The Mavericks returned to Stocker Stadium following a heartbreaking loss last week against CSU-Pueblo. They faced a familiar opponent in the form of Black Hills State who last year, ended their undefeated season. This year it was a different story as the Mavericks walked away with a 49-37 victory.
This week the story was much different for the Mavericks and their offense compared to last week’s loss. Colorado Mesa University’s offense, lead by quarterback Eystin Salum, exploded for 21 points in the first quarter. All three touchdowns occurred in drives in which took less than three minutes to score.
“We got a lot of threats,” running back David Tann said. “We got explosive players and at anytime anything can pop.”
The Mavericks lead the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference in points scored in the amount of possession they concur during games this season.
Salum lead the charge once again by completing two of the first three touchdowns via pass and on the ground for the third. The first touchdown pass was a 40-yard strike to Peter Anderson on the first drive of the game and the second pass was to Justin Brown who scored on a 15-yard pass play.
Salum finished the game throwing 15-27 for 275 yards and three touchdowns while adding 84 yards and another touchdown on the ground.
The Yellow Jackets would respond with two touchdowns of their own in the second quarter as quarterback Ryan Hommel lead the Yellow Jackets to two consecutive scores. Hommel completed 40 passes for 460 yards and two touchdowns, as well as running for a touchdown on the ground.
It wasn’t long before the Maverick offense responded with 21 unanswered points of their own.
David Tann made his own highlight-reel play with a 49-yard run late in the first half to give the Mavericks the 28-10 lead. Virnel Moon would receive another touchdown pass from Salum with 29 seconds remaining in the second quarter to allow the Mavericks to go into halftime with a 35-14 lead.
“Overall I thought it was a good way for the team to bounce back this week,” Tann said. “I’m happy with the way we performed but we gotta get back to practice to polish some things up this next week.”
Tann ended up exiting midway through the third to allow other running backs to receive some repetitions. Tann would rack up 87 yards and a touchdown off of only nine carries.
Defensively the team was lead by Defensive end Blake Nelson who achieved 3.5 sacks along with eight tackles on Saturday; he also blocked a kick against Black Hills State in the second quarter. Nelson has five total sacks on the season.
The second half consisted of Salum eluding Yellow Jackets left and right and the junior quarterback capped off his night with two more touchdown runs.
BHS, despite being down 49-17, did not go quietly as the Yellow Jackets took advantage of the Maverick starters being pulled off the field and BHS would score 20 unanswered points to attempt a comeback late in the game.
The Mavericks have allowed more points in the fourth quarter than any other period of the game this season.
“We gotta control the things we can control,” Head coach Russ Martin said. “We gotta get off the field defensively but we had chances offensively to put them away and we gotta take advantage of that.”
Despite the second half push by BHS, the Mavericks would eventually seal the 49-37 win and improve to 5-1 on the season and remain undefeated at home.
CMU currently sits at second in the RMAC behind CSU-Pueblo but will look to gain a game back when they travel to Dixie State on Oct. 14 to take on the Trail Blazers from St.George, Utah.
