The floodgates were open for South Dakota Mines’ football team in the first half at Fort Lewis on Saturday. The Hardrockers easily ran the ball and had plenty of time to throw. South Dakota Mines opened up a 35-12 halftime lead and it looked like the game was going to get ugly for the Skyhawks.
However, FLC head coach Johnny Cox and his staff got the floodgates shut and started showing their defense’s potential. The offense had a few explosive plays and it felt like the Skyhawks were back in the game.
Unfortunately for Skyhawks fans, FLC dug itself too big of a hole in the first half and lost 49-33.
South Dakota Mines improved to 3-2 overall and 2-1 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play with the win. Fort Lewis fell to 1-3 overall and 0-2 in the RMAC with the loss.
“We’re finding ourselves in football games,” Cox said. “Our effort has raised over the last few years. Our execution levels rise at times compared to last year. But we can’t put the ball on the ground that many times in terms of turnovers. We have to be way better on third down … We can’t have lulls where we come on the football field not ready to play.”
South Dakota Mines quarterback Jake Martinelli finished 25-42 passing for 263 yards, five touchdowns and an interception. Holden Gilbert led the Hardrockers with 101 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Colton Grover had eight receptions for 104 yards and three touchdowns for South Dakota Mines.
FLC redshirt freshman quarterback Stone Walker finished 20-42 passing for 210 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. He also lost two fumbles.
“He bounced back well,” Cox said. “He’ll use this performance to play better next week. He was very accurate today, I felt. He was very good with his reads. Looking at it right now it felt like we had a lot of drops.”
Freshman running back Orlando Guevara led FLC in rushing with 100 yards and a touchdown on four carries. Sophomore Jamal Johnson finished with 81 yards on the ground on 11 carries and a touchdown.
Sophomore wide receiver Zachary Gaumont led the way for the Skyhawks with three receptions for 117 yards and two touchdowns.
FLC had 444 total yards which is the most in a game since 2021. The Skyhawks’ 33 points was its first 30-point performance since 2019.
Both teams had explosive plays in the first quarter with Grover scoring on a 34-yard touchdown catch for South Dakota Mines and Johnson scoring on a 46-yard rush. Martinelli threw another score in the first quarter for a 14-6 lead.
The Skyhawks started the second quarter driving. Walker had a few nice throws and runs before being drilled by a big South Dakota Mines lineman. Walker stayed down for a few minutes before walking off to the sideline on his own power. Senior kicker Hunter Villavicencio hit the 33-yard field goal to make it 14-9 with 10:54 left in the second quarter.
South Dakota Mines didn’t have much trouble moving the ball on the next drive. The Skyhawks defensive line couldn’t pressure Martinelli in the pocket. Gilbert got a carry, bounced it to a huge hole on the left side and took it to the house from 38 yards out for a 21-9 lead for South Dakota Mines with 7:46 left in the second quarter.
South Dakota Mines quickly and easily drove down the field on its next drive and Martinelli found Dryden for a 14-yard touchdown and led 28-9 with 3:10 to go in the first half.
The offensive line struggled to protect Walker and he was tackled numerous times. However, the Hardrockers were reckless and had a few penalties which helped out the Skyhawks offense. Walker made a few nice throws but the pressure was too much in the end. Villavicencio hit a 51-yard field goal to make it 28-12 South Dakota Mines with 1:15 to go in the half.
The Hardrockers moved the ball quickly. FLC managed to get some pressure on Martinelli but he did a good job of rolling out and completing passes out of the pocket. A blown coverage with 13 seconds left led to Grover being inexplicably wide-open in the left corner of the end zone for a 19-yard touchdown to put South Dakota Mines up 35-12.
The Skyhawks had great pressure to start the second half and forced a three-and-out. FLC had two huge plays. The first was a 50-yard catch that was called back due to a hold. The second play was a shallow cross to Gaumont for 77 yards and a score. It was initially called back due to a holding call but the touchdown stood and the Skyhawks cut the Hardrockers lead to 35-19 with 12:25 left in the third quarter.
“We’ve got to play with way better effort,” Cox said. “A lot of football is effort. It’s not necessarily, ‘Hey, a scheme has a guy blocked.’ That’s always going to happen. Somebody needs to beat the block and make the play … We emphasized effort and we switched things up a little bit up front defensively. We went away from our four-down package to our three-down package … It maybe caught them off guard but it ended up being pretty successful.”
FLC did a good job of stopping the Hardrockers for most of the third quarter. The Skyhawks finally got pressure and made some tackles to cause South Dakota Mines to punt. At the end of the third quarter, FLC stopped forced a field goal. The Skyhawks got through to block it to keep the Hardrockers scoreless in the third quarter with less than two minutes left.
Right after, Guevara found a hole on the left side and broke away from the Hardrockers defenders for an 88-yard touchdown run to make it 35-26 with 56 seconds left in the third.
“As we continue to develop our offensive identity this year, we definitely have some guys that are fast,” Cox said. “You put in Gaumont, who’s probably the fastest football player in the conference. Orlando (Guevara) is really explosive. We know those guys can do that, we just need to find ways to do that more often.”
Walker fumbled deep in Skyhawks territory which led to an 18-yard pass on fourth down from Martinelli to Grover for a touchdown. South Dakota Mines led 42-26 with 11 minutes to go.
South Dakota Mines tried to run out the clock to end the fourth quarter. Gilbert found a lane down the right side and scored from 37 yards out to seal the game with a 49-26 lead with 2:01 to go.
Walker found Gaumont for 31 yards and a touchdown in garbage time with 17 seconds left.
FLC plays at No. 14 Western Colorado next Saturday at 6 p.m.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
