Eagles finish season with loss to CSU-Pueblo

Despite leading through three quarters, the Eagles’ football team finished the season with a 27-14 loss to Colorado State University-Pueblo in Pueblo Saturday.
The Eagles landed in the end zone twice in the first quarter, and not again for the rest of the game. The first score came from quarterback Matt Vinson, junior of Box Elder, South Dakota, hitting Jack Dobyns, junior tight end of Tucson, Arizona. Vinson only threw for one touchdown in the game, but completed 14 this season.
In the match-up against CSU-Pueblo, Vinson completed 20 of 42 for 89 yards and threw three interceptions, but this season, he completed 199 of 366 for 1,988 yards and 16 interceptions.
“I think we started out really well against Pueblo,” Vinson said. “They are a really good football team. I thought the defense played really well all game and offensively we didn’t execute well enough and we made way too many mistakes.”
The second touchdown came off a one-yard rush from Derek Jackson, junior tailback of Pueblo West, Colorado. Jackson rushed nine times for 22 yards this weekend, which resulted in 124 carries for 564 yards and eight touchdowns this season.
The Eagles defense stopped all attempts for the ThunderWolves in the first quarter.
The teams exchanged interceptions with Keenan Johnson, redshirt freshman of Chadron, marking his first of the game and Pueblo’s Joseph Jones, senior of Fountain, Colorado, snagged one from Vinson. CSU-Pueblo only marked one first-down in the first quarter, but the roles swapped in the second when CSC couldn’t advance the score, and CSU-Pueblo added two scores to the board. But, CSC maintained the lead at halftime because Palmer White, senior of Denver, blocked a point-after attempt to hold the ThunderWolves at 13.
The teams traded turnovers in the third but neither found the end zone. Johnson snagged his second interception of the game, which brought his season total to three, and Jones recovered a fumble from Kyle Hooper, senior of Alliance.
The ThunderWolves gained the lead early in the final quarter. The Eagles’ hopes looked to improve when Brian Wood, junior of Stockton, California, forced quarterback AJ Thompson, sophomore of Denver, to fumble and Johnson recovered. But on the following drive, Vinson was sacked and then threw to the wrong colors when LaRon Tarkington, senior of Phoenix, allowed CSU-Pueblo’s offense to take the field.
Collin Eisenman, junior of Sheridan, Wyoming, sacked Thompson on the following drive which forced the ThunderWolves to punt on fourth and long. Cody Paul, senior tailback of Seal Beach, California, fumbled on the kick return. CSU-Pueblo recovered and then scored again on the next drive.
Fradlet Dort, senior of Lake Worth, Florida, rushed to the five-yard line, where Zecharie James, junior of Hampton, Virginia, forced a fumble that Morgan Smith, freshman of Aurora, Colorado, recovered in the end zone.
“It was a rough season,” Jackson said. “It didn’t go as planned but now we have to get better in the off-season.”
The Eagles ended the season 3-8 overall and 3-7 RMAC.
“It’s a disappointing season,” Vinson said. “It’s crazy because we were a few plays away from this season being completely different. We lost a lot of close games. At the end of the day this season isn’t good enough. This football program is not used to losing and we need to figure out a way to change that next season.”
Two players were named to the First-Team RMAC All-Conference team at the conclusion of this season. Five others were honored as either Second Team or Honorable Mentions. The RMAC’s 11 head coaches vote on players for the award based by position. Coaches are not allowed to vote for their own players.
Paul, punt returner, and Zach Smith, senior of Gering, were honored as First-Team selections. Paul was No. 1 in the RMAC and No. 8 nationally for punt return average at 16.3 yards. He was also tied for the most punt return touchdowns in the RMAC with two. Smith was the RMAC leading punter with an average 41.3 yards per attempt. He finished 16th nationally.
Darrien Oliver, senior of San Diego, and Eisenman were named to the Second Team. This is Eisenman’s second All-RMAC award; he was named to First-Team his sophomore year.
Honorable mentions include Steve Allen, junior of Knoxville, Tennesse; Mitch Collicott, junior of McCook; and Paul for kick retuner. Any player to receive at least one First Team or Second Team vote earned honorable mention.
CSC is the only RMAC school to have at least one All-RMAC First Team player for 26 consecutive seasons.