Huot leads No. 14 Saints to first round victory

Nov. 23—HELENA — Kaden Huot threw for 166 yards and four touchdowns in 14th-seeded Carroll College's 42-35 victory over No. 17 St. Thomas (Fla.) in the NAIA Football Championship Series on Saturday afternoon at Nelson Stadium.

Saints (9-2) running back Peter Minnaert led all rushers with 115 rushes and one score. Four different receivers caught touchdown passes for the Saints.

Bobcats' (7-4) receiver Jaden Fox Harri hauled in eight catches for 136 yards and one touchdown. Quarterback Keely Watson completed 34 of 61 pass attempts and threw for 381 yards, two scores, and three interceptions.

After an early punt on the first drive of the game, the Saints forced a three-and-out and Huot found Carson Ochoa for a 12-yard touchdown strike early in the first quarter. Ochoa finished with four catches for 33 yards.

St. Thomas responded with a 27-yard field goal from Zach Alvarez at the 4:25 mark in the first period, bringing the score to 7-3 heading into the second quarter.

Huot threw his second touchdown pass to Lincoln Homles to extend the Saints lead to 14-3 with 8:50 remaining in the second quarter.

The Bobcats changed momentum after they took a 17-14 lead after Watson found Fox Harri for a 51-yard touchdown, and Keely Watson rushed in a 10-yard touchdown.

With less than a minute remaining in the first half, Connor Sullivan returned a kickoff 65 yards for the Saints, setting up a touchdown pass to Chris Akulschin from Huot to take a 21-17 lead into halftime.

Minnaert extended Carroll's lead with a 16-yard touchdown run with 4:58 remaining in the third quarter.

Bobcats' receiver David Hayes caught a 9-yard touchdown pass to cut into the lead 25-28 in the beginning of the fourth quarter. Hayes finished with seven catches for 89 yards.

From that moment, Carroll went on a 14-0 run late in the final period. Xzavier Ford punched in a one-yard score, and Ty Wilkinson caught Huot's fourth touchdown pass with an 11-yard strike.

St. Thomas ended the game on a 10-0 run, but Carroll recovered an onside kick to end the game.

Carroll now travels to Butte next week to face unbeaten No. 3 seed Montana Tech in a Frontier Conference showdown in the NAIA Football Championship Series second round.

Elsewhere in the first round of the playoffs, No. 13 seed William Penn (Iowa) defeated No. 20 Texas Wesleyan. No. 15 Southeastern (Fla.) downed No. 19 Reinhardt (Ga.) 24-22 and 16th-seeded Saint Francis (Ind.) bested Evangel (Mo.) 13-12. Second round matchups are scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 29.