UPCOMING GAMES

Saturday, Sept. 17 2016 | 1 p.m.
Fort Lewis at Adams State University
Alamosa, Colo. | Rex Field
Audio: http://www.radiodurango.com/
Live Stats: http://www.sidearmstats.com/adams/football/
Video: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/fortlewis/

NEWS & NOTES
Fort Lewis College will travel over Wolf Creek Pass on Saturday to face Adams State University in the 51st annual Musket Game.  The Skyhawks have won two of the last three Musket Games.

The Springfield .45-70 military issue rifle that serves as the traveling trophy between Fort Lewis College and Adams State University was donated in 1966 to the two athletic departments by Mahlon "Butch" White, who was involved with the First National Banks in both Alamosa and Durango, in memory of William White. The rifle is to be retained by the winning school at their annual football game. Traditionally, seniors from the winning team get to fire the rifle at the conclusion the game.

ASU leads the Musket series, 34-15-1, and the all-time series, 37-16-1.  The last time the Skyhawks defeated ASU on the road was Oct. 23, 2010 (W, 17-14).

Both the Skyhawks and Grizzlies will be looking for their first win of the season as they enter Saturday's game with 0-2 records (0-2 RMAC).

FLC opened their home season on Saturday and suffered a 39-36 loss to Black Hills State University.  

The Skyhawks grabbed a 36-32 lead with 5:30 left in regulation after Tyrell Thomas returned an interception for a touchdown.  BHSU responded and scored with 74 ticks left in the game to post their second straight win of the season.

Running back Drake Griffith led the ground game with 113 yards and one score on 17 carries.  PJ Hall added 60 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries.  

Quarterback Justin Cutbirth completed nine passes on 22 attempts for 132 yards and two scores (two interceptions).  

Wide receiver Jordan Gillen caught six of Cutbirth's passes for 89 yards and a touchdown.
 
The defense was led by Andrew Ike who had 11 tackles.  Ryneal Lewis-Adams and Shane Nelson added nine tackles each.  Nelson posted two tackles for a loss of five yards.  

OJ Thompson sacked the Yellow Jackets twice for a loss of 15 yards to go with his seven tackles.

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 1,617 yards to tie the all-time rushing leader Joe Moore (3,566 yards, 2000-2004).

FLC's defense is one of the best in the conference. The Skyhawks lead the league in total defense (284.0 yards per game), passing defense (155.0 yards per game), and passing defense efficiency (98.3).  Fort Lewis is also third in rushing defense (129.0 yards per game) and fourth in scoring defense (28.0 points per game).

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).