Looking to bounce back from a tough loss last week, the Oredigger football team squared off against the Black Hills State University Yellow Jackets on the road this weekend. In another display of offensive excellence, the Orediggers rolled to a 62-22 win and a strong start to the conference schedule.
Quarterback Matt Brown and Mines offense received the ball to begin the game and promptly marched down the field, thanks in large part to a 46-yard strike from Brown to receiver Court Pietra. Within minutes, Dan Palmer punched the ball in from the one yard line to give Mines the 7-0 lead. After one of many great defensive showings forced the Jackets to punt, the Orediggers found the end zone again in just under four minutes, this time on a 30-yard pass from Brown to Justin Dvorak.
The second quarter saw the game start to get out of hand, as the Orediggers converted three of their four offensive possessions into touchdowns. Even on the scoreless drive, Mines drove the ball deep into Yellow Jacket territory before failing to convert on a fourth down. All three Oredigger scores in the quarter came from the arm of Brown, including a short pass to Alex Waner, another to Diamond Gillis, and a 16-yarder to Ty Young. The Mines defense also had a strong first half showing, yielding only a field goal and forcing a Black Hills State interception, resulting in a 35-3 Oredigger lead at the half.
Brown continued his solid play into the third quarter, throwing for two more scores. Despite not even playing a full three quarters, Brown had amassed 380 passing yards, six touchdowns, and a 77.5 completion percentage before being replaced by sophomore Joe Schneider. Even with the quarterback change, the Mines offense never skipped a beat, scoring two more times on Joe Schneider passes to Jimmy Ellis and Matt Schmid.
As the final score would suggest, the Orediggers completely dominated this game, and the stat lines showed it as well. Mines out gained the Yellow Jackets 749 yards to 291, recorded almost three times as many first downs (36-13), and completely controlled the pace of the game by maintaining possession for over 20 minutes longer than Black Hills State. Defensively, the Orediggers played an outstanding game, holding the Jackets to just 1-for-13 on third down attempts and giving up only a field goal until the Mines offense had already given them a 38 point lead to work with.
Mines will look to carry the momentum from this win into their Homecoming game next weekend against New Mexico Highlands. That game kicks off at noon here in Golden.
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