WEEKLY REWIND
Colorado Mesa picked up a 38-22 victory over Chadron State on Saturday at Stocker Stadium in the final home game of the regular season for the Mavericks. CMU finishes the home portion of the season with a 2-3 record in Grand Junction.

The Mavericks finished with 333 yards of offense with 192 of that going through the air. David O'Connell led the receiving group with five catches for 94 yards. He had 18 yards after catch and a long catch of 40 yards where he nearly got into the endzone for a score.

Senior Keyshawn Ashford scored a pair of touchdowns in his last home game with the Mavericks. Ashford scored on runs of two yards and one yard on 12 carries. 

The Mavericks forced turnovers on four straight Chadron State drives to open the second half of action. In fact those turnovers happened in a span of eight plays with the first three turnovers going for interceptions and the final one a fumble.

JaCari Williams earned the credit on two of the turnovers as he intercepted the first and second passes of the Eagle turnover streak. Williams picked off the first pass and returned it 27 yards to setup a score and followed it up with an interception which he returned 40-yards for a touchdown. He finished with 67 yards worth of returns in the win.

THE MATCHUP
The Mavericks and Cowboys will meet up for the 46th time since 1976 on Saturday in Las Vegas, N.M. Colorado Mesa leads the all-time series 34-11 with a 16-6 record on the road in Sanchez Family Stadium. They have also won 15 of the past 17 games ith Highlands winning back-to-back matchups in 2011 and 2012.

The Mavericks have won the past nine straight matchups dating back to September 29, 2012 when they lost 40-36 in Grand Junction. The largest margin of victory during the streak came in the matchup on October 29, 2016 when the Mavericks won 87-14 and racked up over 900 yards of total offense including over 700 yards on the ground. 

New Mexico Highlands' best run of games in the series came in the late 90's when they won four straight games from 1996 to 1999. The closest matchup in the four game winning streak came in 1999 when the Cowboys defeated the Mavericks 44-36 in Grand Junction. Highlands' first win in the series came in 1978 in a 12-0 win over Colorado Mesa. 

Last Five Matchups with Highlands 
Nov. 12, 2022: W, 56-36 in Grand Jct.
Sept. 18, 2021: W, 56-37 in Las Vegas
Nov. 16, 2019: W, 51-13 in Grand Jct.
Nov. 10, 2018: W, 52-24 in Las Vegas
Oct. 28, 2017: W, 77-14 in Grand Jct.

KNOW YOUR FOE
New Mexico Highlands began the season 2-1 with wins over Western New Mexico and Fort Lewis and their only loss to in-state rival Eastern New Mexico. Since then they dropped their next seven games with two of those coming by one possession and another by just 10 points. They would like nothing more to finish the season on a high note with a win over Colorado Mesa. 

Head coach Ron Hudson is in his second year with New Mexico Highlands and is doing a standup job getting the ship headed in the right direction for the Cowboys. Last season, he had one of the top wide receivers in the conference in CJ Sims and this season he has another player that could go on to big things that we will talk about later.

Despite the tough season, New Mexico Highlands features one of the top running backs in the conference in Shawntay Mills Jr. On the season, he has 705 yards rushing with four touchdowns and averages nearly five yards per carry. He has two 100-yard rushing games on the season including a season-high 138 yards against Chadron State just two weekends ago.

Linebacker Devin Coney is one of the top linebackers in the conference as he has 90 total tackles on the season. Four times this season he has had double-digit tackles including a season-high 13 tackles last weekend against top-ranked Colorado School of Mines.

THE TRENDS
As the season winds down, let's take a look at the trends that have occurred through out the season and find the keys for the Mavericks success.

Colorado Mesa is 5-1 when scoring first and is 4-0 when leading at halftime while in every win they have on the season, they were leading after three quarters of play. 

On the offensive side of the ball, Colorado Mesa is unbeaten when they score 30 or more points and are better than 40 percent on third down. A little bit more of a longshot but they are 1-0 when they rush for 300 yards and gain over 500 yards of offense. 

Defensively, the Mavericks are 2-0 when they hold opponents under 20 points and are 3-1 apeice when they allow less than 150 yards rushing and when they force two turnovers. 

Finally, the Mavericks are 2-0 in games played on a natural surface and are 2-0 outside the state of Colorado. 

LOCK DOWN CORNER
Colorado Mesa junior corner JaCari Williams has been one of the best defensive backs in the conference all season long and has added to that resume late in the season. Last weekend in the win over Chadron State, Williams finished with two pass breakups and two interceptions. His second interception he returned 40-yards for a touchdown. 

Williams is tied for the conference lead in pass breakups and is the conference leader in total passes defended (pass breakups and interceptions) with 14 and is second in pass defended per game at 1.40. 

The Mavericks have three of their four defensive backs that rank in the top tsix in the Rocky Mountain AThletic Conference in pass defended. Kash Bradley is third with 1.11 pass defended per game (7 PBU, 3 INT) and Jason Thome is sixth at 1.00 pass defended per game (5 PBU, 5 INT).

MAVS ON THE TUBE
It was recently announced that the final four home games will be broadcast on KREX/KGJT in Grand Junction. It will be on channels 5.1 and 27.1 via antenna and channel 16 for Spectrum users. Ethan Jordan will provide play-by-play with Paxton Ritchey providing the color commentary.

While those games will be broadcast on TV, fans may still also watch the game on the RMAC Network by visiting CMUMavericks.com/TV

ON THE HORIZON
Unfortunately, Colorado Mesa wont make the postseason and their season will end after this weekend. They havent made the playoffs since the 2016 season and will move forward looking for their fifth NCAA appearance next season.

The Mavericks will open next season on the road at Texas A&M-Kingsville before a home matchup with likely NCAA playoff team Central Washington in week two.