SPORTS

Colorado Shuts down Indians 52-33 in playoff Action
Trey Reed | Staff Reporter

GOLDEN, Colo. -- The Indians showed character and had a penchant for overcoming adversity over the course of the 2004 season.
The team overcame the loss of teammate Micheal Erokwu before fall workouts, the loss of starting running back Jerrold Fuqua for personal reasons and then the season produced a flood of injuries effecting just about ever part of the team.
Through it all, the Indians found a way to piece together a four- and three-game winning streaks and crashed the NCAA Division II playoff for the first time in school history.
Winning close games was their signature as they won all four games decided by five points or less during the season.
They also claimed six victories in games in which the defense limited the opposition to 50 yards or less. That’s a stat that the Indians led the nation in earlier in the season before injuries zapped the defensive unit.
None of those stats mattered much Saturday on a sloppy, muddy Brooks Field where the Indians were overmatched by the nation’s best quarterback using the schemes of a coach Midwestern State turned away three seasons ago.
Colorado School of Mines coach Bob Stitt was on campus three years ago as a finalist for MSU’s coaching vacancy. He had just completed his second season as head coach in Golden and turned a 2-8 squad into a 7-4 winner just two years in to his stint.
The Orediggers have become the Cinderella team of the 2004 Division II playoffs and have now reeled off 14 straight wins dating back to last season.
The job that eventually was offered to current coach Bill Maskill.
As it turns out, MSU was in a no-lose situation. Maskill has led the Indians to a 22-10 mark over the past three seasons.
The Indians would probably be making travel plans to Pittsburg, Kan. this weekend were it not for the amazing maturity of Mine’s quarterback Chad Friehauf.
Friehauf leaped from 2,600 passing yards a season ago to 4,213 yards and counting this season.
The lanky 6-8 senior quarterback’s name could not be found on any pre-season honors, but now his name is etched in the NCAA record books compiling more total yards and passing yards than any other quarterback in Division II history.
It was Friehauf’s accuracy and Stitt’s scheming against an aggressive MSU defense made the Indians stay in the playoffs a brief one.
The Indians dared the Orediggers to beat a blitzing scheme and Mines welcomed the defenders up the field where Friehauf used his size to loft screen passes to running backs slipping out of the backfield or receivers on slip routes.
Then when the Indians stayed back, Friehauf had time to find mismatches downfield. It all added up to 614 yards of total offense and a constant headache for the MSU coaching staff.


Student Wellness Center worth the stretch
David Roach | Staff Reporter

I don’t know about any of my readers out there on campus, but I would absolutely love to have a brand new Student Wellness Center.
I would especially like to get back into playing racquetball and would love to play it as an intramural sport as well. I used to play racquetball at my former church’s Family Life Center back in Vernon, and I really miss it. Playing racquetball is not only fun but is also good exercise. Most all of us could certainly use a little more of that.
But, it’s not just the availability of racquetball courts but also multiple basketball courts, weight and cardiovascular exercise areas, indoor elevated walking/running track, rock climbing wall, and exterior Olympic-size swimming pool that makes the proposed SWC appetizing.
Surely, some Indians and Lady Indians have seen the proposal by Recreational Sports Director Joey Greenwood on our MSU website. It honestly looks pretty sweet.
And, it would give all of the students stuck on campus something else to do. We wouldn’t have to go somewhere else to swim or share the workout facility and basketball courts with the sports teams anymore either.
We could also form our own men’s and women’s swim teams. That would be cool, wouldn’t it?
I think Mr. Greenwood has done an excellent job in all the work he has done with respect to this proposed SWC, and it is well worth the serious consideration by our Student Government Association.
He and I were discussing it one day in his office, and he did say building and maintaining the SWC would mean an increased tuition and fees cost of around $100 per semester, per student.
But I say, in the words of Nike, “Just do it.”
I mean here’s the deal, folks. The longer we wait to approve something like this, the more it will cost anyway due to inflation. Plus, more and more universities are building their own wellness centers, and that takes away potential MSU students. Having an SWC would undoubtedly keep at least some of the students on campus during the weekends as well.
It really makes perfect sense to get this done, in the short and long run.
It’s worth the stretch. Heck, tuition costs keep rising anyway. We might as well get something in return.


Indians hit road Mine
Trey Reed | Staff Reporter

GOLDEN, Colo. -- Colorado School of Mines’ quarterback Chad Friehauf has been making witnesses of opponents all season long.
Still, the Indians believed they had what it took to contain the Oredigger’s Harlon Hill candidate Saturday at Brooks Field.
Seeing is believing and Friehuaf was more than up to the task of making believers out of Midwestern State.
The senior signal caller threw for a season-high 467 yards and five touchdowns as the Orediggers pulled away for a 52-33 win in the first round of the Division II playoffs.
“He’s the best quarterback I’ve ever seen. He can throw it and he can run,” senior linebacker Kevin Taulton said. “I didn’t think his running was that good on film, but seeing it in person - he’s a double-threat. He’s real smart.”
The Indians end the season with a 8-3 record advancing to the NCAA playoffs for the first time in school history.
The Orediggers improved to 12-0 and will play No. 1-ranked Pittsburg State Saturday in Pittsburg, Kan.
Friehauf left more than the Indians in his wake by staking claim to the Division II single season passing record and completing playoff, single-game high of 43 completions. He now has accounted for 4,213 passing yards. He also rolled up 91 rushing yards on 19 carries and another score.
The Indians got off to a quick start after Ross Harrison capped a 5-play, 66-yard drive with a 5-yard run less than two minutes into the game to give MSU an early 7-0 lead.
But consecutive turnovers quickly shifted momentum and helped kick-start the Orediggers’ potent offense.
After the Indians limited Mines to a field goal after a 16-play, 66-yard opening drive, Mark Crowe fumbled the ensuing kickoff to give the Orediggers possession at the Indian 32 yard line.
Friehauf connected with Justin Gallas on the next play for a 27-yard scoring strike to give the Orediggers a 10-7 lead.
“Momentum changed and that got the crowd into it,” Indians coach Bill Maskill said. “Then we come right back and turned the ball over again.”
A Ross Harrison fumble on MSU’s next drive led to another Friehauf-to-Gallas 5-yard connection with 20 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
In all, Mines turned 4-of-6 MSU turnovers into touchdowns.
The Orediggers’ scoring flurry continued in the second quarter as Mines’ found the end zone two more times while keeping the Indians guessing with a series of screen and shovel passes.
“They really used our aggressiveness against us,” Taulton said. “I know they saw that we were fast and get to the ball quickly. Today, the screens and the cut-backs hurt us.”
And when the Indians stayed back, Friehauf was able to find open a pair of 1,000-yard targets in Gallas and Jonny Chan breaking behind the MSU defense.
Friehauf completed 15-of-18 passes over the final two drives of the first half as Mines extended its lead to 31-7 at halftime.
Chan led a trio of 100-yard receivers with 10 catches for 146 yards and a touchdown. Gallas finished with 141 yards on eight receptions and two scores, while Craig Van Horn snagged eight aerials for 103 yards out of the backfield.
The Indians closed to within 38-26 after Daniel Polk hit Myron Cooper on an 8-yard scoring strike with just under nine minutes remaining in the game, but Mines scored on consecutive drives to snuff out any comeback hopes.
Polk led the Indian attack with 307 yards on 19-of-35 passing including three touchdowns.
Isaac Powdrell had 91 yards on six catches including two scores (56, 10).
“Give them credit, they played better than we did. We got out coached and outplayed today,” Maskill said.