DILLON - The Carroll College football team stands alone.

The No. 2 Saints (9-0 conference, 10-0 overall) clinched the outright Frontier Conference title for the 10th straight year, fighting through illness and a wicked wind at Vigilante Field to beat UM-Western 26-10 on Saturday.

"This team, I'm so proud of them," Saints head coach Mike Van Diest said. "We have a lot of great players and while we don't have the national player of the year or the conference player of the year - and we don't get the player of the week very often - we do have the team of the week and the team of the year.

"I'm very proud of this junior and senior class."

With the cold and flu season ravaging the team's ranks, the Saints needed an assortment of players to step into starting roles. Junior center Andy Fjeseth, fighting the flu, started for about a series before giving way to Nick Petrusha. Meanwhile, senior running back Gabe Le added kickoffs to his multiple duties, replacing Tom Yaremko.

"Last night we talked about ... it's not about who isn't here, it's about who is here," Van Diest said. "Guys like Lat Wipplinger and Chance Demarais and Petrusha, all the guys that stepped up and played did a tremendous, tremendous job."

With two starting receivers - juniors Christian Prosperie and Corey Peterson - absent because of illness, junior quarterback Gary Wagner turned much of his attention to a few standbys, namely junior tight end Bubba Bartlett and the running backs.

Bartlett, who fought through a few flu-like symptoms of his own - finished with a team-high five receptions for 85 yards and two touchdowns. But the big surprises came from Demarais and Wipplinger. Demarais, who powered his way to 89 yards and a touchdown on just eight carries, also added his first touchdown ever through the air on a 2-yard boot play. Following Bartlett's 15-yard TD catch on Carroll's first drive of the game, Demarais' score put the Saints up 14-0 with 1:03 left in the first half.

"It's nice getting that first one under your belt," Demarais said. "I just had to chip the guy that was blitzing and get into the open."

Wagner was particularly proud of the play, having stolen Demarais' first chance at a receiving touchdown earlier in the season.

"It really felt good," Wagner said of the end zone completion. "We ran that same play at Rocky and I ended up running it in even though Chance was wide open."

Western answered with a 49-yard drive capped by a 36-yard field goal by Mackenzie Crossley to finish out the half. Despite having one of the top passing offenses in the country - the Bulldogs averaged 255.1 yards passing per game heading into the contest - Western completed just one pass in the first half and finished with 125 yards in the game.

Starting quarterback Micah Mamiya completed 11 of 22 passes with one interception. Backup Jeff Logan didn't complete either of his two pass attempts.

Montana Tech 24, Rocky Mountain 14

At Butte, Montana Tech's bend-but-don't-break defense and a big-play touchdown sparked the Orediggers to a 24-14 Frontier Conference college football win over Rocky Mountain College.

Rocky Mountain had the ball for 105 plays - 67 passes, 33 runs and five punts - and amassed 458 yards in total offense, including 361 yards worth of pass-and-catches between star quarterback Kasey Peters and his corps of receivers. The Bears collected 25 first downs to eight by Montana Tech (5-3, 6-3.)

Montana Tech quarterback Matt Komac found J.T. McIntyre crossing on a long-developing play for the game's first touchdown - a 92-yard shocker to give Rocky Mountain's defense another fret to think about.

Rocky Mountain (1-7, 2-7) answered with a 5-yard TD pass from Peters to Brian Guisti before Komac sneaked into the end zone from a yard away. The Orediggers led 21-7 at halftime after Skyler Knuchel crashed across the goal line from the 3-yard line in the second quarter. The Bears busted a big-play run right after intermission as Michael Thomas went the distance from 48 yards away. Sean Kelly, perfect on his three extra-point kicks, poked the final points of the game through with a 23-yard field goal for Montana Tech later in the third quarter.