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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Ayden Madrid 9.18
Angela Roberts, FLC Athletic Communications
FLC freshman Ayden Madrid (#47) flies in for one of his career-high 15 tackles in Saturday's loss to No. 7 Colorado School of Mines.
76
Winner Colo. Sch. of Mines CSM 3-0 , 2-0
0
Fort Lewis FLC 0-3 , 0-2
Winner
Colo. Sch. of Mines CSM
3-0 , 2-0
76
Final
0
Fort Lewis FLC
0-3 , 0-2
Score By Quarters
Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th F
CSM Colo. Sch. of Mines 13 35 14 14 76
FLC Fort Lewis 0 0 0 0 0

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

Skyhawks struggle in Week Three clash against No. 7 Colorado School of Mines

DURANGO, Colorado — A challenging schedule to begin the 2021 season continued Saturday when the Fort Lewis College football team played host to No. 7 ranked Colorado School of Mines at Ray Dennison Memorial Field, falling by a 76-0 final to the nationally ranked Orediggers.

The matchup against the Orediggers (3-0 overall), preseason favorites in the RMAC Coaches' Poll, comes on the heels of a Week Two road clash against NCAA Division I for, Tarleton State University.

On Saturday, Mines showed why they are regarded as one of the top DII teams in the country, finishing with 575 total yards of offense while possessing the ball for 38:13.

"We've got a lot of work to do with this football team, I have a lot of work to do myself, and that's just the bottom line of it," said FLC head football coach, Darrius G. Smith. "This was a conference game that we anticipated a better battle from us and we did not show up."

Fort Lewis (0-3 overall) kept CSM in check in the first quarter as the defense forced a turnover on downs on the Orediggers first possession and went into the second quarter trailing just 13-0.

Leading the way defensively for the Skyhawks was freshman linebacker Ayden Madrid, a freshman out of Bernalillo, New Mexico. The former prep star — he set the New Mexico single-season tackles record with 173 in 2019 — finished with a career-high 15 total tackles as he shined in the middle of the FLC defense.

Eight of Madrid's 15 tackles were solo tackles while he also added one tackle for loss.

"Ayden gave us exactly what I thought he'd give us when he got an opportunity to start. That is a very good football player," Smith said. "The fact we were able to get him out of New Mexico, without a scholarship offer in state, is a credit to my staff… I was not surprised to see him perform the way he did (Saturday)."

Joining Madrid in double-figures was redshirt freshman linebacker Fred Mady III with 14 tackles and redshirt sophomore defensive back Jayden Helms with 11.

Unfortunately for the Skyhawks, the Orediggers' high-powered offense got clicking in the second quarter, tallying five touchdowns — one on defense via an interception return — to take control at 48-0 heading into halftime.

FLC was limited to 23 total yards and two first downs as the offense struggled to gain traction against a CSM defense that entered the ballgame holding opponents to just 12 points per game and leads the RMAC in fewest yards allowed (178.3).

"For whatever reason, we're just not clicking, offensively," Smith said. "Bottom line, our preparation was just not good enough."

Sophomore wide receiver Jordan Cummings led all FLC players with two catches for 20 yards, while redshirt senior running back Jeff Hansen paced the backfield with 13 net yards.

Fort Lewis will look to right the ship and bounce back next week when it heads on the road to face another quality opponent in Western Colorado University, which entered 2-0 on the season going into Saturday night's game against Adams State University.

Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. at the Mountaineer Bowl in Gunnison.
 
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