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Almost, but not quite.

For most of Saturday afternoon, Colorado Mesa did not only what it wanted to do, but what it needed to do to hand New Mexico Highlands its first Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference loss of the season. But in the end, Mavs came up just short.

Highlands overcame a 16-point second half deficit with four scores in the game's final 23 minutes to hand the Mavericks a 40-36 loss on a homecoming day at Stocker Stadium. The loss drops the Mavs to 1-4 overall and 1-2 in RMAC play while the Cowboys improved to 4-1 and 3-0.

“Our coaches did a great job on the game plan and our players did a good job of executing things, for the most part” CMU coach Russ Martin said. “I felt we let it get away from us.  We're making strides, but we have a long way to go yet.”

In an offensive shootout that everyone expected, the Mavs played-from-ahead most of the day and looked to be a different team while doing so. After falling behind 6-0 early, Mesa would grab the lead mid-way through the first quarter and build on it continually, taking a 36-20 lead in the third quarter. But the Mavs would not score again and watched as Highlands scored four times in the second half to overtake CMU 40-36 with one minute, 53 seconds left in the game.

Unlike last week's game at Black Hills, a rally that produced a 31-29 victory, there would be no final game-winning drive in the bag for the Mavs.

“They played from behind very well,” Martin said. “They kept playing behind a sound game plan and they made some plays. And unfortunately, we didn't. And that's what is frustrating.”

Highland quarterback Emmanuel Lewis frustrated the Mavs all day long with his ability to shake tackles and complete passes. Many of those were short completions that his receivers turned into long gains or were balls thrown high enough that his talented group could go up and get.

In all, Lewis completed 33 of 43 tries for 417 yards and three touchdowns. Darius Davis led the receiver corps with nine catches for 120 yards and two scores. The Cowboys also rushed for 122 yards.

“Give them credit, they made some great catches and (Lewis) made some great throws,” Martin said. “But we did stop the deep ball and some big plays. But they have the ability to be explosive even on some of the underneath routes.”

Explosive was also the word that could be used for the Mavs' offense. Behind the relentless running of Jake Cimolino, Colorado Mesa stood eye-to-eye with the explosive Cowboys.

Cimolino rushed for a season-high 233 yards and scored twice, including a 77-yard run late in the first quarter. He saw 8-10 men on the line of scrimmage all day long and still produced huge numbers.

“At times, we ran the ball really, really well,” Martin said. “But at times, they were able to shut us down. We have to get more consistent.”

Junior quarterback Jason Haferman, making his second start of the season in place of the injured Deke Cisco, was once again solid if not spectacular at times. He completed 15 of 31 pass attempts for 214, including three touchdowns.

His 26-scoring strike to Robert Felberg with 9:45 left in the third put the Mavs up 36-20. But it would also be the last score CMU could muster.

“That's definitely a team that we could have put up 50-60 points on and there's no reason we shouldn't have,” Haferman said. “Every time we get the ball, we have the playmakers to put points on the board. And not just field goals. We have to score touchdowns.”

Offensively, the two teams combined for 1,004 yards of total offense, 539 of that coming from the Cowboys. And while most of the offensive stats were pretty much even, Highlands reached the red zone six times and came away with points all six times. The Mavs were 3-for-3 from the same area.

Linebacker Jake Edmiston once again paced the Colorado Mesa defense, leading the team in tackles with 19 while Trevor deBraga recorded 11 stops.

The Mavericks are back on the road this week, traveling to Silver City, New Mexico for a 1:30 p.m. matchup with Western New Mexico.

Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference

Scores for games Sept. 29

Western New Mexico 54, Colorado Mines 28

Chadron State 23, Adams State 21

CSU-Pueblo 50, Fort Lewis 21

Black Hills State 21, Western State 7

Schedule for Oct. 6

Colorado Mines @ Fort Lewis, 1 p.m.

Adams State @ Black Hills State, 1 p.m.

Colorado Mesa @ Western New Mexico, 1:30 p.m.

Western State @ New Mexico Highlands, 2 p.m.

Chadron State @ CSU-Pueblo, 2 p.m.