CSU Pueblo football makes easy work of Chadron State in big home win

The Colorado State University of Pueblo ThunderWolves are on a roll now, winners of four straight on the season and moving ever closer to the top spot in the RMAC standings. The pack took on a familiar foe in Chadron State and handled them easily at the ThunderBowl on Saturday by a score of 34-12.

The Thunderwolves now sit at 5-3 on the season, including a 4-2 record in the conference. Some of the keys to the victory in this one were stout defense and adjustments in the second half on offense.

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First-half slump

The first half of this game was a bit of a slump for both teams. Neither team could move the ball at all, and turnovers were plentiful. The ThunderWolves had a chance to put more points up on the board early in the first but missed a field goal from about 40 yards out.

The Eagles then jumped to an early lead of 6-0 but missed the extra point. The Pack answered back late in the first quarter to make it a 6-6 game as Hunter Raquet found Andrew Cook for a 12-yard score, but they also missed their extra point.

On the flip side, both defenses were playing well and forced several turnovers in the first half. The Eagles caused a fumble and forced an interception late in the second quarter against Raquet. The Pack defense was also stout, holding the Eagles to only six points in two trips to the red zone.

The defensive line in particular was controlling the line of scrimmage, something that head coach John Wristen preaches about to his team.

“I think the game is won in the trenches,” Wristen said. “We have to make sure we maintain, and we got to be focused on our job. We can’t have any self-inflicted wounds and make sure we get all that stuff done. That's the philosophy that we're going to coach with, making sure that we're square on the fundamentals.”

Second-half turnaround

The offense found a spark in the second half. Wristen went into the locker room and made some minor adjustments to the offense, and it proved to be the difference.

Raquet and the offense began to find a rhythm right away thanks in part to their defense. The Pack picked off the Eagles on their first drive of the second half and allowed the offense to take over from there. Raquet then found Cook for a 31-yard touchdown pass early in the third quarter to increase the lead to 13-6.

“We just thought we had some wide-open things and we just missed them and then we did a little better job in our protection and so we cleaned up our protection and turned it the other way,” Wristen said. “We were able to get some guys open and we just made plays, so it was good.”

Shortly after that, Cook found the end zone again on a 10-yard pass from Raquet. The two connected one more time in the third quarter, this time on a 63-yard bomb from Raquet to make the lead 27-6. After a couple of field goals by the Eagles' offense, Raquet shut the door on the game by taking the ball himself and running it in for a 3-yard touchdown to bring it to a final score of 34-12.

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“It seemed like it was tough sledding, but we got it going in the third quarter there and the kids responded,” Wristen said. “I was really proud of the way that we went about it, and it was fun and we had some good things happen and we got some things that we can improve on.”

Defensively in the second half, the ThunderWolves were once again stout, forcing a turnover and two punts on the Eagles' first three possessions of the second half.

“We held them without a score right at the end of the first half and I think that was big, and then it gained some momentum because we got to turn over right at the start of the third quarter and that kind of sparked that fire. And they build off that ... I was able to get in front of those momentums and we were able to have to manage the ebbs and flows and then take advantage of our opportunities.”

The ThunderWolves are now tied for third place in the RMAC, only two games behind Colorado School of Mines and one game back of Western Colorado. Those two teams face off next week, meaning CSU Pueblo could move within a game of the lead.

Christopher Abdelmalek is a sports reporter for the Pueblo Chieftain and can be reached at cabdelmalek@gannett.com or on Twitter: @chowebacca

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: CSU Pueblo football powered by Andrew Cook in win over Chadron State