Upcoming Games

Saturday, Sept. 3 2016 | 12 p.m.
Fort Lewis at Chadron State College
Chadron, Neb.
Don Beebe Stadium
Live Stats: http://www.sidearmstats.com/csc/football/
Video: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/fortlewis/

News & Notes
Fort Lewis College will open their 2016 season on the road at Chadron State College.  The Skyhawks finished the 2015 season with a 47-34 win at CSC. 

Last year's win over the Eagles broke a nine-game losing streak to Chadron State.  The Skyhawks are 2-14 all-time against the Eagles on their home field.  CSC owns a 27-4 all-time series lead over CSC.

Saturday's road game marks the third straight season the Skyhawks have opened their season away from Ray Dennison Memorial Field.

The Skyhawks are under the direction of head coach Ed Rifilato.  Rifilato is in his second term as head coach at FLC.  He was previously head coach of the Skyhawks from 2004-2009.  

The 2016 season is Rifilato's 11th season with the Skyhawks football program. 

FLC returns six offensive starters (Preston Geib, Jordan Gillen, PJ Hall, Matt Mahe, Austin Shaw and Kenny Shinley) from the 2015 campaign, and four defensive starters (Andrew Ike, Shane Nelson, Kohlton Tegeler and Daniel Walker).

The Skyhawks received 59 points in the 2016 RMAC Football Preseason Poll and were fifth overall in the poll.  FLC was behind preseason favorite CSU-Pueblo (100 points), Colorado Mesa (88 points), Colorado Mines (83 points), Western State (67 points) and Chadron State (64 points).  

Fort Lewis finished the 2015 season 7-4 overall and 6-3 in the RMAC.  The seven wins and six league wins are the most since 2006.
 
Andrew Ike was voted to the 2016 RMAC Preseason Team.  As a junior in 2015, Ike was named to the All-RMAC First Team, the All-National Football Foundation Colorado Chapter Second Team, and the NFFCC All-Academic Honorable Mention team. He ranked 14th in league in tackles with 78 and led the RMAC in forced fumbles with three.

Also earning preseason honors is offensive lineman Kenny Shinley.  Shinley earned All-RMAC Second Team accolades as a junior last season.  He was part of an offensive line unit that led the Skyhawks to the second most rushing yards in the conference (234.0 yards per game) and the fourth highest scoring offense (33.9 points per games).

Junior running back PJ Hall became only the third running back in school history to rack up at least 1,000 yards in a season.  Hall carried the ball 230 times for 1,128 yards in 2015, the second most by any FLC back (Scott Stamper-1,206 yards, 1982 and Joe Moore-1,058 yards, 2000).  Hall needs 1,734 yards to tie the all-time rushing leader Joe Moore (3,566 yards, 2000-2004).