Oct. 25 st ADAMS STAE: LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO
This Week The New Mexico Highlands football team (3-4, 3-2 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) looks to get back to .500 when it takes on the Adams State Grizzlies (2-5, 1-4 RMAC). Kickoff is scheduled for 12:05 p.m. on Saturday (Oct. 25).
The Coaches Highlands head coach
Eric Young is currently in his fourth season and is 17-23 overall. He is 1-2 against Adams State but won the only game played in Alamosa.
The Grizzlies are coached by Mart Heaton, who is in seventh seasona at the Adams State. He is 38-35 as a college head coach and 4-2 against Highlands. However, he is 1-2 against the Cowboys in Alamosa.
The Series New Mexico Highlands trails the all-time series 40-28 and have lost two of the last three in the series. However, New Mexico Highlands has won two of the last three contests in Alamosa: 34-20 in 2012 and 13-7 in 2008. In 2012, kicker
Zach Tapia was 2-4 in field goals - including a 55-yarder - with four extra points in the 14-point win.
Sam FM: Getting Even Better Can't make it to the game? Every game will be broadcast live on 96.7 FM by Art Abreu, father of linebackers coach
Art Abreu Jr. Also, join athletic director
Jeff Falkner and the rest of the Highlands coaching staff on Monday night at 5:30 p.m. as we discuss the past week in Highlands sports and preview the upcoming week and even hear from special guests among the Highlands' athletic department.
Give it Up for the Punter Senior punter
Patrick Carney took a small hit in his season average for punts last week against Western State for the Cowboys. Carney, who was named a Preseason All-American as a punter by both Lindy's and the Sporting News, is the leading returning punter from 2013 in all of NCAA Division II.
In 2014 so far, Carney has placed 39.4 percent of his punts inside the 20 (13 of 33). Carney has punted for 50+ yards in 42 of 143 career punts (29.4 percent). Carney's average of 46.8 yards per game currently leads NCAA Division II (and would be 10th in the NCAAs behind Division I punters). His gap against the next NCAA Division II punter narrowed; however, to 1.3 yards this week.
Light Em' Up Senior linebacker
Jared Koster continues to show he is one of the best linebackers in the nation. The week following being named the RMAC Defensive Player of the Week and USACollegefootball.org Division II Defensive Player of the Week, Koster recorded 13 tackles and a forced fumble against #17 Colorado School of Mines.
He has at least 13 total tackles and six solo tackles in every game this season, and leads the nation in both total tackles (15.0) and solo tackles (9.0) per game. He had 13 tackles (eight solo) against Western State this past week. However, junior
Brandon Brown recorded 14 tackles, the first time all season someone not named Koster led the game in tackles.
Just Get Used to Saying Orender to Slavin Now Arguably, there has not been a more potent combination in NCAA football this season.
Since the start of conference play, senior
Lance Orender is 210-298 (70.2 percent) with 23 touchdowns. Just slightly more than half of those touchdowns (12) have been to senior
Tyler Slavin. Since RMAC play began, Slavin has caught 75 passes for 945 yards, an average of 189 passing yards per game. For their efforts, Orender was named RMAC Offensive Player of the Week (Sept. 22) and the national offensive player of the week by Beyondsportsnetwork on both Sept. 22 and Sept. 29. He was named Quarterback of the week by USAcollegefootball.org on Sept. 22.
Slavin, meanwhile, was on a three-week streak of being named the Wide Receiver of the Week by Beyondsportsnetwork (Sept. 22, Sept. 29 and Oct. 6). He also won Wide Receiver of the Week by USACollegefootball.org Sept. 22 and Sept. 29.
SEASON RECORD WATCH
Currently School RMAC
Has Record Record
Lance Orender:
Attempts: 399 534 596
Completions: 269 286 384
Yards: 3,028 3,657 4,646
Touchdowns: 29 29 39
Tyler Slavin:
Receptions: 92 123 124
Yards: 1,098 1,512 1,719
A Little Running in the Air Raid Most people by this time are aware that the Cowboys enjoy running the spread offense. However, it might surprise you that sophomore running back
Vincent Venegas is averaging 85.0 yards per game on the ground, including 197 yards in the win against Western State. He has rushed for more than 100 yards and has two touchdowns in the last two games
But he is a dual threat as a wide receiver. He has 44 catches for 311 yards and two touchdowns. He is the leading receiver among running backs in the RMAC. He is second on the team in both receptions and all-purpose yards per game (129.4).
Coming Up Next Highlands will celebrate senior day next Saturday (Nov. 1) when Chadron State comes to Las Vegas. It begins the annual swing of the South Dakota and Nebraska teams for the Cowboys as Highlands travels to South Dakota the following week.
