Inside the Series vs. Dixie State
The Mavericks will square off with Dixie State in this year's homecoming game on Saturday. Colorado Mesa earned the 35-22 win in last season's contest in St. George. The last time the two teams squared off in Grand Junction, the Trailblazers picked up a 38-31 win after rushing for over 330 yards.
The Trailblazers enter the contest with a 5-3 record on the year and are coming off a loss to Chadron State on the road 30-18. Despite the loss, Dixie State posted 631 yards of total offense including 527 through the air.
Dixie State has three quarterbacks that have played this year and all have thrown for more than 500 yards and each have thrown at least one touchdown.
ALL-TIME SERIES: Colorado Mesa 7-2
AT COLORADO MESA: Colorado Mesa 3-1
AT DIXIE STATE: Colorado Mesa 4-1
LAST FIVE MEETINGS
vs. Dixie State
SEASON LOCATION RESULT
2017 St. George W, 35-22
2016 Grand Junction L, 38-31
2015 St. George W, 43-3
2014 Grand Junction W, 44-37 OT
2011 St. George W, 52-30
QUICK RECAP
Colorado Mesa dropped its second game in a row after a 31-26 defeat to Black Hills State in Spearfish. The Mavericks out gained the Yellow Jackets 531-302 but committed five costly turnovers with two of those coming inside the Black Hills 10-yard line. Conversely, the Mavericks intercepted three passes and had two sacks in the game.
MORE PASSING
Senior quarterback Eystin Salum is on pace to eclipse his passing attempts total from a year ago despite missing the game against CSU-Pueblo and portions of both the game at Fort Lewis and Mines. Salum completed 24-of-51 passes, a career-high for pass attempts.
TOP TARGET
Junior wide receiver Peter Anderson has garnered a ton of interest from opposing defenses this year but he has still excelled with the extra coverage. Anderson became the second player in Maverick history to eclipse the 1,000 receiving yard mark in a season and is just 218 yards shy of the single season mark of 1,236 set by Drew Bohanan in 2005. Last weekend, he caught 10 passes for 132 yards making it the sixth straight game with over 100 yards receiving, also a program best.
NO FLY ZONE
The Maverick secondary limited Black Hills State to just 205 yards passing in last week's loss. Junior transfer Damar'ren Mitchell became the fifth player in program history to intercept three passes in the game. Redshirt freshman Patrick Vigil batted down three passes while Mitchell, Kevin Clark and Antonio Clark each knocked down two passes.
TACKLING MACHINE
Redshirt freshman linebacker Greyson Matalus has stepped into the role of one of the starting linebackers recently and has really taken off. Matalus has recorded double digit tackles in three of the four games he has started this season. He has a pair of 12 tackle performances against the top two teams in the RMAC in Colorado School of Mines and CSU-Pueblo.
