Sports are funny because if a fan watches 90% of a game and misses a certain 10%, everything can change.
That happened on Saturday afternoon in the football game between Fort Lewis and Colorado Mesa at Ray Dennison Memorial Field at FLC. CMU scored two touchdowns in less than a minute in the second and third quarters. Those spurts of scoring combined with a dominant run game were all the Mavericks needed as they cruised to a 49-0 win.
FLC fell to 1-7 overall and 0-6 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play with the loss. CMU improved to 6-2 overall and 5-1 in RMAC play with the win.
“It was disappointing,” Skyhawks head coach Johnny Cox said. “We thought we prepared pretty well for them throughout the week … We came into halftime down 14 and it really should have been down seven due to a mistake, not a good play by us. In the second half their offense just really ran the ball and took control. We continue to not play together as an offense with the transition back with Stone (Walker). There'll be better days.”
CMU quarterback Liu Aumavae was ultraefficient, completing 16-18 passes for 144 yards and two touchdowns.
The Mavericks finished with 303 rushing yards. Aiden Taylor had 14 rushes for 101 yards; Sean Kidd had 11 carries for 100 yards and a touchdown, Brandon Belgrave had 14 carries for 87 yards and a touchdown.
Redshirt freshman quarterback Stone Walker struggled in his return after missing a few games for the Skyhawks. He finished 9-23 for 51 yards passing and an interception. Walker also had a fumble.
“Precision in the passing game has been lacking for three weeks now or whatever it's been,” Cox said. “We’ve got to get back to doing easy things. Make easy things easy. There's plenty of things that we saw and could have taken advantage. We just didn't do that.”
Cox is confident Walker, with his high character, will bounce back going forward.
FLC was led on the ground by sophomore Jamal Johnson, who finished with eight carries for 66 yards.
The Mavericks quickly drove down the field but FLC got a key stop on fourth down inside the 10-yard line to keep the game 0-0. Shortly after that, Johnson had a great run toward the left side for 26 yards. FLC’s drive quickly halted around midfield. Villavicencio had a mediocre punt to the left which gave CMU decent starting field position.
FLC started its next drive well with some good runs and a nice slant completion by Walker. Around midfield, Walker threw a deep ball down the right side. Both the FLC wide receiver and the CMU cornerback got their hands on the ball as they fell to the ground, trying to rip the ball from each other.
Skyhawks fans cheered as they thought their wide receiver came down with the ball. Those cheers quickly turned to boos as the throw was ruled an interception.
A couple of drives late, Colorado Mesa got its offense with Aumavae finding his receivers. He found Trevin Edwards down the left side for 16 yards.
The next play, Aumavae found Keyworth on a throw to the right corner of the end zone for a score. CMU led 7-0 with 10:05 left in the second quarter. Only 10 seconds later Walker threw a terrible backward pass to CMU’s George Soppe who took it to the house to put the Mavericks up 14-0 in a blink of an eye.
CMU led 14-0 at halftime and had outgained FLC 208-68 on offense. Walker was 6-15 passing for 32 yards and two interceptions.
The Mavericks quickly moved down the field to start the second half with runs down the left side for Aiden Taylor. FLC had no answer for CMU’s methodical running approach and Belgrave ran it up the middle for a 4-yard score. CMU led 21-0 with 10:47 left in the third quarter.
“I don't know if it was anything schematically,” Cox said about the Mavericks’ second half running attack. “It was just more attitude. They came out in the second half and were like, ‘Hey, we're going to run the ball.’ Football is like boxing sometimes, ‘Hey, I'm going to punch harder.’ They did a good job of their offensive line being physical.”
Johnson started the Skyhawks’ drive with a nice run up the left side for a first down and two nice runs after that. On fourth down, Walker was forced out of the pocket to his left around midfield and couldn’t pick up the first down.
CMU responded with a score quickly. The Mavericks got into the red zone and Aumavae found Keyworth in the right corner for an 18-yard touchdown for a 28-0 lead.
Shortly after, FLC’s drive deep in its own half stalled. Villavicencio had to punt from the back of the end zone. The coverage was bad and a Mavericks’ defender easily blocked the punt and it was recovered in the end zone by CMU for a score. The Mavericks led 35-0 with 2:48 left in the third quarter. CMU scored two touchdowns in less than a minute.
The Mavericks continued to pile it on in the fourth quarter. A nice pass completion of 33 yards set up CMU in the red zone. A few plays later, Myles Newbie scored from 4 yards out for a 42-0 lead with 12:47 remaining.
Kidd dominated the final scoring drive for CMU. He had seven rushes for 89 yards on that drive, including the 18-yard rushing touchdown up the middle for a 49-0 lead with 6:18 left.
FLC hits the road to play at Adams State next Saturday at 6 p.m. The Skyhawks lost 25-24 last season at Adams State.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
