John L. Smith knows a thing or two about special teams, and it is winning the Skyhawks games early this season.
With 30 seconds to play in the first half and leading 17-7 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opener Saturday at Ray Dennison Memorial Field in Durango, defensive lineman Dalten Lane got his hand on a field-goal attempt by Black Hills State University. The blocked field goal fell to the ground around the goal line, and Andrew Ike scooped it up and journeyed 100 yards down the sideline for a touchdown. It was a 10-point swing in favor of Fort Lewis College and sent the Skyhawks (2-1, 1-0 RMAC) into the locker room leading 24-7 instead of 17-10.
The score came in the middle of six consecutive scoring drives for the Skyhawks, as they went on to rout the Yellow Jackets 48-7 for their first win in four matchups with the team from South Dakota.
“It’s great to see that we’re all playing together, playing as a team,” said Smith, who spent three years coaching the special teams unit at Arkansas before taking over as head coach. “We’re getting good play out of all three units. The big play was Andrew’s block he ran back. The guys are believing and doing what we’re asking them to get done.”
Ike said Fort Lewis knew it was going to block a field goal this week. It is something they specifically prepared for in practice this week, and the blockers in front of him instinctively went to work.
“The ball was in the sun, and I didn’t catch it, but I picked it up and just ran and had great blocking,” the junior from Frisco said. “Everyone knew to block because that was one of our plans for this week. I was in the right place at the right time, and everyone contributed.”
Ike was exhausted after the thrilling return and said he was never certain he would get in the end zone.
Black Hills State (0-3, 0-1 RMAC) head coach John Reiners said the block changed the entire outlook of the game.
“We could’ve gone in 17-10 and in the game, but the 10-point swing was huge,” Reiners said. “We couldn’t answer the call after that. When you’ve got momentum, you ride it, and they did that.”
It was the second consecutive 40-plus point game for the Skyhawks, who used a fake field goal to score a touchdown in a 41-20 win against Oklahoma Panhandle State a week ago.
The Skyhawks rushed for 284 yards, including 120 and one touchdown from PJ Hall. In the fourth quarter, freshman Gabe Ogbonnaya earned a chance to carry the ball, and he rushed for two touchdowns and 58 yards on nine carries. Wide receiver Juquelle Thompson also scored on a six-yard run on an end-around play.
The FLC offensive line completely dominated the second half.
“We had a great push up front opening up holes,” Hall said. “We got (Taylor) Suta back at center, and he helped us tremendously. They opened up holes, and we keep getting first downs.”
Senior quarterback Jordan Doyle had another strong performance, completing 15-of-20 passes for 174 yards and one touchdown, a 6-yard connection to Jake Reader. He was only sacked once and made plays with his legs in the play-action bootleg game the Skyhawks turned to with the run working so effectively.
Doyle added 27 rushing yards.
“It was the best practice week we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Doyle said. “We changed the play action a bit, and it’s helping us out.”
FLC could’ve scored more, too. The Skyhawks drove inside the Yellow Jackets’ 10-yard line on their opening two drives and had to settle for only three points after turning it over on downs one and receiving a Kipp Castanha field goal.
“This is something we know we can do,” Doyle said in response to scoring more than 40 points in consecutive weeks. “It’s all coming together. We know we can score more, too. ... We will keep coming together as the season goes.”
FLC’s defense saw a big interception from Kaimon Ontiveros shortly before the blocked field. Ontiveros returned the interception to the Black Hills 17-yard line, and two rushes later Hall was in the end zone.
Black Hills quarterback Ryan Hommel, a freshman from Highlands Ranch, was 19-of-33 passing for 248 yards, one touchdown and the interception. He had success with short passes over the middle at times in the game, but the Skyhawks stood strong when needed.
FLC’s defense also held the Yellow Jackets to only 53 rushing yards.
“We are gonna learn from this game because we had been able to man up on teams before this game. (Saturday), we had to rely on the front to get pressure and the secondary to get some coverage organized,” Smith said. “It wasn’t a matter of changing things up, it was a matter of executing our coverages. We won’t be able to man-up everyone this year, so this was a good experience.”
The Skyhawks will try to make it a winning streak at 1 p.m. Saturday at New Mexico Highlands (0-3, 0-1 RMAC). The Cowboys fell 38-37 in their rivalry game Saturday at Western New Mexico (2-1, 1-0 RMAC).
“Highlands is very skilled and always have been. We have to go in with the right frame of mind,” Smith said. “The Montana State trip we opened with will help because we traveled well. We went in with intent and were serious about it. We’re 1-0 in league, and now we gotta make it 2-0. We’ll go in there and try to find a way to win and get it done.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
