At least for the first week, change has been good for the Montana-State Northern football team.

The Northern Lights knocked off Dickinson State by a convincing 32-17 score on Saturday. The Blue Hawks were an NAIA playoff participant last year, before falling to Carroll College.

The Lights have some experience with 43 lettermen returning, but there are also 60 new players on the squad this year.

"There aren't 60 new freshman, but there are 60 new faces and they will address needs in terms of what we had to do to get better," said second-year coach Mark Samson.

The Northern offense will once again be in the hands of Samson's son Mark, who had 217 yards passing in Saturday's contest.

The younger Samson has had great success running the option in the past, but he will be asked to put the ball in the air more this season.

"We have adopted the philosophy of doing most things out of the spread looks and shotgun," Samson said. "Our offense will be pretty wide open. We are not just an option team. We will keep the option in our offensive package, but we will be more of a spread team."

The Lights, however, will have a solid running back core in former Capital standout Don Saisbury as well as Zach Wermers, a transfer from Montana State and Saxton Sheer, who redshirted last season.

Saisbury should get most of the work, but Samson said that Northern will likely give a lot of carries to both Wermers and Scheer.

"I think our depth is better by far than last year," he said. "If Donny carries the ball 10 times and has three or four catches that may be all he has to do."

Up front on both sides of the ball will be a key for the Lights. Offensively they will be helped by the arrival of Scott Church, from Shasta Junior College. Russ Hilton should be a standout on the offensive line

Defensively Mason Ophus, a Big Sandy native comes to Havre after transferring from Montana State.

Another new comer will be former Helena High product Cory Sitch, who will start at outside linebacker.

The defensive backfield will be anchored by two Capital alumni, Marc Samson and Jake Eldridge. Both also will see time at wide receiver as well. Eldridge caught a touchdown pass in Saturday's win over Dickinson State.

The Lights will be in action this weekend, when they face the University of Montana-Western in Dillon.