GUNNISON, Colo. – In a tale of two halves, the Black Hills State University football team dropped a 27-0 decision to Western State Colorado University Saturday afternoon in Gunnison, Colorado.
After a 3-0 Western State halftime lead, the Mountaineers tacked on 24 more unanswered points in the second half to hand the Yellow Jackets just their second loss on the season and stand at 5-2 overall and in the RMAC. Western State is also 5-2 on the year.
The Yellow Jackets moved the ball on their first drive but were unable to get a field goal attempt off when set up from 35 yards. The drive tallied 13 plays and 56 yards, both of which were the longest of the day.
The only points in the first half came off the foot of Ryan Winke of WSCU when he connected on a 22-yard field goal late in the second quarter.
Black Hills State contained the nation's leading rusher Austin Ekeler in the first half, holding him to 40 yards rushing but saw him take off in the second half for 102 yards, totaling 142 on the day along with two touchdowns. The 142 yards are 40 yards below his season average.
"At the half, I thought we did a great job containing him (Ekeler)," head coach
John Reiners said. "They tried innovative ways in the second half to get him the ball, then he started to break free a little bit."
The first touchdown of the game came with 6:20 remaining in the third quarter when Brett Arrivey completed a pass to Anthony Apodaca for the 10-yard touchdown and 10-0 lead. The Mountaineers tacked on another touchdown with six seconds left in the quarter when Ekeler rushed 27 yards for the touchdown.
In the fourth quarter WSCU added a field goal and another touchdown from Ekeler for the 27-0 victory.
"It was very hard to move the ball today," Reiners added. "They handed it to us up front, they were more physical. Their game plan defensively took us out of the game.
Ryan Hommel finished the game 20-of-40 passing for 167 yards. True freshman
Payten Gilmore made his first-career start in place of
Phydell Paris and ran for 96 yards on 28 carries, narrowly missing his second 100-yard game on the season. The Yellow Jacket offense finished with 268 yards of offense while Western State countered with 428 yards.
Defensively
Cody Benne grabbed the second interception of his career to give the Yellow Jackets its nation's leading 17th interception of the year.
JJ Kilgore tallied eight tackles while
Travis Groves and
Isaiah Birkel each had seven apiece.
Kolten Johnson and
Jared Tiefenthaler each tallied a sack on the afternoon as
Damon Goldhammer recovered a fumble.
The Yellow Jackets join a list of four teams with two losses in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference including next week's opponent CSU-Pueblo.
"We have four games left with three out of four at home," Reiners added. "It is about us finishing the year. We have a powerhouse in CSU-Pueblo coming to our house.
"What we did today was not indicative of this group. This loss hurts, but we can't worry about that. We've got to come out and play more physical against CSU-Pueblo."
Kickoff for Saturday is slated for 1 p.m. in Lyle Hare Stadium.
