Two weeks in a row the Fort Lewis College football team has had to prepare for the No. 7 team in the country.
After beating the Skyhawks 45-9 last Saturday, defending national champion Colorado State University-Pueblo moved up one spot from No. 7 to No. 6 in the NCAA Division II poll. Replacing the ThunderWolves is new No. 7 Colorado Mines.
So, for the second week in a row, the Skyhawks are on the road to face a top-10 opponent.
“We tried to get refocused after last week. The kids went to the practice field with that focus,” FLC third-year head coach John L. Smith said Thursday in a phone interview with The Durango Herald while his team practiced at Buena Vista High School on the road to Golden. “It’s hard trying to overcome a loss like that, but we did a decent job.”
The biggest objective for Fort Lewis (4-2, 3-1 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) is trying to stop the league’s best quarterback in Justin Dvorak of Colorado Mines (6-0, 4-0 RMAC).
Dvorak torched the Skyhawks on homecoming in Durango a year ago in front of a national television audience. He finished with 322 passing yards and four touchdowns along with 56 rushing yards and another score on the ground. His ability to extend plays outside of the pocket led Smith to compare him to Johnny Manziel, the Heisman Trophy winner from Texas A&M, after Mines won 56-14.
This year, Dvorak has been the most efficient passer in the RMAC with 24 touchdowns to only three interceptions while averaging a league-high 360.8 passing yards per game.
But this season, under new head coach Gregg Brandon, Dvorak isn’t running quite as much, averaging only 23.5 yards per game with five touchdowns on the ground so far.
FLC will try to slow down the Orediggers’ passing attack without two of its top defensive backs in Kaimon Ontiveros and Joshua Roybal, who will miss his second consecutive game after dislocating his shoulder in a win against Western New Mexico. Ontiveros is the team’s third-leading tackler with 38 this season.
“The biggest challenge is going to be playing without Ontiveros and Roybal, two starters in the secondary,” Smith said. “It would be a major challenge against any one, not to mention against a team that throws it likes these guys.”
Despite not turning the ball over a week ago, the Fort Lewis offense was dominated by the CSU-Pueblo defense. Smith hopes the running game of sophomore running back PJ Hall and senior quarterback Jordan Doyle can keep the team on the field and keep the Orediggers’ high-scoring offense that has averaged a league-high 49.5 points per game off the field.
“We have to play keep-away and manage the football,” Smith said. “The fewer snaps they have the better for us. Not only do we need to run, but we need to throw it and get first downs when need be.”
FLC was one of the top teams in the RMAC in converting on third down entering last week but went only 2-of-15 against CSU-Pueblo. That will have to change this week.
“It’s crucial to keep our defense off the field,” Smith said.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
