The Chadron State College football team demonstrated its explosiveness and cashed in on three turnovers while defeating Western State Colorado 40-22 on Saturday afternoon in a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference contest.

The win was the Eagles’ 19th in their last 21 homecoming contests.

Now 4-1, the Eagles opened the scoring with less than three minutes gone off the clock when freshman safety Malik Goss returned an interception 82 yards for a touchdown.

Coach Jay Long said Goss’s play provided “a big spark that got us going” and commended his entire team for playing well most of the time.

Chadron State also got touchdowns on a 53-yard pass play from quarterback Dalton Holst to wide receiver Brandon Fullerton in the second quarter and a 68-yard jaunt from scrimmage by tailback Stevann Brown in the third period.

One of Chadron State’s two field goal kicked by freshman Carson Reed was preceded by Brown’s recovery of a Mountaineers’ fumble of a punt at the Western 14 yard line.

In addition, Chadron State scored on a 17-yard run by freshman tailback Elijah Myles in the first quarter after Holst had competed passes of 23 yards to Cole Thurness and 16 yards to Tevon Wright

The Eagles went ahead 33-7 just before halftime when senior tailback Kevin Coy plunged three yards up the middle after defensive end Kyle Temple had returned an interception 26 yards to the Mountaineers’ 43 yard line.

All three of Western State’s touchdowns came off drives of at least 73 yards, helping the Mountaineers win the time of possession statistic by a whopping 37 to 23-minute margin. The Colorado team also posted 23 first downs compared to CSC’s 15, but the visitors had just two plays over 25 yards long and none of their three touchdowns came plays longer than eight yards.

Bolstered by the long touchdown plays, the Eagles finished with 388 total net yards. Western finished with 350.

Holst completed passes to 10 receivers, was 21 of 31 for 280 yards through the air and was not intercepted. However, Western State brought lots of pressure and sacked the CSC quarterback four times for a negative 33 yards.

Western State quarterback Dylan Jacob was 16 of 37 passing for 164 yards and two touchdowns to go with the two interceptions. He was sacked three times for minus 22 yards, but still finished with 70 yards on 15 carries to lead his team in rushing.

Senior tailback Isaac Fuqua had 15 carries for 67 yards on an eight-yard touchdown in the first half, but did not play in the second half.

CSC linebackers Tyler Lewis and Keenan Johnson combined for 18 tackles, 13 of them solos, and Goss and junior safety Tyree Fryar combined for 13 tackles, all but two of them unassisted.

Western State is now 0-5.

Chadron State will play Adams State at Alamosa, Colorado, this coming Saturday.

WSC                      CSC
First Downs                               23                          15
Total Net Yards                         350                        388
Rushes, Yards                       51-186                   26-108
Passing Yards                          164                        280
Passing                                 16-37-2                  21-31-0
Return Yards                            112                        226
Fumbles, Lost                           2-1                        1-1
Penalties, Yards                      4-30                       8-67
Time of Possession                37:21                     22:30

Western State          7           0           15           0        —-22
Chadron State        17         16             7           0       —-40

First Quarter
CSC—Malik Goss 82 interception return (Carson Reed kick)
CSC—Elijah Myles 17 run (Reed kick)
WSC—Isaac Fuqua 8 run (Chandler Davis kick)
CSC—Reed 29 field goal
Second Quarter
CSC—Reed 23 field goal
CSC—Brandon Fullerton 53 pass from Dalton Holst (kick failed)
CSC—Kevin Coy 3 run (Reed kick)
Third Quarter
WSC—Elijah Gillespie 3 pass from Dylan Jacob (Ty Leyba run)
CSC—Stevann Brown 68 run (Reed kick)
WSC—Bryce Harvey 6 pass from Jacob (Davis kick).