Photo Courtesy of Shannon Aragon
The Cowboys beat Colorado Mesa 28-22 in dramatic fashion on a beautiful fall afternoon at Sanchez Family Stadium. With the win the Cowboys improve to 4-3 overall and 2-3 in the RMAC while the Mavericks fall to 3–4 overall and 2-3 in conference play.
Tevita Valeti capped a 13-play, 80-yard drive with a two-yard touchdown plunge that put the Cowboys up 19-7 with 8:19 to go in the game.
The Mavericks, however, responded with back-to-back touchdowns in a span of just four minutes to take the lead for the first time in the game at 22-19 with 1:55 to go.
Freshman quarterback Collin Stucki engineered a 10-play 72-yard drive scoring drive that was capped off when he found freshman tight end Alejandro Valenzuela for a five yard touchdown completion with just 0:05 remaining on the clock.
Colorado Mesa fumbled the ensuing kick-off out of the back of the end zone for a safety to seal the win for the Cowboys.
“I am happy for our guys and my coaches,” said head Coach Kurt Taufa’asau. “I wish we would clean up the defensive mistakes, I don’t like giving up double-digit leads like that. But we’ve had a rough couple of weeks so it’s good to get a win today.”
When asked about the freshman to freshman game winning touchdown pass, Taufa’asau said, “It shows our system works. Those guys work hard everyday in practice and it paid off today. It’s a testament to our system and the coaching staff.”
Stucki was 18 of 27 for 199 yards and two touchdown passes on Saturday. He completed passes to eight different receivers led by Maurice Collier Jr who had five receptions for 76 yards. Mike Jones had four catches for 62 yards.
Jeffery Jones was the leading rusher with 60 yards on 11 carries and Taveita Valeti had 15 rushes for 55 yards.
The Mavericks had a slight edge in total offense at 373 to 368.
Dontaivious Nelson had seven tackles to lead the NMHU defense.
Trevor Romaldo had an interception and Corey Martin recovered a fumble to give the Cowboys the 2-0 edge in takeaways.
Up next the Cowboys travel to Alamosa next Saturday for a 6 p.m. game with Adams State.