After racking up a comfortable 45-35 triumph over Adams State last Saturday afternoon on the road, the Chadron State football team will be at home Saturday to take on the Fort Lewis College Skyhawks in another Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference clash. Kickoff will be at noon.

CSC Head Coach Jay Long said he is proud of the Eagles’ performance at Adams State, noting that they executed the game plan well while jumping out to 36-14 halftime lead and out-yarding the Grizzlies 523 to 289 yards. The win improved the Eagles’ record to 3-3 in the RMAC and 3-4 overall.

Quarterback Dalton Holst had an outstanding game, completing 16 of 28 passes for 248 yards and throwing touchdowns to four different receivers. It was the second time Holst had pitched four TD passes during his career.

Holst, a 6-3, 195-pound senior from Gillette, also picked up five first downs while carrying the ball seven times for 70 yards, a career-high. He noted that running the ball so much “really isn’t my game,” but he was glad he could take advantage of the opportunities.

All told, the Eagles rushed for 275 yards, led by sophomore tailback Jeydon Cox, who carried 17 times for 122 yards, while also catching three passes for 20 yards and returning three kickoffs for 72 yards, giving him 214 all-purpose yards.

Long said the offensive line deserves much credit for the Eagles’ output. He was particularly pleased that the Eagles maintained possession of the ball the final seven and a half minutes to clinch the outcome after Adams State had reduced the lead to 10 points.

Defensively, the Eagles gave up just 15 first downs, but yielded long touchdowns in the second half on a 70-yard run by alternate quarterback Brad Smith and a 51-yard pass from Smith to standout Bryce Hamilton. Those plays accounted for 42 percent of the Grizzlies’ offense.

It’s been a long season for Fort Lewis. The Skyhawks are 0-7 and have been outscored 358 to 41 points. They have scored more than seven points in just one game and the opponents have tallied at least 42 in each game.

Just three seniors are listed as probable starters on offense and only one on defense. The defensive leaders include sophomore linebackers Jayden Helms and Fred Mady. They rank first and third in tackles in the conference this fall. Helms is credited with 88 and Mady with 64 to go with three fumble recoveries.

The Eagles are no longer at full strength on defense. Linebacker Jeremiah Makahununiu, the team’s leading tackler through the first five games, has been lost for the season and tackle Trevon Smith was sidelined by a blindside block at Adams State.

Makahununiu was having an all-star season before he was injured. He led the Eagles with 52 tackles and returned an interception 88 yards for a touchdown late in the game during the 46-16 win over New Mexico Highlands on Oct. 2 before being injured early in the next game against Colorado State-Pueblo.

Sophomore Joey Geil has filled in admirably for Makahununiu, making 11 tackles against Pueblo and seven against Adams State, both team highs, but now the Eagles have less depth at linebacker.

Thankfully, another defensive tackle, Kobe Whipple, who missed the Adams State trip, is available again to help replace Smith.

Long said leading rusher Elijah Myles is improving, but it’s doubtful he will play Saturday. He’s missed the last two games, but Cox and freshman Dorian Collier have excelled while taking up the slack

During halftime Saturday, the seven former Chadron State athletes who will be inducted into the Eagles’ Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday evening will be introduced to the crowd. They are ex-football players Rob Evans and Austin Forster, both of Gordon, Marvin Jackson of Cheyenne and Aaron Turner of Golden, Colo., along with volleyball players Kelly Kraus Randle of Denver and Alicia Wardyn Clark of the York area and basketball player Elijah Collins of Aurora, Ill.

All of them starred for the Eagles about 20 years ago.

CSC Cross Country Teams To Compete At RMAC Championships

The 2021 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships have arrived, and the Chadron State College distance runners hope to show well against the 14 other league teams heading into the final stretch of the season.

The women’s six-kilometer race begins at 10:40 a.m. on Applewood Golf Course, in Golden, Colorado, on Saturday, while the men’s eight-kilometer championship begins at 11:30 a.m.

The Eagles have competed three times this fall – at the Hardrocker Classic in Rapid City, South Dakota, the Roy Griak Invitational at the University of Minnesota, and the Fort Hays State Tiger Open in Kansas.

The Eagles women recorded their best times overall at the only six-kilometer course they ran this season, in Minnesota. There, their five runners averaged a 26:42 race, with the top time turned in by newcomer Alissa Wieman of Box Elder, South Dakota.

Wieman has led the CSC women at all three meets finishing in the top half of the field each time. At both five-kilometer courses, she improved on her 12th grade season best, finishing under 20 minutes at 19:55.1 in her most recent.

The lone senior on the women’s team is Sydney Settles of Lincoln. She ran her personal best of 20:08.6 at the most recent competition in Kansas.

On the men’s side, all three of the team’s races have been eight kilometers. Its fastest average time was at the Fort Hays race, coming in at 27:02. The Eagles men were led by Garrett Avery of Sheridan, Wyoming, at their first race and Cale Schafer of LaSalle, Colorado at their last two.

Avery, a sophomore, was third to cross for the Eagles at both the 2019 and 2020 championships. He was the lead runner at Rapid City and crossed second for CSC in Minnesota. He did not compete in Kansas.

Schafer is a second-year freshman who holds the fastest collegiate personal best on the team, running a 26:20.7 at the latest competition in Fort Hays. In fact, he has improved in each race he’s run as an Eagle, cutting nearly five minutes off his first 8k of 2020.

The CSC men’s roster consists of 12 freshmen, four sophomores, and two juniors. Other than Settles, the other eight women are freshmen.

The top returner for each team, junior men’s runner Jesse Jaramillo and freshman women’s athlete Tukker Romey, will not compete due to injury.

Chadron State was 12th of 12 teams at last year’s championship meet in Colorado Springs. Three teams – Colorado State-Pueblo, New Mexico Highlands, and Regis – did not field a team.

The defending RMAC Champions are the Western Colorado women’s team and the Colorado School of Mines men. The league’s coaches slated Mines to take both titles this year in the preseason.