It was poetry in motion. A pick-six by Colorado Mesa University safety James White was the nail in the coffin to end the series of heartbreaks the Mavericks have experienced in the last three weeks.
CMU (2-2) was able to overcome three turnovers and 28 first downs by Chadron State College (1-3) to defeat the Eagles 42-30 in Chadron, Neb.
We all remember how the previous two games have gone down. The Mavericks would come back and either tie the ball game or get the lead in the forth but would eventually lose it on the last play. It happened against Eastern New Mexico, Western Colorado and then almost happened for the third time against Chadron.
The Eagles would try and come back from being down 35-23 in the fourth and after a Dalton Holst touchdown and a successful onside kick, one couldn’t help but have major deja vu.
“We knew we had to keep playing,” Head Coach Russ Martin said, “We knew they had the capability of being that kind of football team but the defense made the stop in four downs right afterward and that was really huge…I mean that was major…major huge.”
Aaron Howard got the start for the Mavericks but was eventually replaced by Hayden Bollinger in the second half. Howard left the game completing three passes for 118 yards and a touchdown. Bollinger went 9-22 for 151 yards, one TD, a pick and a rushing score as well. Out of the 12 total pass completions, Peter Anderson was at the end of six of them.
The senior wideout had over 100 yards receiving in the first quarter alone which was was highlighted by the 74-yard touchdown pass from Howard on the first drive of the game. Anderson finished the day with 164 total yards with the one score.
CMU’s lead wouldn’t last long as the Eagles would score a field goal and then a 13-yard touchdown run by Elijah Myles to start the second quarter. Eventually, after a CMU field goal and another CSC touchdown, Lucas Ruiz-Diaz would close out the first half with a career-long 51-yard field goal to make it 13-16.
Bollinger would command the offense in the second half and would command two crucial touchdowns drives. The second one was capped by tight end Dagan Reinks diving over a CSC defender into the endzone after a 23-yard pass from Bollinger that gave the Mavericks the 27-23 lead. It was Reinks’ second touchdown grab in two weeks.
“We’ve had a lot of crucial games in a row,” Martin said. “We got a lot of guys that are banged up and [Dagan’s] one of them. He just kept battling through it and played very well for us.”
Dalton Holst, who is the leading the entire RMAC in passing yards and touchdowns, threw three interceptions on Saturday against the CMU defense and Nick Ciccio snatched two of them. Ciccio’s second pick came at the most crucial time with 7:16 remaining in the game as the Eagles were trying to regain the lead but the redshirt sophomore grabbed it from Holst on the first play of the drive.
“The defense played very well in some very critical situations,” Head Coach Russ Martin said. “They gave us those scores and then came up with some huge stops. It was a good and very crucial win because that is not an easy place to play.”
After another drive that resulted in a loss of the downs, the Eagles would get the ball back off a fumble and drive 61 yards to come within five points after Holst’s only touchdown pass on the day. Chadron would then successfully recover their own onside kick but could not finish as the CMU defense forced another turnover on downs and then delivered the dagger with the second pick-six to cement the 42-30 victory.
Concerns moving forward is the CMU defense, who have allowed every team in the first four games to score 30 or more points. With Colorado Mines coming into town next week–the Orediggers average 42 points per game–the Mavericks must change their ways. The same defense did cause six turnovers so there is ground to build on in order to prepare for the best team in the RMAC.
The game against Mines will be on Oct. 5 at Stocker Stadium at 1 p.m.
