Darrian Stickney said he will graduate Fort Lewis College without a football championship ring or banner. The empty rifle casing he took home Saturday, he will keep that forever.
Stickney and the Fort Lewis College defense held one of the top-scoring offenses in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference to only seven points Saturday. It was another dominant performance from a Skyhawks defense that wants to prove it is the best in the conference, as FLC (3-2) won the 54th Musket Game rivalry showdown 28-9 against the Adams State University Grizzlies (3-2) on Saturday on homecoming day at Ray Dennison Memorial Field in Durango.
After the game, FLC’s seniors, coaches and administrators took turns firing the Springfield .45-70 military issue rifle that has served as the traveling trophy in the rivalry since 1966.
“This moment is amazing,” said Stickney, a redshirt senior middle linebacker from Colorado Springs who has spent five years at FLC and played under four head coaches in that span. “This one, hands down, probably one of my favorite moments ever at Fort Lewis. ... When we leave here, probably not gonna leave with a ring, aren’t going to leave with a lot, people aren’t gonna remember our games. That shell casing, I’ll have that forever.”
Adams State now leads the Musket Game series 36-17-1 and the all-time series 39-18-1 after the FLC win. It was the Skyhawks’ first time to shoot the musket since 2016.
Saturday’s win was big for an FLC team that suffered a 13-7 road loss last week at Black Hills State in South Dakota. First-year FLC head coach Brandon Crosby was worried his team would have a hangover from the defeat, and he was proud of the way his players responded.
“After a tough loss at Black Hills, you wonder about getting back on the track we started with, and I was proud of our guys that really fought hard,” Crosby said. “... I’m just excited. After that loss, as a head coach, you start worrying about the locker room. I did my best to communicate that to these guys that I love them, I care about them. It’s not about me, it’s about them and their season.”
FLC turned to junior quarterback Erik Ornduff a week after starter Jake Lowry went down with a sprained knee. Ornduff and the FLC offense found the end zone only once last week at Black Hills, but he tossed three touchdown passes Saturday while running back Jeff Hansen ran for another.
Ornduff finished 19-of-43 passing for 228 yards to go with the three scores.
“Definitely more confident than last week,” Ornduff said. “A full week of reps, I was really confident out there. We have a really good defense, so it’s not that hard. They held them to seven points today. We don’t have to score that many times, and that makes it a lot easier.”
FLC got on the scoreboard on the opening drive of the game. After nine consecutive pass plays, Hansen broke free on a 33-yard TD run to cap a 10-play, 74-yard scoring drive. Ornduff completed a key third-and-11 pass play on a tight end screen to Zach Russell early in the drive for a crucial first down.
Adams State would score its only TD of the game with 2:08 to play in the first quarter, as quarterback John Buksa threw a 20-yard scoring pass to Ziere Banner across the middle of the FLC defense. The game was tied 7-7, but only briefly.
On the first play of the second quarter, Ornduff aired out a 60-yard TD pass to Isaac Leppke to cap a five-play, 75-yard drive. Leppke had nobody around him on a pass that traveled 40 yards in the air. It was the fourth TD catch of the season for the Wyoming transfer.
In the middle of the second quarter, Adams State mounted a strong drive and looked like it would score to tie the game. But Buksa fumbled on a bad read-option exchange with his running back. Blayke De La Rosa of FLC was credited with forcing the fumble, and Dakota Helms jumped on the loose ball to give the Skyhawks the ball on their own 35.
Eight plays later, FLC scored on a 21-yard pass from Ornduff to Parker Strahler with 1:33 to go before halftime. That put FLC ahead 21-7. Strahler, who was FLC’s leading receiver Saturday with six catches for 73 yards and the TD, was flagged for a 15-yard penalty after celebrating his score. That helped Adams State start with the ball at midfield with plenty of time before the half. But a curious decision to run the ball on second-and-10 followed by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Adams State backed the Grizzlies up to their own 37 and eventually led to a punt.
In the final seconds of the first half, Buska had the ball back and attempted a deep pass toward the end zone. The ball hit the facemask of Stickney and popped in the air and was intercepted by FLC corner Braylan Davis, who looked to return it for a score before he was tripped by Buksa.
The FLC offense struggled to move the ball to begin the third quarter, and Ornduff was flagged for intentional grounding trying to avoid a sack in his own end zone that would result in a safety to cut the FLC lead to 21-9 with 8:21 to go in the third quarter. But the FLC defense would not concede anything to the Grizzlies and quickly forced an Adams State punt after the free kick following the safety.
Davis would add his second interception of the game with 1:40 to go in the third quarter, as he jumped a Buksa pass for the turnover. Davis was everywhere Saturday, as he broke up several passes and intercepted a pair.
“I wanted them to repay me my respect,” Davis said. “I think they respect me now after this game. They kept coming after me. I was excited.”
After Davis returned the interception into the red zone, a fight broke out on the sideline. FLC defensive lineman George Marpaung threw a punch and was ejected from the game for a fighting penalty. Oscar Oliva came into the game in place of Marpaung and played stout defense alongside De La Rosa, Tim Paogofie and Lorenzo Tanner. Marpaung likely will be out for next week’s game at Colorado Mesa, too.
“Oscar, he’s great,” Stickney said. “He’s just as good as George. George, Blayke, Tim, Oscar, all these meat balls go to work and can’t be blocked. They make my job as a linebacker easy.”
After the Davis interception, Ornduff would hit 6-foot-5 receiver Markez Boykin, a transfer from Black Hills State, on a 17-yard TD pass with 1:11 to go in the third quarter to make it 28-9. Ornduff put the ball in the air and let his tall receiver go make the play, and he made a beautiful adjustment to haul in the score.
“I couldn’t be happier for that kid,” Crosby said of Boykin. “He has a heart of gold and has been through a lot in his life. To see him in that moment was a top-five moment of this year for me.”
The FLC defense teed off on the Grizzlies with punishing run defense and lights out coverage from the defensive backs. That was a theme of the game, as Fresno State transfer Ka’Lonn Milton smothered Adams State’s receivers, including Tariq Bitson, who came into the game with nine TDs through four games and 181 receiving yards per game. Bitson was held to four catches for 40 yards by Milton and Davis.
With Bitson covered, Adams State looked to Banner all game. He caught four balls for 61 yards and one TD.
Milton was energized by his own performance as well as that of Davis.
“It was fun knowing (Bitson) is the best receiver in the conference. I got to show the league what I could do against a top player. It was fun for me,” Milton said. “It’s very motivating to keep this train rolling. We know we’re the best defense in the conference, and we want to show it every day. Coach (Ed) Rifilato is behind us drawing up plays, spending nights in the office, and it’s awesome to go out and play like this for him.”
FLC held Buksa, who entered the game having thrown for more than 1,100 yards and 11 touchdowns in four games, to 154 yards on 14-of-35 passing and the two interceptions. Sohail Mohsini checked into the game and went 3-of-7 passing for 18 yards, and he was sacked four times by Tanner, Paogofie and Stickney.
Adams State was held to 29 net rushing yards on 25 attempts. Adams State head coach Josh Blankenship told his team after the game he did not think they practiced with urgency all week and that led to a poor performance.
FLC will now go on the road for three consecutive games. The Black Hills loss still haunts the coaches, who believe this Skyhawks team could be 4-1 or even 5-0 going into the road trip at Colorado Mesa, No. 13 Colorado School of Mines and Western Colorado before finally coming home Nov. 2 against No. 18 CSU-Pueblo. Crosby is ready for the challenge.
“Moving forward, I hope we take this momentum and get it rolling and, hopefully, we’re not too banged up,” he said. “I’m just excited for this week. I can’t wait to start working on Mesa.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
