Eagles prepare for clash with Kearney
Despite both teams going scoreless in the first quarter, Chadron State scored 28 second half points to defeat South Dakota School of Mines 37-22, Saturday, in Rapid City, South Dakota.
CSC gained 160 yards, and four touchdowns on the ground. Jalen Starks, junior of Van Nuys, California, and Christopher Busby, sophomore of Scottsbluff, each scored two touchdowns.
Leading by a touchdown midway through third quarter, Jahani Wright, freshman of Miami, caught a 39-yard pass over the head of a Hardrocker defender. Wright finished the game with three catches, 88 yards and one touchdown en route to earning Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors.
“I’m really proud of him,” Head Football Coach Jay Long said. “He got up there, the arm over the top of him and it was an awesome catch. He had a couple other big catches for us. When they bracketed Cole (Thurness), they double-teamed him, which then puts one-on-one matchups with everybody else. I thought that Jahani was the one that benefited from that and Jahani took advantage of it and had a good game.”
Dalton Holst, senior of Gillette, Wyoming. finished the game passing for 162 yards, one touchdown, and one interception.
Baylor Hayes, senior of Cheyenne, Wyoming, received three passes for 60 yards, and Cole Thurness, senior of Rapid City, South Dakota, also received three passes for 28 yards.
Starks rushed for 60 yards, and Busby rushed for 28 yards. Rushing for 81 yards, Jeydon Cox, freshman of Jackson, Wyoming, led the team Saturday with the most rushing yards.
Jeremiah Makahununiu, junior of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, led CSC’s defense with nine tackles, followed close behind by Noah Kerchal, junior of Benkelman, with a total of eight tackles. Jeremiah Gutierrez, senior of Long Beach, California, had seven tackles, he had one sack and a tackle for a loss of two yards.
“I think that more than anything I was just proud of the team,” Long said. “In the first half, our offense was struggling, and we had to lean on our defense, and our defense rose to the challenge. The second half, South Dakota School of Mines got a couple drives going and offense answered it. I thought we did a really good job on special teams, improvised some plays that changed the game. So that made it just a total team win.”
Chadron State will play University of Nebraska Kearney for the first time since 2011, at 2 p.m. Mountain Time, Saturday, at Ron & Carol Cope Stadium at Foster Field, Kearney.