MPR_CSM_Football_Mines_vs_Highland_9-28-13-1-2

Homecoming Victory

The Oredigger football team gave a strong showing in front of Golden’s largest home crowd of the season, defeating the New Mexico Highlands University Cowboys 30-10 in the 2013 Homecoming Game.

The Mines defense got the action started early with an interception by Tyler Denson less than five minutes into the first quarter. This gave reigning National Offensive Player of the Week, Matt Brown, and the offense the ball already in Cowboy territory, and within three minutes that great field position was converted into three points on a 34-yard Avery Llewellyn field goal. A quick three-and-out forced by the defense led to Brown and the offense starting with great field position once again, this time at the Mines 40-yard line. The New Mexico Highlands defense seemed to have no answer for the Orediggers on this possession as Brown marched the team down the field on a methodical 12-play drive, punching the ball in himself from the two-yard line.

After the Mines defense forced the Cowboys offense off of the field in less than a minute, Brown led the Orediggers on another long drive down the field ending in a 17-yard strike to Diamond Gillis, giving Mines the 17-0 edge early in the second quarter. Tyler Denson and the defense came up big again on New Mexico Highlands’ next drive, with Denson once again intercepting a pass deep in Cowboy territory. Just over three minutes later, Avery Llewellyn sent a 35-yard kick through the goalposts to give Mines the 20-0 lead. Yet another Cowboy three-and-out gave the ball back to the Mines offense, and two minutes later Brown hooked up with Gillis again for a 32-yard touchdown. The Orediggers went into the locker room at halftime and seemed to have the game all but wrapped up, leading 27-0.

New Mexico Highlands received the ball to start the second half and wasted little time in getting themselves on the scoreboard, scoring a one yard touchdown run and cutting the Oredigger lead to 20. Mines responded with their own strong drive, going 54 yards down the field to set up a 23-yard Llewellyn field goal. The Cowboys came back on their next possession and added a field goal of their own, making the score 30-10 in favor of Mines. This would wind up being the final score as both teams’ respective defenses would dominate the rest of the day, with neither team able to put up any points in the final 20:25 of the game.

After last week’s record-setting performance, quarterback Matt Brown produced great, yet much less impressive numbers this week with 175 passing yards, 76 rushing yards, and three total touchdowns. Receiver Diamond Gillis caught both of Brown’s touchdown passes in the game, plus two more receptions for 60 total receiving yards on the day. Defensively, Tyler Denson had a standout day, amassing 16 total tackles and two key interceptions that both resulted in points for Mines.

The Orediggers will hit the road next weekend to take on the Western New Mexico University Mustangs in Silver City, New Mexico. That game will kickoff at 1:30 p.m.



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