Nov. 15, 2004
Associated Press
The Carroll College and Montana Tech football teams are headed to North Dakota next weekend for their first-round games in the NAIA playoffs.
Carroll (8-2) was ranked ninth in the final poll and plays at No. 7 Mary (9-1) next Saturday. Carroll advances to the playoffs for the fifth straight year after claiming the league's automatic playoff berth. Carroll won the tiebreaker among the Saints, Tech and Western, after all three teams posted 6-2 records.
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"Mary has a tremendous program and a good reputation," said Carroll coach Mike Van Diest, who led his teams to the 2002 and 2003 national titles.
No. 13 Montana Tech (8-3) received an at-large bid and will play at No. 5 Dickinson State (9-1).
"We're pretty lucky," said Tech coach Bob Green. "We were on the bubble."
Tech's last trip to the playoffs was in 1997, when it advanced to the second round. Tech has struggled with injuries and won just seven games over the previous two seasons.
Mary is the DAC-10 regular-season champion. Its only loss was 27-24 to Jamestown College on Oct. 9.
The only common opponent between Mary and Carroll is Rocky Mountain College. The Marauders beat the Bears 17-3 to start the season in a game in Miles City. Carroll beat Rocky 31-0 and 35-9 in conference play.
Montana Tech and Dickinson State have two common opponents, Montana State-Northern and Jamestown. Dickinson State beat Northern 34-0 in its season opener and beat Jamestown 21-20 on Oct. 23.
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