The Mesa State Mavericks took on the Western State Mountaineers Thursday night at Stocker Stadium before a national television audience, looking for their sixth straight win in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play. The Mavs captured a 29-19 hard fought win over arch rival Western to remain on top in the RMAC and improve their overall record to 6-2.
MSC had to come from behind twice in the contest, and managed to hold off the visiting Mountaineers when they threatened in the closing minutes of the game.
A quick flea-flicker play gave the Mountaineers a 66-yard gain in the opening quarter, which set up a 19-yard pass to Western's Rasheed Smith for a touchdown with 12:30 remaining in the opening quarter.
A Mesa State fumble on the next drive gave Western the ball back, but a great effort by the Mav defense, kept Western from taking advantage of it. The Mavs drove down the field for five minutes before Jared Keating attempted a field goal. WSC managed to block the field goal, making it the first time in 10 attempts this season that Keating was not successful on a field goal.
The Mountaineers took over again, driving down the field before Mesa State's defensive lineman Tony Kelley came up with a big interception. When asked about the play Kelley said afterwards, “I just saw the screen and shuffled. When I looked up in the quarterbacks eyes I saw him throw it. I just dived and scooped it (the ball) up.”
After the Kelley interception the Mavericks drove the ball down the field before Bobby Coy made a 10-yard run for a Mesa touchdown, tying the game at seven all early in the second quarter.
On the next Mountaineer drive, Mesa State's Derek Thorne blocked a punt and recovered the ball, running it in for a touchdown giving the Mavs a 14 to seven lead with 5:12 left in the first half.
Western got the ball back and drove all the way to the Mesa State's red zone. The Mavericks looked like they would make a goal line stand on the one yard line, but on 4th and goal with less than a minute left in the half, the Mountaineers Nathan Acrey made a one yard run. The point after attempt was blocked by Mesa State, which brought the game to 14-13 at the end of the half.
After halftime, Western State started off with a quick score. A 22-yard run by Acrey put the Mountaineers up 19-14, but Mesa then tightened up the defense once more.
The Mavs eventually drove down the field and produced a touchdown after a four minute drive to bring the game to a score of 21-19.
On the next possession the Mountaineers would run another trick play on fourth and two. Western did a quick kick, catching the Mavs flat footed expecting the run and WSC was able to touch the ball dead at the Maverick 1-yard line.
MSC put together a serious 12-play, 99-yard drive, however, which was capped off by a nine-yard touchdown run by quarterback Phil Vigil. Mesa State elected to go for two points, which would force WSC to have to score twice if they were to get back into the contest, as the Mavs held the 29-19 edge with 11:31 remaining.
“That drive was the big difference in the ball game,” said Maverick coach Joe Ramunno afterwards. “We came up with a lot of big plays which really broke the back of the defense.”
The rest of the game was all Mesa State defense, which prevented the Mountaineers from scoring on two different possessions to keep the score at 29-19. The Mavs ran out the clock to end the game.
Bobby Coy rushed 33 times for 160 yards, and Vigil finished with 271 yards passing, completing 15 of 25 attempts.
Next week the Mavs look to take on Adams State, playing Oct. 25 in Alamosa at 12 p.m. Western State, drops to 2-5 overall.
