BUTTE -- For the second straight season, the Montana Tech football team will wear the Frontier Conference East Division crown.
The fifth-ranked Orediggers clinched the championship and the automatic qualifier to the NAIA Football Championship Series with a dominant 59-16 home victory over Dickinson State Saturday.
Quarterback Jarrett Wilson doled out four touchdown passes, and Merek Mihelish rushed for 101 yards and a score of his own to power the Montana Tech offense. Max Hannum led the defensive unit with seven tackles, including one for a loss.
Saturday was a clinic from the Orediggers from the opening kickoff. Wilson captained a nine-play, 81-yard drive on the first possession of the game. The Blue Hawks looked to stop Tech's first threat until Jamal Cariglia popped out of the pile on a fourth-and-1 at midfield and scampered 17 yards to the Tech 45.
After Mihelish's 29-yard run and an 18-yard connection from Wilson to Levi Torgerson put the Orediggers (9-1, 5-0 Frontier East) on the doorstep, Cariglia finished the job with a one-yard touchdown run.
Dickinson State (5-6, 4-2) responded with a 29-yard field goal, but Montana Tech quickly regained the momentum. On just the third play from scrimmage, Wilson targeted Manu Melo over top of the Blue Hawk defense for a 75-yard touchdown pass.
The Tech defense allowed just two more first downs in the first half, and the offense handled the rest.
A Mihelish 53-yard run; Wilson touchdown passes to Nick Michelotti, Levi Torgerson, and another to Melo; and a Casey Kautzman 31-yard field goal put the Orediggers squarely in front, 45-3, at halftime.
Tech did not slow down in the second half. Mihelish took to the air to find Jaxan Lieberg and Colby Martinez for third-quarter touchdowns as the home team cruised to victory.
Torgerson finished with a game-best eight receptions for 100 yards and the touchdown, and Melo totaled 120 yards on just three catches, including his two trips to the end zone.
The victory clinched Montana Tech's 15th conference championship in program history and the team's second in as many years. With the win, the Orediggers wrapped up the Frontier East's automatic bid to the NAIA Football Championship Series.
Montana Tech will take a trip to Valley City State next week to wrap up the regular season.
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Montana Technological University
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