Nothing was short of stellar for the Colorado Mesa University football team on Saturday night against Fort Lewis in what ended up being a 40-14 route of the Skyhawks.
The story was once again the outstanding Maverick’s offense, which has yet to score under 24 points in a game this season. The high elusive offense of CMU put up 462 yards of total offense compared to Fort Lewis who struggled to produce 343 total yards.
The first quarter was a defensive shootout as CMU was held to three points and Fort Lewis was left with a goose-egg. It wasn’t until the second quarter to where the Mavericks started to pick up the pace and score 16 points in the second highlighted by Daryl Hawkins touchdown run as well as Vernel Moon’s spectacular catch in the end zone to put the Mavericks up 19-0.
The second half was all Mavericks as the stone-wall defense of CMU did not allow Fort Lewis to cross the 50-yard line until late in the fourth quarter. Salum produced the most athletic play of the game in the form of his 32-yard touchdown run in the third quarter right after his second touchdown pass to Moon.
Brett Ojiyi would put the nail in the coffin with a 16-yard touchdown run of his own to put CMU up 40-0.
Eystin Salum proved once again why is he one of the most athletic players in NCAA Division II football as the highly talented quarterback went 10-18 for 212 yards and two touchdowns in the air as well as 164 yards and one touchdown on the ground.
“We did what we were supposed to do,” Salum said. “Came out and handled an opponent that we should’ve handled.”
Despite the similar numbers from Salum, the tale of the tape is a complete 180 on the receiving end. Starters in the past three games were sidelined for Saturday’s game and the other talents on the roster got their chance to shine.
That specific call was answered by return man Virnel Moon. Moon had a RMAC player of the week worthy performance as the senior had six receptions for 134 yards and two touchdowns.
Moon absolutely showed up out of nowhere, where before tonight’s game he only had 57 yards receiving. Josh Brown and Marcus Hines did not make a single catch in this game nor did they play any significant amount of snaps.
Before the third quarter, Salum did not complete a pass to any receiver other than Moon.
Penalties were also another huge positive for CMU because, before tonight, they averaged 12 penalties for 105 yards per game. Tonight they only had three for 25 yards.
“I was much more happy with the reduction of penalties this week,” Head coach Russ Martin said. “We had better focus.”
The CMU defense was also another tale of the tape in which contributed of the demolition of Fort Lewis on Saturday. Bo Coleman, the quarterback of Fort Lewis, was completely shut down against a fast-paced CMU defense. Coleman threw 16-23 for 132 yards and no touchdowns. The Mavericks constantly portrayed a wave of maroon helmets in which only held the Skyhawks to zero points through three-quarters of play.
It wasn’t until all the starters of the CMU defense were removed for the Skyhawks to come even close to the end zone.
The Skyhawks would respond with two touchdowns against the second string CMU defense to cut the score down to 40-14.
CMU has their toughest test of the season next week when they travel down to CSU-Pueblo where the game will be featured on ESPN3. The Mavericks will have a chance to show just how good they are against the former national champs who they barely escaped last season.
“If Pueblo wants us they got us,” Martin said. “We’re coming and we’re coming full strength right at them.”
The Mavericks beat the Thunderwolves last season in a 20-19 thriller and the game left a lot of doubters despite the victory. CMU will look to once again, ‘Leave No Doubt,’ against the Thunderwolves down in Pueblo on Sept. 30 on ESPN3.
