DURANGO, Colo. – The Colorado Mesa football team snapped a two-game losing streak with a win 31-24 win over Fort Lewis at Ray Dennison Memorial Field in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action. The win moves the Mavericks to 4-2 on the season and 3-2 in the conference.
Fort Lewis scored the first points of the game after stopping the Mavericks on their opening drive. The Skyhawks scored on an 8-yard touchdown pass from Nick McNamee to Mondy-Smith to make it 7-0.
Colorado Mesa would score the next 24 points unanswered to take a 24-7 lead.
Alex Powell hauled in a 14-yard touchdown pass from
Eystin Salum to knot the game at 7-7.
Just before the end of the first quarter,
KJ Sapp returned a punt 78 yards for a touchdown. Sapp made two quick moves after the catch and was able to sprint past everyone else for the score to make it 14-7.
Sapp had his best game as a Maverick in the win. The redshirt freshman had a career and tied for the team-high with seven catches for 63 yards and had 95 yards worth of returns on the day.
Salum hooked up with
Andy Ritter for an 8-yard touchdown at the 10:23 mark of the second quarter to put the Mavericks ahead 21-7.
Freshman place kicker
Lucas Ruiz-Diaz connected on a 27-yard field goal to cap the 24-0 run by Colorado Mesa and led 24-7 at the halftime break.
Salum didn't play in the second half after suffering an undisclosed injury. He finished the game 13-for-23 for 184 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.
Fort Lewis outscored Colorado Mesa in the second half 17-7 that started with a 78-yard touchdown pass to cut the Maverick lead to 24-14.
Senior
Jonathon Beverly was the bell-cow back for the Mavericks today and sealed the win for the Mavericks with a 4-yard touchdown run with 10:49 to play in the game. Beverly ended the game with 128 yards on 33 carries and the touchdown. It was his first 100-yard rushing game since week three of 2015 when he had 113 yards in the Mavericks win over Adams State.
The Skyhawks scored the final 10 points of the game and had the ball with roughly 20 second to play but an interception by Demar'ren Mitchell ended the threat.
Peter Anderson had his fourth straight game with over 100 yards receiving. The junior finished with seven catches for 119 yards. He now has 36 catches on the season for 760 yards.
After giving up over 1,400 yards of offense the past two weeks, the defense stepped up and delivered their best performance of the season. The Mavericks allowed a season-best 305 yards of offense including just 28 yards on the ground.
They also forced three interceptions and had a pair of sacks in the win. Mitchell,
Tom Saager, and true freshman
Kevin Clark all had interceptions. For Clark, he finished his first collegiate game with four tackles and the pick.
Chance Drake ended up with five tackles, a sack and three hurries while defensive line mate
DJ White had a sack, two hurries and a blocked field goal.
The Mavericks will return home next weekend to take on nationally ranked CSU-Pueblo on Saturday at 2:05pm at Stocker Stadium. The game will be broadcast to a national streaming audience on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app.
