Photo Gallery | Video Highlights

Slowly but surely, the Mavericks are getting there. And Saturday afternoon, they got an up close look at the blueprint they will follow and just how it could someday turn out.

Colorado Mesa University overcame a 14-point deficit twice and led late before falling to perennial powerhouse Chadron State 41-30 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opener for both teams at Stocker Stadium. The Eagles improved to 2-1 overall while the Mavs dropped to 0-3.

“Overall, our kids battled really well and we're making progress, we taking steps in the right direction,” first-year CMU coach Russ Martin said. “I think our kids are starting to see that when we play well and when we focus in, we can be a very good football team.”

In fact, Mesa could eventually turn into a close facsimile of the team it just faced since offensive coordinator Bill O'Boyle and defense signal caller Todd Auer both coached at Chadron before coming to Grand Junction. The fact is, O'Boyle and Auer recruited and built the CSC team and are trying to reproduce it at CMU.

“Those guys did a great job (at Chadron) and you can see it,” Martin said of his assistant coaches. “You don't see a whole lot of change … sometimes from the standpoint that you wish that they wouldn't have done quite so good of a job.”

 With both teams running basically the same offense and defense, a low-scoring slugfest seemed possible yet an offensive explosion with some timely defense broke out.  Which surprised no one, really.

“Having our coaches being their former coaches, we were pumped up,” CMU sophomore Zach Beach said. “We knew it was going to be a battle.”

CMU had its moments, turning in its best performance of the young season. Despite hanging tough in two lopsided loses to start the year (38-19 at Humboldt State and 40-3 at Northern Colorado), the Mavs never let this one get out of hand and had their chances of winning the home opener.

“We're making strides, just not necessarily as fast as we would like as coaches,” Martin said. “But that is the big key – continuing to get better on the things that we can control.  We can never control our opponent, we can only control us.”

One thing Mesa had difficulty controlling all day was the Eagle offense, one that held the ball for more than 35 minutes, ran a total of 86 plays and rolled up 552 yards of total offense. The amount of points and total yards allowed are season highs for the Mavericks.

Still, this was their game to win.

After falling behind 14-0 just seven minutes into the game, the Mavericks quickly rallied, spurred on by a pair of big plays. Trent deBraga provided the first by taking a kickoff back 70 yards to set up a 4-yard scoring run by Jake Cimolino while red-shirt freshman quarterback Deke Cisco found a wide open Austin Rodriguez for a 69-yard scoring strike on the Mavs next possession to tie the game at 14.

Chadron would regain its 14-point lead again the second quarter and was looking to make it 21 by driving to the Mavericks 26-yard line with just under two minutes left in the second quarter. But on fourth and six, Eagle quarterback Jonn McLain was picked off by Mike Brady who raced 75 yards for a score to cut the lead to 28-20.

And the big plays continued for Mesa. Chadron opened the second half with a fumble on its first play and six plays later, Cisco scored from two yards to pull the Mavericks within one at 28-27.

 “Mesa has a great team and we knew they were going to get their points,” Chadron coach Jay Long said. “Our main goal was to win the turnover battle.”

After a shaky first half, the CMU defense settled in and kept Chadron out of the end zone in the third quarter, giving its offense a chance. After blocking a Chadron field goal attempt and then driving inside the Eagle 120-yard line, Cisco was picked off in the end zone to kill the threat.

But CMU would battle back and when Alex Zemezonak hit a 17-yard field goal at the 11:15 mark of the fourth quarter, the Mavericks had their first lead at 30-28.

“We were fairly confident that we knew what was going to come at us,” Long said. “I thought the biggest difference was our offense was out there for 86 plays and that kept our defense fresh.”

Chadron scored on its next two possessions, Nathan Ross hauled in TD passes of 37 and 54 yards from McLain, to go up 41-30. Mesa, which lost Cisco to an injury on its next drive, would not cross its own 30-yard line for the rest of the game, putting an end to the upset bid.

McLain paced the Eagles by completing 30 of 40 passes for 324 and four touchdowns while running back Glen Clinton and Michael Madkins combined for 189 rushing yards and two scores. Ross ended the day with eight catches for 148 yards and two scores.

Cisco connected on 6 of 14 tries for 109 yards and a score for the Mavericks while rushing for 88 yards and a touchdown. Jake Cimolino picked up 67 tough yards on 17 carries and also scored. The Mavericks managed 298 yards of offense.

CMU looks to get its first win of the season Saturday when it travels South Dakota to face Black Hills State. And despite the rough start, the Mavs are in a good frame of mind.

 “We definitely took a step toward where we want to be,” Beach said. “We were that close (to winning the game). We're not giving up on this season. We still have a chance to win the RMAC.”