The Fort Lewis College football team isn’t known for its offense, but the Skyhawks lit up the scoreboard and bested South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference’s third-ranked team in total offense, 44-35 Saturday afternoon at Ray Dennison Memorial Field in Durango.
The Skyhawks defense slowed the Hardrockers’ high-powered offense while FLC’s offense rolled behind redshirt freshman quarterback Jake Lowry, who got his first career start in place of Bo Coleman, who suffered a season-ending knee injury last week.
“I felt good,” said Lowry, who completed 8-of-19 passes for 137 yards and two touchdowns against one interception. “I had Bo to look up to, and I watched him this year and last year. He’s a good leader and was in my corner all game. All the coaches and players believed in me, so I felt really good. It feels great to get my first win.”
Lowry went on to praise the rest of the Skyhawks’ performance and their ability to help him handle the pressure of his first start.
“I gotta give credit to our O-line. They did an amazing job, and (running back Tyler) Telphy did an amazing job and our defense came up with turnovers when it counted,” he said. “I have to hand it to everyone else. Everyone played amazing, and it was a team win.”
The Skyhawks also got a big boost from their special teams unit. Freshman kicker Ben Raybon, who originally committed to the Hardrockers out of high school but chose to attend Fort Lewis, hit three field goals in the third quarter, with makes from 25, 44 and 47 yards. The Skyhawks also recovered an onside kick to start the third quarter that helped lead to a dominant third-quarter performance.
“Ben’s been solid all year. Ben made a tackle today, too, so that should tell you he’s one of the toughest kickers around,” FLC head coach Joe Morris said. “We love him to death. I’m happy for him. He did a great job.”
The two offenses lit up the first quarter and combined for four touchdowns in a matter of 5 minutes, 1 second.
After FLC’s first possession ended in a punt, the Skyhawks took the ball back with an interception from Daniel Walker at the FLC 48-yard line.
FLC found the end zone a few plays later when Lowry hit Ta’Jon Mondy up the middle for a 14-yard touchdown that gave FLC a 7-0 lead.
The Hardrockers answered on their next possession when quarterback Jake Sullivan found Brandon LaBrie up the seam on third-and-14 at the 50-yard line for a TD to make it 7-7.
The Skyhawks responded with a quick score. On the second play of the ensuing drive, FLC ran a flea flicker, and Lowry put a perfect throw into the hands of Arealous Hughes for a 54-yard TD.
After a 78-yard kick return from LaBrie that put the Hardrockers at the FLC 20-yard line, Sullivan ended a three-play drive with an 11-yard TD run that evened the game at 14-14 with 3:15 remaining in the first quarter.
South Dakota Mines took its first lead of the game in the opening minutes of the second quarter. After FLC was pinned deep in its own territory following a penalty on the kickoff, the Hardrockers sacked Lowry in the end zone for a safety that gave them a 16-14 advantage.
The Hardrockers added to their lead on the ensuing possession and drove 75 yards in five plays to find the end zone on a 48-yard TD run from Kevin Thompson to make it 23-14.
FLC cut into the deficit late in the second quarter with a 61-yard TD run from Telphy that made it a 23-21 game with a few minutes left before halftime. Telphy finished the day with 170 rushing yards on 23 carries and pulled in one pass for 25 yards.
The 3:22 left on the clock was enough time for South Dakota Mines to drive down the field and get into the red zone. But the Skyhawks’ defense held strong. FLC’s Dre Cortez broke up a third-down pass to the corner of the end zone and the Hardrockers had to settle for a 26-yard field goal that sent the game to halftime with South Dakota Mines leading 26-21.
The Skyhawks dominated the third quarter. Coming out of halftime, FLC tried an onside kick that Mondy recovered to give the Skyhawks possession.
“They had just ran two kickoffs back to the 50 or further, so I just looked at it and I thought there was a good chance we could get it, and I thought field-position-wise it was worth the risk,” Morris said of the onside kick.
The Skyhawks drove into the red zone but the offense stalled before Raybon hit a 25-yard field goal to cut it to a 26-24 lead for the Hardrockers.
FLC stopped South Dakota Mines on fourth down during the Harkrockers’ next possession and again had great field possession to start the drive at the Mines’ 42-yard line. But again the FLC offense had to settle for a field goal, this one a 44-yarder Raybon drilled to give the Skyhawks a 27-26 lead with 5:19 to go in the third quarter.
Raybon hit his 47-yarder on the Skyhawks’ next possession that pushed their lead to 30-26 with 21 seconds left in the third quarter.
FLC kept the momentum on its side when George Marpaung scooped up a fumble to give the Skyhawks possession at the South Dakota Mines’ 30-yard line.
“Fort Lewis came out and got that onside kick to start the second half, which was good football on their part and bad football on our part; that was a huge momentum play,” Hardrockers head coach Zach Tinker said. “I never thought we got into the second half the way we wanted to. Give credit to them. I’ve always thought they’re a very good defensive football team. We ran the ball pretty effectively in the first half, but we just didn’t have the ball very much in the third quarter. We lost a lot of momentum just because we didn’t touch it that much.”
FLC, the conference’s top team in time of possession, had the ball for 10:11 of the third quarter and out-possessed the Hardrockers 35:58 to 24:02 during the game.
The FLC defense put a lot of pressure on Sullivan during the game and nearly doubled its sack total on the season. Entering the game, the Skyhawks defense had 10 and got to Sullivan seven times. OJ Thompson had three of FLC’s seven sacks.
The Skyhawks pushed their lead to 37-26 early in the fourth quarter. After George Marpaung scooped up a fumble, Lowry kept the ball on a misdirection play, made a defender miss at the 3-yard line and slipped into the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown.
The Hardrockers cut into FLC’s lead with a 31-yard field goal that made it a 37-29 game with 9:51 left in the game.
South Dakota Mines had a chance to force overtime after getting the ball back with 2:51 remaining, but Donell Pleasant III intercepted Sullivan and returned the pick for a TD to secure the win. It was his fourth interception of the season.
“I was free that play, so I could just read the quarterback. I just read his eyes,” Pleasant said. “We had him locked down on the sides of the field so I just read the middle. He put it up there, nobody was there and I caught it and took it to the house.”
South Dakota Mines scored as time expired with a Sullivan completion to Collin Zur for a 27-yard TD that gave the final score of 44-35.
Sullivan, who leads the RMAC in total offense with an average of 319.8 yards per game, finished the day 13-of-33 passing for 196 yards with two TDs and two interceptions. He also led the Hardrockers with 65 yards rushing on 18 carries and a TD.
The Skyhawks will be back on the road next week to face New Mexico Highlands at noon Saturday in Las Vegas, New Mexico.
kschneider@durangoherald.com
RMAC
Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference
College Football Standings
Note: AFCA Coaches national rank in parentheses.
Team RMAC Overall
Colo. Mesa (20) 8-1 8-1
CSU-Pueblo (12) 7-1 7-2
Chadron State 5-3 5-4
Colo. Mines 5-3 5-4
Black Hills State 4-4 4-4
Dixie State 4-4 4-5
Fort Lewis 4-4 4-5
S.D. Mines 3-5 4-5
Adams State 3-5 3-6
N.M. Highlands 1-7 2-7
Western State 1-8 1-8
Saturday, Oct. 28
Colordo Mines 27, Chadron State 15
Fort Lewis 44, S.D. Mines 35
Dixie State 54, Adams State 28
Colorado Mesa 77, N.M. Highlands 14
CSU-Pueblo 40, Western State 7
Saturday, Nov. 4
Chadron State at Black Hills, noon
Fort Lewis at N.M. Highlands, noon
Colorado Mines at Adams State, 1 p.m.
Humboldt State at Western, 1 p.m.
CSU-Pueblo at Dixie State, 1 p.m.
Colorado Mesa at S.D. Mines, 1 p.m.
