GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — They're not quite a thunder-and-lightning duo, more like rumble-and-dash, but the 1-2 running back punch of Aiden Taylor and Brandon Belgrave is proving hard to handle.
Saturday, it was Taylor's turn to be the bell cow, battering through the New Mexico Highlands defense for 216 yards and a well-earned touchdown in Colorado Mesa's 21-10 homecoming victory at Stocker Stadium.
Taylor had no idea he had churned up that many yards, and was quick to credit the ever-improving offensive line.
"One thing I saw was my linemen. They were pushing, it was working on all cylinders, interior, exterior when I had to bounce it, it was there," said Taylor, the first CMU back to rush for more than 200 yards since David Tann had 206 in 2017 against Dixie State (now Utah Tech). "What I saw was my linemen just creating those big holes, skinny holes, just enough for us to hit it and just keep going."
On the Mavericks' first scoring drive, Belgrave, who had another stellar running day with 93 yards, and Taylor ran the ball on seven straight plays to set the Mavericks (5-2, 4-1 RMAC) up with a first down at the 16.
With just more than one minute left in the first half, quarterback Liu Aumavae threw a quick strike to Alex Turpin, who made a leaping touchdown catch for a 7-3 halftime lead.
The Mavericks, who are on a four-game winning streak, their longest since 2017, nearly added a dazzling score to end the first half. After Kash Bradley picked off a pass with 34 seconds remaining, Belgrave broke off a 21-yard run, and with 6 seconds left and the ball at midfield, Aumavae sent everyone deep and found Trevin Edwards at the 5. He was stacked up and lateraled the ball to Trek Keyworth, who couldn't shake three defenders and was tackled as time ran out.
The Maverick defense held the RMAC's top rushing attack to more than 100 yards below its season average — Highlands (1-6, 1-4 RMAC) was averaging 219.2 yards a game, but managed only 114 on 41 carries against CMU.
"We just had to get them to third down because they're a run-heavy team," said linebacker Chuck Smith, who had nine tackles and a crucial second-half interception on the goal line. "They couldn't pass as easily, so once we got to third down, that's when we could really get off the field. Sounds obvious, but we really just needed to stop their dive and their triple-option, and once we did that, stuff started working."
The Mavericks started tackling better in the second half and got pressure on the quarterback whenever Joey Cave or Waika Crawford, who came in during the second half, tried to throw. The Cowboys completed seven of 13 passes with two interceptions and were sacked seven times. Levi Krebs and Hunter Hamilton had two sacks each, with Colin Stuhr, O'Marius Dimry-Lockhart and Noah Williams also getting to the QB.
Tevita Valeti, Highlands' bruising running back who entered the game with 485 rushing yards, finished with 87.
On their first series of the second half, the Cowboys used Cave's elusive running and a couple of good runs by Valeti to get the ball down to the CMU 2. A false start, one of only two penalties called on Highlands, pushed the ball back to the 7, and George Soppe and Bradley threw Valeti for a 4-yard loss.
Cave threw to the end zone, but Smith was there at the goal line for the interception, returning it 13 yards.
"I was out of breath before the play, so I was like, man, I cannot take this to the house right now," Smith said with a smile. "I gotta do something. I should have just put my head down and ran, but I was just so tired."
Taylor and the offense gave him a long break, running the ball to the red zone. On third and 7 from the 20, Aumavae threw to Sam Horneck, who caught the ball at the 2 and side-stepped into the end zone. It was the first collegiate touchdown for both Horneck, a redshirt junior, and Turpin, a redshirt freshman. The Mavericks finished with 324 rushing yards and Aumavae threw for another 106.
With Taylor churning out yardage, including picking up an additional 10 yards on one rush with a Highlands defender tugging on his jersey and finally jumping on his back, the Mavericks never let Highlands get back in the game.
Their final scoring drive was vintage Taylor, finding seams for consecutive runs of 6, 12, 8, 7 and 16 yards, the last of which gave him exactly 200 yards on the day. He got a breather after that and Belgrave added runs of 2, 4, 7 and 7 yards to get the ball to the 1.
Back came Taylor for the touchdown with 3:53 remaining in the game.
"Belgrave and I, I feel like we both run the same game. I think he is faster, I do have a little bit more power, but no matter who's out there, I think we can do the same thing," said Taylor, a junior transfer from Idaho State. "We can produce and I mean, today, I think he did just as good as me. It might not show it on the stats but I think he produced a great game as well."
CMU head coach Miles Kochevar liked the defensive game plan that took the Cowboys out of their bread-and-butter run game.
"Coach (Trent) Matthews did a great job of having the guys prepared and made everything difficult," Kochevar said. "They we were able to come up with a couple of crucial stops when they did garner some momentum, whether we forced the field goal or came up with the interception when Chuck had the one when they put a drive together."
Offensively, Kochevar believed CMU could exploit Highlands on the inside runs, and his line and backs proved him right.
"We knew we could get that established, we did a good job of that," he said, laughing that the offensive staff might not have been happy with his in-game instructions.
"The offensive coaches will be fed up with me a little bit, that's mine. I said, run it again. What do you mean? Run the same play again, let him keep wearing them out, whether it's (Taylor) or Brandon, that's the mindset and the identity that we want to have."
