WALESKA, Georgia—Montana Tech's remarkable 10-game winning streak and run in the NAIA FCS was brought to an end by No. 3 Reinhardt (Ga.) Saturday afternoon, 27-0.

The Orediggers who finish the 2016 season with a 10-2 overall record and a Frontier Conference Championship struggled to find a rhythm on offense with both Quinn McQueary and Nolan Saraceni not in action.

Montana Tech amassed just 231 yards of offense on the day and turned the ball over three times in the defeat. The Eagles ground attack was limited by the Oredigger defense to just 191 rushing yards on the day, well below their 380-plus yard average. The Diggers also held Reinhardt to just 4-of-11 on third down. 

"Not having Quinn and Nolan back there really hurt us, but I thought our defense was incredible all day long. Especially holding a team like that to one offensive score through three quarters." Said Head Coach Chuck Morrell.


The first quarter was a back-and-forth affair that saw the Diggers and Eagles both head to the second quarter scoreless. In the second frame the Eagles jumped out to a 14-0 lead after Gordon Dudley caught a touchdown pass from Ryan Thompson and Reinhardt returned an interception 80 yards for a score.

The Eagles scored two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter on L.J. Stegall runs.

Braden Feisthamel led the Orediggers rushing for 52 yards on 17 carries. Dion Williams and Mitchell Keeton led Montana Tech in receiving with 61 and 52 yards respectively.

Defensively, the Diggers were led by senior Eddie Smith who had a team-high 10 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss and Zach Hulse who registered seven. Frontier Conference Defensive Player of the Year Gunnar Kayser had five tackles. 

"Our seniors took our team from 1-9 to back-to-back Frontier Conference Championships and to the second round of the NAIA playoffs twice. I'm really proud of that group of guys and love the heck out of them." added Coach Morrell.