New Stadium, Same Result

It had all the makings of a wonderful celebration. A brand spanking new stadium with new features that make the Thunderbowl look antiquated. A parade was scheduled to celebrate the brand new opening of Rex Field and the opening of the RMAC season. Even a late afternoon September thunderstorm couldn't dampen the mood of the faithful throng of Adams State fans sporting their newly minted "neuter the dogs" t-shirts. The rain stopped and the clouds parted. Brilliant sunshine bathed the stadium before kickoff. The celebration would be complete with a long fireworks show to follow the planned victory by the home team. It was all in place. So perfect. All that was left was to play and win the game. CSU-Pueblo had other ideas. This group of road warriors had already broken the hearts of close to 9,000 West Texans earlier this young season. On this night they would do the same to close to 4000 San Luis Valley residents. Early on however it looked like it just might be the Grizzlies night after an early Thunderwolves drive stalled and Kyle Major missed a 60-yard field goal attempt. Adams State drove it smartly down the field but CSU-P's defense as it would do most of the night came up big in the redzone. Then what would be a sign of things to come happened for the home crowd as disappointment settled in as Grizzly kicker David Van Voris shanked a 27-yard field goal attempt. Shortly thereafter the Thunderwolves took advantage of a fumbled punt and took over at Adams 40yd line. From there it took CSU-P four plays to score on a beautiful 17-yard fade pass to the left corner from Ross Dausin to Paul Browning. Early in the second quarter the Thunderwolves were poised to extend their lead following a nifty punt return deep into Grizzly territory. On the first play to follow however Dausin was sacked and fumbled. The Grizzlies returned the gift to the Twolves 35 yard line. But as it did so well all night the the defense stiffened in the redzone and Adams State settled for a 21-yard Van Voris field goal. CSU-P responded with a brilliant 90 yard drive highlighted by runs of 29 by Jesse Lewis, 11 by Jamaal Johnson and 21 by freshman J.B. Matthews. Then on 3rd and goal from the four Dausin went into Broncos and former Florida Gator Tim Tebow mode as he executed a play action fake into the line and QB draw fake and executed the copycat jump pass to perfection to TE Roger Phannenschmid to push the lead to 14-3. Adams State responded with a great drive of their own but again stalled out deep inside the redzone late in the first half as twolve corner Mark Sterling picked off Grizzly QB Trevor Eggleston in the endzone. Early in the second half after taking over on downs following another failed drive into Thunderwolves territory by Adams State CSU-P drove smartly down the field aided by two personal foul penalties on the same play by the imploding Grizzlies. Major capped it off the six minute drive with a chip shot 25-yard field goal. Adams State responded with a meat grinder of a drive moving 60 yards in 14 plays capped off by bruiser tailback Terjean Saffold's 5-yard TD run. The Grizzles resorted to some "trickeration" on the extra point as they spread the field instead of lining up in kick formation. A direct snap to the holder James Ackel resulted in him blasting his way into the endzone for the two-point conversion to make it 17-11 with 11:54 still to play. This is the spot in the game where normal teams might fold up and give in to the home teams grand plan of celebrating the inevitable come from behind win. But Lewis and the Thunderwolves line would have none of that as the senior all american candidate ripped off one of his patented sprints down the sideline picking up 45 yards to set up a tough 44 yard field goal that Major drilled to make it 20-11. Safety Jon Bailey snuffed out a Grizzly threat intercepting Eggleston in the endzone with 5:08 to play. Sterling would seal it with his second pick with 2:10 to play. Lewis added insult to injury for the still seated home crowd as he ripped off a 48 yard run to insure the clock would run out. The Thunderwolves celebrated in front of the Adams State faithful who settled in for a painfully long 20 minute plus firewords show.
........................New Diggs----The newly renovated Rex Field is a gem of a small college stadium. One of the features are dorms attached to the stadium pressbox and curving around the northeast corner of the complex. Dean's List and Honor Roll students get first shot each year for a spot in the building. The third floor of the stadium features a restaurant/snackbar open to patrons before the game and students on a regular basis. In the north endzone the scoreboard is complete with a video board. The playing surface is the in vogue field turf similar to the surface at the Neta and Eddie DeRose Thunderbowl. The press box is a beauty with nice open rooms with huge glass windows which make viewing and calling the game as easy as can be. Now it must be pointed out that a combination of private funds, student fees and government grants were used to finance the new digs. The Thunderbowl on the other hand was built with private funds. With that said however with a personal bias calling the games this would be the first thing to change in Pueblo.
.......................Glitch City------The opening of the newly remodeled Rex Field wasnt without major problems. Statistics were slow and in some cases inaccurate due to an unexpected event. The main computer was literally "crushed" at a recent volleyball match on campus. The substitute unit suffered the dreaded "computer glitch" early on. A revised box is now available at the official Adams State athletics web site http://ascgrizzlies.com/stats/fb2011/03ascfb.htm#GAME.PLY . The new third floor restaurant also was plagued by long lines and overwhelmed employees who didn't give the appearance of any sense of urgency. But as usual the sports information department and KSPK's Paul Richards were magnificent in the help they provided.
.........................Burn One Down for Me-------Western New Mexico's trip to Fort Lewis Friday was marred by a fire which incinerated one of the team buses just outside Durango. There were no injuries luckily but all the players equipment went up in flames along with the bus. But the good people of Durango and Fort Lewis College came to the rescue gathering up all the extra equipment they could spare. Also a team van made the return trip to Silver City to bring back everything left behind. RMAC commissioner also chipped in by using a contact in Denver to round of over 60 pairs of cleats for the WNM players. Gametime was pushed back to 230pm. The Mustangs made it a fairy tale ending by defeating the Skyhawks 26-17. In other results around the RMAC New Mexico Highlands went into Golden and upset Mines 40-34. Kearney continued to roll blasting Mesa 52-10. Chadron held on and defeated Western State in Gunnison 15-7.
.........................Upset City-------West Texas A&M bounced back from their opening defeat at home to CSU-P by defeating No. 4 ranked Texas A&M-Kingsville 42-21. The game was played in front of a Lone Star Conference record crowd of 24,000 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. No 1 ranked Minnesota Duluth fell to Wayne State-Nebraska 7-0. No 2 Abilene Christian fell to No 9 North Alabama 23-17. No 7 St Cloud fell to Winona State 29-16. No 8 Albany State fell to No 10 Valdosta State 30-27. No 14 Grand Valley fell to Indianapolis 34-33. No 23 Carson-Newman fell to Lenoir-Rhyne 20-7. Based on these results expect some major reshuffling of the polls this week.
.........................Program Reminders------The John Wristen Show presented by Miller Lite takes place this Wednesday at Buffalo Wild Wings at 7pm. We would love to have you in attendance. The show can be heard over in the restaurant while you enjoy dinner and a cold one. But as always you can tune in on 590KCSJ-AM or www.590kcsj.com . It is Homecoming this week on the CSU-P campus. This weeks opponent is Fort Lewis College with kickoff scheduled for 6pm Saturday night. The new and improved Friends of Football/Alumni Association tailgate starts at 4pm. As always you can choose to get there early and do your own tailgate thing. We will be on the air at 530pm with the pregame show on 590KCSJ-AM and www.590kcsj.com . Be sure to download the IHeartRadio App for your smartphone so you never miss a minute of the action.