It was an emotional Saturday at Stocker Stadium.
The recent passing of Brett Ojiyi from Friday night came as a shock to many in the Colorado Mesa University community, especially the football team. Despite the circumstances and the emotional toll the team had to endure even before the game began, the Mavericks battled to the very end but came up short 38-34 against Chadron State College (CSC) in an offensive shootout.
“Brett has been a very good player for us the last couple of years,” Head Coach Russ Martin said. “It is a very unfortunate and tragic incident with his death. We’ve got to just put things back together for us, life continues to go on but I told the guys you can’t pretend it didn’t happen either. Anytime you have someone who is that close to you as a teammate or a family member, it’s gonna have an effect.”
This game would turn out to be an offensive showcase filled with highlight-reel plays and record-breaking performances.
Peter Anderson had the game of his career as the junior wide receiver broke the school record for most receiving yards in a single game. Anderson caught 11 passes for 266 yards and two touchdowns. The 13-year record was set back in 2005 by Drew Bohannan who had 212 yards receiving against Western Washington.
“Today he showed exactly what he can do,” Russ Martin said. “I just can’t say enough about the young man.
Anderson’s first score came on the very first play of scrimmage as Eystin Salum hit Anderson on a 75-yard bomb to give the Mavericks the early 7-0 lead. Chadron would reply with a touchdown of their own the very next drive to tie the game 7-7.
“As a whole team, I feel like we got some things to work on,” Anderson said. “First thing is discipline, that is one of the reasons why we lost today.”
The Eagles and the Mavericks would trade scores before Salum would find Anderson again for another beautiful touchdown pass, this was from 45 yards out of the end zone, and CMU would regain the 17-14 lead.
Salum then got his third touchdown pass of the first half with 4:29 left in the second via a six-yard floater to Alex Powell to extend the lead to 24-10. It was Salum’s first 300-yard passing game of the season and by far his best performance under center in his senior year.
“It was an emotional day for us obviously and we came out and played our hearts out,” Salum said. “We just came out here to play.”
Salum finished the day going 22-34 for 352 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. He also rushed for 42 yards and an additional touchdown.
Chadron would come out of the locker room and score 24 second-half points against a Maverick defense that has struggled with giving up leads in the last couple of weeks.
Eagles quarterback Dalton Hoist would throw a 29-yard touchdown pass to cap off the first drive of the third quarter. Both CMU and CSC would exchange field goals to eventually head into the fourth with the Mavericks leading 27-24.
In the fourth, the Eagles would get their first lead of the game after a quick nine-play 75-yard drive capped by a Kevin Coy Jr. three-yard dive into the end zone. The Mavericks offense would respond four minutes later as Salum would get a three-yard touchdown run of his own.
CMU would not keep the lead for long, however, as Dalton Hoist would lead Chadron on a final impressive drive to regain the 38-34 lead after a 35-yard dagger to Jackson Dickerson.
The Mavericks would get one final shot with 59 seconds remaining but it would end in an interception inside the red zone after Salum and the CMU offense would get within 25 yards of scoring.
“I guess I forced it,” Salum said. “I didn’t really need to try and force it into a tight window, I could’ve just kept rolling out or done something else and live to play another down especially with you only have 25 seconds left.”
The loss would be CMU’s first of the year and it comes at the break of a challenging month of football for the Mavericks as they will travel to Colorado School of Mines next week to play against the undefeated Hardrockers. Mines knocked off CSU-Pueblo two weeks ago and then defeated New Mexico Highlands 43-14 on Saturday.
Last year CMU defeated Colorado Mines 38-36 on the very last play with a game-winning 33-yard field goal in what was one of the most memorable games of the season.
