A season riddled with highs and lows will come to its conclusion Saturday with one last chance for an upset.
The Fort Lewis College football team will end the 2014 campaign against Nebraska’s Chadron State College Eagles. The game will be played at noon Saturday at Ray Dennison Memorial Field.
FLC (3-7, 2-6 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) will look for one final upset victory of the year to finish 4-7, the same record the Skyhawks finished with a year ago in head coach John L. Smith’s first season. But it won’t come easy against the Eagles (7-3, 6-2 RMAC), who are trying to keep their bowl hopes alive.
Despite an eighth consecutive losing season, Smith is pleased with the way the team has prepared for the finale.
“The two days we’ve had of practice in the evenings, we’ve turned the lights on. As it gets later and colder, the kids seem to pick up their effort even more,” Smith said. “Maybe it is the weather; the colder it gets, the faster they move. But practices have been real good, and I can’t fault them for not giving effort; they’ve been good about that.”
The Skyhawks’ three victories this season all have come against quality opponents. FLC beat previously No. 2 and currently No. 8 CSU-Pueblo (9-1, 7-1 RMAC) at home, along with road wins against Colorado Mesa (5-5, 4-4 RMAC) and Oklahoma Panhandle State (7-3).
Saturday’s game will pit the RMAC’s best rushing team against the third-best rush defense, as the Skyhawks will try to slow down Michael Madkins and the Eagles.
Chadron State has averaged 206.7 yards per game to go with 23 rushing scores. Madkins, a senior, has accounted for 983 yards and 10 touchdowns while averaging 5.8 yards per carry. His rushing yards rank fourth in the conference. Sophomore running back Cody Paul has another 534 rushing yards and four touchdowns while breaking off 6.6 yards per carry.
FLC, meanwhile, has allowed 164.4 yards per game and 15 total touchdowns to opposing rushers this year.
“They’re gonna step up and run, and, for us, as a matchup, it’s better for us,” Smith said. “We prefer to see that as compared to guys who throw it up and down the field every down. They’re an upper-echelon team that will come in and do what they do, and that’s run it.”
Still, the Eagles’ hometown senior quarterback John McLain provides defenses another element to think twice about. The 5-11, 190-pound McLain, the reigning RMAC Offensive Player of the Week, is sixth in the conference with 2,281 passing yards. He has thrown 19 touchdowns to just six interceptions, and he averages 228 yards per game. He’s also the fourth most efficient passer in the conference with a 60.8 completion percentage.
“They’ll still do play-action-wise things like that to surprise you and keep you off-balance,” Smith said. “But I think they believe in what they’re doing and have been very successful doing it.”
The Eagles have put up the third most points in the league this year, averaging 34.9 points per game. The Skyhawks are last in that department with 22.4 points per game. Chadron State has averaged more than 100 yards per game more offense than FLC with 457.4 yards per game to 349.6.
That hasn’t been helped by the Skyhawks’ passing game, which ranks last in the RMAC with 185.5 yards per game.
FLC surely hasn’t been helped by the loss of junior quarterback Jordan Doyle to a broken leg. Sophomore Trevor Bonifasi only has 343 passing yards and three touchdowns and three interceptions while starting twice and seeing action in eight games. He’s completed 45.5 percent of his passes.
Wide receiver turned backup quarterback Carl Cox has received extra work at quarterback in practice this week if called upon. The former high school quarterback is helping FLC keep the redshirt on freshman quarterbacks Cole Carrithers, Bo Coleman and Johnny Swanson.
“(Bonifasi) is starting, and we tried to get him as prepared as we can. It’s hard to get Cox caught up, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed,” Smith said. “At this point in time, you don’t burn a redshirt on a kid. That’s the last thing you want to do, and the latest you would might be mid-season. It wouldn’t be fair to the kids, and we’ve been fortunate enough to have some guy play some spots for us that they haven’t played since high school and haven’t worked on it here with us.”
Another one of those players is redshirt senior Kaulana Waalani-Arroyo, a defensive back by trade who has seen time at running back this year. He again practiced at running back this week ahead of the game, as FLC’s three leading rushers – PJ Hall, Doyle and Cameron Padilla, respectively – will miss the game with injuries.
Linebacker turned running back Louis Mensah, a 6-foot, 230-pound bruiser, will start for FLC, with Waalani-Arroyo spelling him.
“PJ hasn’t really been healthy since the ankle injury, and that consequently leaves you with Mensah and (Waalani-Arroyo)” Smith said. “It’s the adjustments we have to make to get through it at this point and time to see if we can’t get a win to end on.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
