CSU Pueblo dominant on the road at a record setting pace, defeat Fort Lewis 85-7

The CSU Pueblo ThunderWolves, who have been in a rough spot the past few games, took to the road for a get-right game against the Fort Lewis Skyhawks on Saturday.

The ThunderWolves easily defeated their conference opponents 85-7, resulting in their fifth straight victory over the Skyhawks and history being made for the third straight year.

The ThunderWolves dominated this game from the start. Led by quarterback Chance Fuller and wide receiver Reggie Retzlaff, the Pack put up 355 yards in the air and scored seven touchdowns in the passing game all while having the ball for less time than the Skyhawks.

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Time of possession, no problem

Usually, when you control the time of possession in a game, you come out on top. But time wasn’t a problem for the ThunderWolves as they scored early and often and fast as well.

In the first quarter alone, the Pack scored three times, all three times to Retzlaff, all in less than four minutes of possession time.

The Skyhawks had no answer for the Pack offensively early on and defensively the ThunderWolves dominated the home team on the line and forced them into long drives with no results.

The Pack had their first punt in the game early in the second quarter, but the Skyhawks could do nothing with it.

They promptly stopped and turned the ball back over to the Pack. The ThunderWolves marched down the field and capped off the drive with a 20-yard touchdown run by running back Howard Russell to go up 29-0 midway through the second quarter.

The Pack scored again after stopping the Skyhawks on an 80-yard touchdown run from Kiahn Martinez to extend their lead to 36-0 with about three minutes left in the second quarter. After an interception to set the Pack up deep in Skyhawks territory, Fuller found Andrew Cook for a 21-yard touchdown to put the ThunderWolves up 43-0 before the half.

But the Pack was not done.

If you are going to put a beatdown on a team, you might as well hang up 50 on them before halftime.

The Skyhawks had one more possession before the end of the half, deep in their own territory, and they fumbled the ball. With a minute left on the clock, Fuller found tight end Tyler Dvorak to put the Pack up 50-0 going into the locker rooms.

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Record-setting second half

In the second half, the ball was handed over to Steven Croell and he proceeded to extend the lead even further by finding Nate Gravagno for 55 yards to put the Pack up 57-0.

With just over five minutes left in the third quarter, Moosah Alsaffar took the handoff from Croell and ran it up the middle for 36 yards and the touchdown to make it a 64-0 game. With still another quarter plus of football left to play, the Pack were getting closer to matching the score from the last time they visited Durango.

Early in the fourth quarter, Croell took the ball on an option route and ran it in for the touchdown to get the score to 71-0. With history on the line, the Pack took the ball with ten minutes left in the game down the field and Ty Virgin scored to make it 78-0.

The Skyhawks did not want to end this game on a shutout and got a break with a missed tackle and an 80-yard touchdown run to make it a 78-7 game. Blake Short came into the game and tossed a 47-yard touchdown pass to Shane Young to extend the score to 85-7 with just over three minutes left in the game.

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With the final touchdown pass, history was made. It marked the most points scored in school history with 85 and now the biggest margin of victory in school history at 78 points. Over the last three games against the Skyhawks, the Pack has set school records for scoring and margin of victory.

The Pack finished with 355 yards passing combined, seven touchdowns in the air, and 409 yards rushing the ball with five touchdowns. With a combined 12 touchdowns on the day, the Pack set a new Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference record for the most touchdowns scored in a single game by a team.

Coach Philip Vigil was happy with his team’s performance in this one, getting a win and getting the team back on track.

"I told the team all week long, it's 'Us vs. Us,'" Vigil said. “We know that we are capable of playing with anybody. This whole week was about us. Before the game, I challenged them and said, 'We are going to see how much you love each other today because if you love the guy next to you you’re not going to let that guy down.' This was the first game all season where we played all together from offense to defense to special teams.”

With a win under their belt in league play, the ThunderWolves now have a chance of repeating what they did last season, winning out the rest of the season, and possibly having a chance at a spot in the playoffs.

“I want our guys to start playing with confidence. Obviously, our first four games we played probably the hardest division schedule in the country,” Vigil said. “It was really good for our guys today to get back on track and I hope that they can continue to play with some confidence here moving forward.

"We don't know what's going to happen. It's kind of out of our control. We're trying to just get better every single day because that's the only thing we can control. So come Monday we will watch the film, and as a team hopefully we can build on some confidence from this victory.”

The ThunderWolves return home next week to face off against Adams State for their homecoming game. Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m.

Christopher Abdelmalek is a sports reporter for the Pueblo Chieftain and can be reached at cabdelmalek@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @chowebacca. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: CSU Pueblo dominant over RMAC opponent while making history