GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Colorado Mesa head football coach Miles Kochevar made no excuses after the Mavericks' 52-0 loss Saturday to second-ranked Colorado School of Mines.
"We've kind of been all through the valleys that we've gone through this year, we've got to find a way to pull ourselves out of it," Kochevar said after the loss at Stocker Stadium. "We can't feel sorry for ourselves, we've got to find a way to be able to go to work and put our playmakers in position to make plays and to execute, play together and make sure that we make it simple enough that we're not trying to over-scheme it.
"But we've got to be able to go out and play football and have everybody on the same page. When we do that, we'll have an opportunity, but until we do that, we're going to be in for some long days."
Although CMU saw improvement over their loss at Western Colorado the previous week, it wasn't enough to stop the Orediggers from dominating all afternoon.
Quarterback John Matocha, last season's Harlon Hill Award winner, the equivalent of the Division II Heisman Trophy, completed 21 of 26 passes for 197 yards and two touchdowns. The majority of those came in the Orediggers' controlled passing game — his longest completion was 29 yards.
Where the passing game that garnered 267 yards hurt the Mavericks was not only extending drives, but turning short passes into big plays— they gained 122 yards after the catch.
Mines' first three touchdowns came on the ground on runs of 4, 8 and 15 yards by Noah Roper, who finished with 101 of Mines' 216 rushing yards. Matocha threw a pair of third-quarter touchdown passes before sitting out the fourth, when the Orediggers tacked on two more passing touchdowns by backup quarterback Evan Foster.
Mesa's offense generated 229 yards of offense and had its second-best rushing game of the season, with 87 yards on 28 carries. Redshirt freshman Marvin Jones got the bulk of the work, gaining 52 yards on 13 carries. Quarterback Gavin Herberg added 20 yards on nine carries.
He completed 11 of 29 passes, but was intercepted three times, two of which led to Oredigger touchdowns.
"We were able to pick up the run game a little bit and that helps us, but we've also got to be able to have a controlled passing game," Kochevar said. "We missed a couple of shots that were there and that changes the momentum of the game right out of the gate."
Despite the Mavericks moving the ball well, especially in the first half, they couldn't finish drives. They turned the ball over on downs their first two drives, stalling at the Mines 40, and then lost the ball on interceptions the next two drives.
"Right now we're kind of a country western song, two steps forward, take a step back, so we've got to break that on both sides of the ball," the second-year coach said.
Trevin Edwards led the receivers with four catches for 39 yards, with David O'Connell and Keenan Brown catching three passes each for 55 and 34 yards, respectively. A couple of potential touchdown passes were broken up in the end zone by Mines defenders.
Liban Shongolo led the defensive effort with 13 tackles and La'Markus Reed had seven.
CMU will look to snap its three-game losing streak when it travels to Durango on Oct. 14 to play winless Fort Lewis College. The Mavs return to Stocker Stadium on Oct. 21 for homecoming against Adams State University.
The challenge now, Kochevar said, is to learn from back-to-back losses to nationally ranked teams and move forward. He sees a team hungry for success — it's just a matter of channeling that hunger into execution.
"There's something special with the look in their eyes, so our job as coaches, we've gotta love 'em up, we've got to coach them, and they should expect to be coached hard," Kochevar said. "But we've got to let them know that it's not acceptable, what's happened. We're not here to feel good about playing the top teams in the country, we're here to go compete with them and find a way to win. And I still believe we're more than capable of doing that."
