Fort Lewis College stunned Colorado School of Mines in the first quarter and led 7-2 behind a touchdown pass from one wide receiver to another. When the scoreboard switched to the second quarter, it was all Mines the rest of the way.
Isaac Harker passed for 345 yards and five touchdowns on 32-of-47 passing for the Orediggers. He was intercepted once in the end zone at the halftime buzzer by Fort Lewis’ Suli Tukummoeatu, but he picked apart a depleted Skyhawks secondary en route to a 44-14 win Saturday at Ray Dennison Memorial Field on the FLC campus in Durango.
The ninth-ranked Orediggers remained undefeated at 7-0 overall and 7-0 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, with every win by double digits this season. FLC fell to 1-6 overall and 1-6 in the RMAC.
“We find a way to win games,” Mines head coach Gregg Brandon said. “It doesn’t matter where we play. It’s a beautiful setting here, but we’ll play in a phone booth if we have to.”
Four of Harker’s touchdown passes went to senior Brody Oliver. The wide receiver from Elizabeth set a new RMAC career touchdown receptions record with his 51st in the second quarter. He added two more touchdown receptions in the second quarter and a fourth in the third quarter to get to 54 career touchdown receptions. His new record broke the previous mark of 50 set by Nebraska-Kearney’s Richie Ross from 2002-05.
Oliver also owns the record for single-season receiving touchdowns with 26 set in 2016. He now has 16 receiving touchdowns this season. Saturday, he finished with nine receptions for 127 yards to go with the four scores.
“I’ve been blessed to play with four great quarterbacks and a great team around me,” Oliver said. “It meant a lot to me and this team, and I hope it means a lot to the locker room. It’s not just me out there catching passes; it takes 11 guys to get it done.”
Riley Hoff also had a big day receiving for the Orediggers. He had 11 receptions for 134 yards and a touchdown. Running back Cameron Mayberry was held to 76 yards on 18 carries against a solid FLC run defense.
The Orediggers got on the board early with a safety. A low snap got past FLC senior quarterback Nick McNamee, who picked it up but was brought down in his own end zone by Logan Bock, as Mines took an early 2-0 lead with 12 minutes, 26 seconds to go in the first quarter.
The FLC defense was lights out the rest of the quarter and forced the Orediggers into multiple punts.
“Their defense contributed to that,” Brandon said. “They’ve always done a great job here on defense. They’re well-coached and play hard. If you were to tell me at halftime we had run 52 plays for almost 300 yards, I’d take it.”
FLC took a lead with 7:38 to go in the first quarter. Senior wide receiver Ta’jon Mondy-Smith ran the wildcat offense in place of injured Donell Pleasant III. After one shaky series in the wildcat, Mondy-Smith found his footing during his second opportunity, and he stunned the Mines defense with a 35-yard touchdown pass to junior Xavier Thibodeaux to give FLC a 7-2 advantage.
“We were just trying to get something going over there on offense,” FLC head coach Joe Morris said. “(Mondy-Smith) provides stuff in the run game that’s different than the other guys. We definitely caught them off guard there in the first quarter.”
Mines got going in the second quarter after a McNamee pass was intercepted by Anthony Makransky, who also later intercepted a Mondy-Smith pass. The Orediggers would score 42 unanswered points, as FLC’s offense never found a rhythm and a depleted defense began to fold. FLC was especially hurt when Dre Cortez went down with an injury in the second quarter. The defensive back was carted out of the stadium and never returned.
FLC added a fourth-quarter score when third-string quarterback Erik Ornduff hit Arealous Hughes on a 7-yard touchdown pass to cut the Mines lead to 44-14 with 11:53 to play. The Orediggers inserted their backup players and ran out the clock from there.
Ornduff went 9-of-20 passing for 48 yards and a touchdown. Mondy-Smith was 3-of-5 passing for 65 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions, and McNamee went 2-of-5 passing for 12 yards and an interception. Mondy-Smith ran for 37 yards, while FLC was held to only 63 rushing yards in the game.
“They have a great defense,” Morris said of Mines. “That’s the difference in the quality of Mines football this year is that their defense is outstanding. They haven’t had a great defense like that in other years.”
The Skyhawks will host Western State Colorado University at noon Saturday in their final home game of the season before road trips to CSU-Pueblio and South Dakota School of Mines & Technology to end the season.
Morris said he is looking forward to senior day but wouldn’t commit to a quarterback before next week’s game.
“We’re gonna go with whoever can get the offense going,” Morris said. “I’m not sure, yet. All I know is we’re really excited for senior day. We have some guys that deserve to have a last opportunity to win a ball game here at Fort Lewis. Western is well-coached, but it’s a winnable game, and we’re gonna try to go out and win.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
