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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Kieran Fry 10.30
Angela Roberts, FLC Athletic Communications
FLC freshman Kieran Fry (#17) recorded a career-high five catches on Saturday against CSU Pueblo.
73
Winner CSU Pueblo CSU 6-3 , 6-1
0
Fort Lewis FLC 0-9 , 0-8
Winner
CSU Pueblo CSU
6-3 , 6-1
73
Final
0
Fort Lewis FLC
0-9 , 0-8
Score By Quarters
Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th F
CSU CSU Pueblo 13 40 13 7 73
FLC Fort Lewis 0 0 0 0 0

Game Recap: Football | | David Wilson, Assistant AD-Communications

Skyhawks fall to ThunderWolves on Senior Day

DURANGO, Colo. — Playing against a perennial RMAC powerhouse in Colorado State University Pueblo, the Fort Lewis College football team struggled to contain the ThunderWolves in all three facets, falling by a 73-0 final at Ray Dennison Memorial Field.

"CSU Pueblo is a team that has shown dominance on the Division II ranks, and though this year might be a down year by their standards, they are a very high level RMAC team," said FLC head football coach, Darrius G. Smith.

Fort Lewis (0-9 overall, 0-8 RMAC) was able to hold on the ThunderWolves (6-3 overall, 6-1 RMAC) opening drive, forcing a missed 40-yard field goal attempt. Unfortunately, the FLC offense was unable to capitalize and punted the ball back to the Pack with 11:50 remaining in the first quarter.

The CSU Pueblo offense erupted for six straight touchdown drives, taking a 13-0 lead after the first quarter and building a 53-0 lead at the half, adding its first of two special teams touchdowns via a 73-yard punt return score from Andrew Cook.

Fort Lewis, playing much of the game without its defensive anchor Jayden Helms, struggled to contain the big play on Saturday as CSU Pueblo recorded eight touchdown scores over 20 yards.

Helms entered the ballgame second among all NCAA Division II players with 99 total tackles and led the nation with 60 solo tackles. He finished with two tackles and Saturday after exiting early on with a lower body injury.

"When Jayden is not on the field for our defense, we're nowhere close to the unit we can possibly be. We're a completely different defense without him on the field because he's our captain. He's an extension of the coaching staff out there, making sure we're lined up correctly and everyone knows their assignments so they can just go make a play," Smith said. "He's been our confidence on the field and when he's not out there, we've not been a confident defense."

Redshirt sophomore linebacker Fred Mady III led the FLC defensive unit in tackles Saturday with nine total tackles and 1.5 tackles for a loss, while redshirt sophomore Max Hyson, senior Shawn Garcia Jr. and true freshman Josiah Flores all added five tackles.

Offensively, junior quarterback Armon Hickson received his first start of 2021, going 11-of-37 through the air for 89 yards. His favorite target on the day was freshman wide receiver Kieran Fry as the shifty slot receiver set career highs with five catches for 58 yards after being held to four combined catches the previous four weeks.

"Kieran has always been someone when try to have a little bit of a focal point on in the offense. It's just been a matter of getting him in the right situations and right sets," Smith said. "There were a few things we saw as a coaching staff that we thought we could take advantage of with Kieran, schematically, and tried to put him in positions to excel."

On the ground, redshirt junior running back Jeff Hansen finished with 28 net rushing yards on 11 carries, while fellow redshirt junior Emmanuel Nwosu added 17 net yards on seven carries.

Fort Lewis will look to bounce back next Saturday when it heads out to Alamosa for the 59th all-time meeting against long-time rival Adams State University. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. at Rex Stadium.

"We're going with the Al Davis and Raiders catchphrase, 'Just win, baby.' We'll put everything else behind us and focus on one game at a time," said Smith when asked the message to the team is heading into next Saturday's rivalry game against Adams State. "I'm excited to be a part of something like this, the tradition and rivalry. This game will help us establish the culture change and foundation, but this is also a tradition I inherited and is bigger than me. We're going to allow the players to lead me through this on the standpoint of how important the game is to them. Then I'll sit down with the coaches and do what we do every week, which is try to establish a game plan to accentuate the talents we have in our program. If there was a rallying cry for a victory, this is the one."

Notes:
Saturday marked Senior Day for the FLC football program, with 12 players being honored pregame for their contributions to FLC and Skyhawks' football.

The 12 honorees included many impact pieces in Isaac Leppke, Clayton Rutz, Markez Boykin, Charles Roberts, Jack Harper, Shawn Garcia Jr., Oscar Oliva, Devon Taylor, Austin Anderson, Migel Garcia, Alex Motler and Max Peets.

"Those seniors; I wish it could have been different and I was here longer with them, to be able to pull out all their great attributes they've shown me over the last year and a half. We're going to miss every single one of those seniors in detail," Smith said. "As we're trying to lay down a foundation of a program, each and every one of those young men I wish I had longer. I thank them and I know our record is not what I want, or they want it to be, but those guys have made this journey exciting for me in more ways than one. I wish them nothing but success in life. And I want them to know that I'm a man of my word and I will be there for them in a time of need. I'll be there for them and my staff will be there for them even after they leave the program."
 
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