CHADRON – The Chadron State College football team will try to continue the momentum it gained last Saturday during its 30-24 come-from-behind victory over Colorado Mesa when it takes on another RMAC opponent on the road this Saturday.
 
The Eagles, who are 2-1, will take on the Western State Mountaineers in Gunnison. Colo. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.
 
Although the Mountaineers are 0-3 so far this season, there are signs they are improving under the coaching staff that has a strong Chadron State influence.
 
Head coach Jas Bains and three of his assistants were once CSC staff members. Bains was a graduate assistant at CSC for two years and was the team's defensive backs and special teams coach for two more years before he went to Western State in 2010. After serving as the Mountaineers' defensive coordinator one year, he was elevated to head coach in 2011.
 
Western assistants Mike Aimone, Tony Case and Ryan McDonaugh are former CSC graduate assistants. Aimone also played in the offensive line for the Eagles 2005-07.
 
Case is the team's offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, McDonaugh is the passing game coordinator and quarterback coach and Aimone coaches the defensive line.
 
When Bains and Co. took over, the Mountaineers were shy of veterans. That means a number of this year's players have considerable experience, but just two seniors are starters on offense and only three are starters on defense. Four of last year's starters who are still on the roster are not listed as starters for Saturday's game.
 
 West Texas A&M defeated Western State 48-21 in the teams' season opener. The following week, the Buffaloes edged the Eagles 34-31 in A&TT Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
 
Western State lost its second game 29-3 to Idaho State, a member of the Football Championship Series that is one notch higher than Division II. Last Saturday, archrival Adams State dealt the Mountaineers a heartbreaking 16-14 decision.
 
The Mountaineers led last week's game 14-10 until Adams State scored with 5:48 to play. In the waning moments, Western kept things interesting by completing a 37-yard pass on fourth down out of its own end zone, but eventually turned the ball over on downs.
 
Western's touchdowns came on a 19-yard run by freshman running back Austin Ekeler and a 98-yard drive that included a 63-yard run by Ekeler.
 
Ekeler, who is a 5-8, 180-pound native of Eaton, Colo., carried 25 times for 187 yards. Quarterback, Brett Arrivey, a 6-2, 215-pound redshirt freshman, completed 19 of 39 passes for 181 yards.
 
For the season, Ekeler has rushed 55 times for 286 yards and Arrivey has connected on 58 of 109 passes for 511 yards. The quarterback has not been intercepted, but his team has fumbled the ball away seven times.
 
By contrast, Chadron State has not lost a fumble in its first three games, but has had six passes intercepted. The Eagles are second among NCAA II teams in third down conversions after moving the chains 29 times on 50 third down situations.
 
CSC coach Jay Long noted that the Eagles are striving to improve their kicking game. They missed two field goal tries and an extra point attempt against Colorado Mesa.
 
"We've got good kickers, we've just got to get them in the groove," Long said.
 
Once a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference power, Western State defeated the Eagles six of the first eight times they met after CSC joined the conference in 1990. However, the Mountaineers last won 16-14 in 1997, and the Eagles have been victorious the last 15 times.
Western State has won just one game each of the past three years and has not won more than three games any season since 2003. CSC won last year's game that was played in Chadron 47-6.