Special teams has cost Fort Lewis College all year. It cost the Skyhawks a chance at beating a nationally-ranked team Saturday.
The FLC football team dominated No. 18 Colorado Mesa the entire game, but four turnovers including a snap over the punter’s head that eventually would be fumbled and returned for a touchdown handed the Mavericks a 34-28 win against FLC on Saturday in front of a stunned crowd at Ray Dennison Memorial Field in Durango.
After leading 28-17 in the fourth quarter, a costly fumble, a defensive miscue on a Colorado Mesa fourth down and the botched snap on the punt allowed the Mavericks to score 17 unanswered points to secure the win.
“It’s big. We’re just not good enough yet in all three phases to finish it,” said FLC head coach Ed Rifilato, who is in his first season of a second term as the Skyhawks’ head coach. “We put it in the hands of a young snapper (Dalton Wadkins). We thought we had it all worked out, but I think he just got nervous out there. You can’t get any worse than that kind of snap, it didn’t even come close to the punter.
“If you put a young guy in that position, it’s us older guys who are the ones who should take the blame.”
Wadkins’ snap sailed over the head of punter Joseph Cavale with FLC leading 28-26 with 2 minutes, 36 seconds to play. Colorado Mesa (4-0, 4-0 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) had only one timeout and would’ve needed to drive against an FLC defense that was stingy all game.
Cavale recovered the ball near the goal line. He had time to try a quick kick but opted to try to run with the ball needing well over 25 yards to get a first down. He could’ve also taken a safety that would’ve tied the game and given Colorado Mesa the ball. But he decided to run and fumbled when tackled. Colorado Mesa’s Blake Nelson scooped up the ball in the end zone for the game-winning touchdown.
“I’ve coached for a lot of years and had some come out all sorts of different ways,” Colorado Mesa head coach Russ Martin said. “I’m just glad we found a way to win it down the stretch. We will take it and leave it at that.”
FLC had a chance to make it a three-score game facing first-and-goal from the 4-yard line in the third quarter after a brilliant 11-play, 87-yard drive. Instead of trying to run the ball, FLC ran a play-action pass. Bo Coleman had a wide receiver open in the end zone and pump faked to try to get away from the defense. But when he brought his arm back up to throw, he lost grip of the ball and saw it fall into the hands of Mesa’s Marcus Cross. Colorado Mesa marched 79 yards in six plays to 21-17 instead.
“That was a big moment in the game,” Martin said. “If you let Fort Lewis get up three scores, they will eat up the clock. It was a critical stop for us.”
Rifilato also pointed to that turnover as a game-changer. The Skyhawks had another crucial blow late in the fourth quarter when a handoff from Coleman to running back PJ Hall was botched and fumbled over to the Mavericks on the FLC 45-yard line. Colorado Mesa turned that into a touchdown, as quarterback Sean Rubalcaba hit Virnel Moon on a 31-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-11 to get the Mavericks within two points. Mesa missed the 2-point conversion after receiving a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for celebrating the touchdown. It wouldn’t matter in the end, though. Neither did the four other 15-yard penalties the Mavericks received.
FLC showed flashes of brilliance on offense. Coleman, a redshirt sophomore, directed the offense well in completing 9-of-18 passes for 223 yards and three touchdowns including a 65-yard strike to Arealous Hughes and a 66-yard score to DJ Robinson. He also hit Durango High alum Jordan Gillen on a 17-yard touchdown pass on a big fourth-down play. But he was intercepted twice and didn’t get a clean handoff to Hall on the costly fumble.
Despite missing two starters on the offensive line, FLC dominated the trenches and totaled 255 rushing yards, led by Hall’s 151. Coleman rushed for 71 yards, including a 15-yard touchdown on the game’s opening drive.
The Skyhawks’ defense held Rubalcaba to 16-of-33 passing for 246 yards and one touchdown. Most of his production came in the fourth quarter.
David Tann led the Mavericks with 70 rushing yards and one touchdown and was also the team’s leading receiver with 89 yards on six catches.
“We didn’t come up in the fourth quarter like the team needed us to,” said FLC linebacker Andrew Ike, who had eight tackles and sack. “We could’ve iced the game. It came down to us, and we didn’t finish.”
Still, it was special teams that once again cost FLC, just as it has in all three losses, which have come by a combined 16 points.
After losing three games by one score, the Skyhawks know they still have plenty to prove. It won’t get any easier, though, as FLC will welcome No. 23 Colorado Mines to town next week before a homecoming matchup with Western State, which beat Colorado Mines on Saturday.
At 4-0, Colorado Mesa is the top team in the RMAC and will face CSU-Pueblo next week. Mesa has already beat Chadron State, Colorado Mines and Western State after facing a gauntlet to open the season.
“People kept saying this is a trap game, but I told our guys it wasn’t” Martin said. “Fort Lewis is a good football team. We knew it would be a battle, and we’re happy to get out of here with a win.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
