech athletics' home online, GoDiggers.com, anytime for up-to-the-minute news and coverage of the Orediggers. Give Montana Tech athletics a like on Facebook, and follow the Orediggers on X at @MTechDiggers.