For the third consecutive year, the Maverick will have their name associated with the title “Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Champions.” After a long road trip to South Dakota, it was no question who the most dominant team is in the RMAC was after a 69-7 victory.
The Colorado Mesa University football team brought their winning streak to Rapid City, S.D., and swept the floor with South Dakota Mines (SDM).
Offensively, the Mavericks continue to be the best scoring offense in the country. In the past five weeks, the CMU offense has scored 300 points. A grand total of 216 of those points have come within the previous three weeks alone.
“We’ve had some big-time blowout games.” Head coach Russ Martin said, “I’m pleased with how our guys are competing, how they are getting ready to play and how they are performing on the field.”
On Saturday, the Mavericks continued their domination right of the bat as junior Corbin Covey scored off a blocked punt by Matt Sorenson. That would be the only quarter in the game CMU did not score on offense.
David Tann scored the first offensive touchdown of the day with a one-yard run after a second blocked SDM punt, which gave the Mavericks field position inside the red zone.
CMU would then score two more touchdowns to go up 31-0 before SDM responded with their only points of the day in form of a 24-yard touchdown pass from freshman quarterback Thomas Creese.
Eystin Salum would take away the Hardrockers only sense of hope almost instantly as on the very first play of the next drive, Salum completed a 75-yard touchdown pass to Virnel Moon to go into halftime up 38-7.
Salum ended his day being pulled early for another consecutive week because of the highly significant lead allowing Rope Ruel to get playing time. Salum finished his outing throwing 14-24 for 288 yards and two touchdowns. He also has another touchdown on the ground.
The word “mercy” has appeared to be nonexistent in the Mavericks vocabulary within the last three weeks.
“We’ve got so many weapons on offense.,” Martin said. “It gives us a wide variety of choices on the field we can use to attack within these games.”
The Mavericks only put up 483 yards of total offense to show for their 69 points and that is because the defense and special teams showed the offense is not the only force that could score points.
A smaller milestone that has been carried out throughout the past couple seasons is the streak that placekicker, Ryan Sheehan, has been on. The senior kicker has made 149 straight PAT-attempts in which is the longest active streak in the RMAC right now. Sheehan also went 2-2 on Saturday as he made his two attempts from 29 and 31 yards.
The final dagger in the coffin was delivered by defensive back Cameron French as the junior intercepted a Thomas Creese pass on the goal line and returned it 100 yards for the evident touchdown.
The CMU defense intercepted Creese four times on Saturday and forced five turnovers total against the Hard Rockers.
Besides the turnovers, the Mavericks kept the Hardrockers off of the scoreboard for the majority of the game, besides the touchdown in the second quarter. Blake Nelson lead the charge as the senior defensive end had 10 tackles against the Hardrockers and brought his season total to 69–which leads the team.
It was the most dominating performance the Mavericks could have given to seal an RMAC Championship and “leave no doubt” to the rest of the college football world that they can compete for a national championship.
“I think our guys know and understand that it is a great honor and a tough situation to win a conference championship,” Martin said. “To repeat is even more rare and to do three in a row is even more difficult.”
For now, CMU claimed their share in the RMAC Championship still waiting to see how CSU-Pueblo responds next week when the Thunderwolves take on Chadron State on Nov. 11.
The Thunderwolves decimated Dixie State on Saturday 31-10. The CSU-Pueblo defense has only allowed 17 points to be scored against them since losing to Fort Lewis back on Oct. 14.
CMU will close out their regular season on the road against Azusa Pacific for the second year in a row on Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. Last year the Mavericks beat Azusa Pacific 33-24 in what would be their last win of the season as they went on to go lose in the first round of the NCAA Division II College Football Playoffs.
The most the Mavericks can do at this point is to win out against Azusa Pacific and worry about them because they do not want to overlook the Cougars and risk being upset in the last week of the season and hurt their chances to make it into the NCAA Division II College Football Playoffs for a consecutive year.
CMU currently sits at number six in the Super Region Four rankings. Only the top seven will make it into the playoffs.
