Mines conquers Colorado Mesa

In a game that was relatively uneventful for the first 45 minutes, the Oredigger football team prevailed on the road at Colorado-Mesa 27-10 this Saturday.

The Mines offense, led by Justin Dvorak at quarterback, took the opening possession of the game all the way to the Mesa 5-yard line, but was stopped short on a fourth-down conversion attempt. Mesa then proceeded to construct their own drive deep into CSM territory, ending up at the Oredigger 26-yard line where a 43-yard field goal attempt was blocked by the Mines defense.

Both teams swapped short drives resulting in punts until about two minutes into the second quarter when the Mines defense came up strong again, this time intercepting a Mesa pass on CSM’s side of the field. With momentum on the Orediggers’ side, the offense marched down the field all the way to the Mesa 14-yard line. There, the drive came to an abrupt halt as Mines fumbled the ball, giving the Mesa offense new life. After several unsuccessful drives including consecutive interceptions thrown by both Mines and Mesa, Mesa connected on a 33-yard field goal attempt in the final seconds of the half to take a 3-0 lead into the locker room.

In a scoreless third quarter, almost every way to end a drive unsuccessfully was put on display by both teams. Including punts, fumbles, and a missed field goal, the third quarter was basically an exercise in futility for both teams. Mesa still held the lead after three quarters of play, 3-0.

However, the fourth quarter saw the Orediggers break out of that slump in extraordinary fashion, scoring all 27 of the team’s points in the final 15 minutes. Beginning with a Justin Dvorak two-yard keeper, CSM took the 6-3 lead and never looked back. After a 1-yard Dan Palmer rushing score, a 13-yard touchdown strike from Dvorak to Tevin Champagne, and another 5-yard Dvorak run, the Orediggers held a comfortable 27-3 lead with mere minutes left to go. With just over 30 seconds left in the game, Mesa finally found the endzone on a short pass, but all that did was cut CSM’s margin of victory to 27-10.

The Orediggers return to Golden next weekend for Parents & Family Weekend, where they will play host to Western State. That game kicks off at noon on Saturday, November 2nd at Campbell Field here in Golden.