CHADRON – The Chadron State College football team will be striving to treat the old grads to another victory Saturday when the Eagles tangle with the Western State Mountaineers during Homecoming. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.
The Eagles are 31-13-1 in their homecoming games the past 45 years.
Western State, which has struggled on the gridiron in recent years, appears to be gaining momentum in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. The Mountaineers nearly toppled defending conference champion Colorado State-Pueblo, which is ranked No. 2 nationally, two weeks ago and defeated arch-rival Adams State for the first time in 12 years last Saturday.
Both Chadron State and Western will enter the game 2-2 overall and 1-1 in the conference.
CSC Head coach
Jay Long said his team's defensive unit may have played its best game in three years during its 24-13 victory over Colorado Mesa last Saturday. CSC gave up just 281 total net yards, recovered a fumble, intercepted a pass, broke up 10 passes and blocked two kicks.
Offensively, the Eagles weren't as potent as usual through the air. Although nine receivers caught passes, several passes were dropped and the Eagles completed just 14 of 35 attempts for 138 yards.
The rushing attack took up much of the slack. With sophomore
Cody Paul rushing 16 times for 133 yards, the tailbacks averaged 5.9 yards a carry. Long said the offensive line, which struggled the previous week against Colorado Mines, played much better against Mesa.
Western opened the season with a 38-21 victory over Wayland Baptist, then lost to another Texas team, Angelo State, 38-6, before entering conference play.
The Mountaineers had Pueblo on the ropes during their Sept. 20 game. They had a 23-19 lead and were at the ThunderWolves' 3-yard line with three minutes remaining, but failed to pick up a first down on fourth and one. After getting the ball back, Pueblo drove the length of the field and scored with a 43 seconds remaining to win 26-23.
Last Saturday, Western State led 26-14 early in the third period, saw Adams State go ahead 31-26 and 37-32 before driving 88 yards in 14 plays to score with six seconds left and squeeze out a 39-37 victory. Both teams had right at 500 yards in total offense.
Western State, which has not won more than three games in the last 10 seasons, features a strong ground game led by Austin Ekeler, a 5-foot-9, 190-pound sophomore. He leads the RMAC in rushing with 127 carries for 710 yards and a 5.6-yard average.
Ekeler carried 44 times for 232 yards against Adams State. He also ran for 247 yards against Wayland Baptist and rushed for 139 against Pueblo.
Quarterback Brett Arrivey is also a solid player for the Mountaineers. He has completed 82 of 138 passes for 730 yards this fall.
Last year when both were freshmen, Ekeler carried 22 times for 154 yards and Arrivey completed 17 of 27 passes for 90 yards against the Eagles. CSC won the game, played in Gunnison, 35-13 and out-yarded the Mountaineers 524 to 258.
The Mountaineers' head coach is Jas Bains. He was on the Chadron State staff for four years, the last two as the defensive backs coach and special teams coordinator, before going to Gunnison as the defensive coordinator in 2010. The next year, he took over as the head coach. Western's offensive coordinator, Ryan McDonough, is also a former CSC graduate assistant.
