GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The Colorado Mesa football team hosted Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference foe South Dakota Mines in their home opener on Saturday (Sept. 17) afternoon at Stocker Stadium.
 
The Hardrockers outscored the Mavericks 17-7 in the fourth quarter en route to the 31-17 victory on the road to push their season record to 2-1 and 1-0 in RMAC action. Colorado Mesa drops to 1-1 on the season and 0-1 in the conference.
 
The Mavericks jumped out to a 10-0 lead after Lucas Ruiz Diaz connected on a 46-yard field goal with 7:14 remaining in the first quarter. Midway through the second quarter, Karst Hunter hooked up with Keenan Brown on a 63-yard touchdown pass. On the play, Brown nearly carried two Hardrocker defenders the final 15-yards into the endzone.
 
South Dakota Mines came back with 24 unanswered points from midway through the second quarter, all the way to 9:55 remaining in the fourth quarter.
 
Jacob Whitmer stopped the South Dakota Mines run with a nifty 23-yard touchdown catch from Hunter. Whitmer barely got his toes in on the Hardrocker side of the endzone for the score to make it 24-17.
 
South Dakota Mines added a touchdown to regain the 14-point advantage at 31-17.
 
Hunter finished the game 15-for-33 for 282 yards and two touchdowns while his favorite target Brown had three catches for 116 yards and the score. Noah Sarria finished with four catches for 68 yards.
 
Siaosi Finau led the Mavericks with 10 tackles while teammate Hudson Metcalf finished with a sack and an interception.
 
Hardrocker Jeremiah Bridges finished the game with eight catches for 164 yards and three scores.
 
The Mavericks will head back out on the road next weekend as they travel to Spearfish, S.D. and do battle with Black Hills State next Saturday.
 
Other RMAC Scores
New Mexico Highlands 27, Fort Lewis 3
Colorado School of Mines 84, Adams State 10
Western Colorado 17, CSU Pueblo 10
Black Hills State vs. Chadron State, late