PUEBLO, Colo. – The 12th-ranked Colorado State University Pueblo football team returns to the road for the third time this season on Saturday, Oct. 4, as the ThunderWolves travel three hours down I-25 to Las Vegas, N.M., for a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference contest against New Mexico Highlands. Kickoff for Saturday's game is set for 1:05 p.m. at Sanchez Family Stadium.

The Pack, who are 2-0 on the road this season and have won 11 consecutive road games since suffering a 57-49 double overtime loss at Grand Valley State on Sept. 9, 2023, enters Saturday's tilt sporting a 4-1 overall record and a 3-0 mark in the RMAC following a 55-7 home win last Saturday against Adams State. Meanwhile, New Mexico Highlands enters the game sporting a 3-1 overall record and a 1-1 mark in the RMAC after suffering its first loss of the season (30-3) last Saturday at seventh-ranked Western Colorado.

CSU Pueblo, who has won three straight games since a 36-35 home loss on Sept. 4 against Fort Hays State, enters this weekend's action having won 19 straight RMAC games dating to the 2023 season. The 19-game conference win streak is currently the longest active streak in Division II football and the longest for the Pack since winning a school and RMAC-record 33 straight league games from 2010-14.

In last Saturday's win against Adams State, the Pack scored in all three phases of the game as the Pack returned two turnovers for touchdowns, both of which were scored by junior linebacker Bryson Torrie (Denver, Colo./Vista Peak), while having senior receiver Reece Robinson (Los Angeles, Calif./Antelope Valley) return a punt 65 yards for a touchdown and its offense scoring four touchdowns, including two rushing scores of 50 or more yards. The Pack led 48-0 at the half, and the 55 points scored were a season high.

"It's a special day when all three phases score touchdowns in a game. I think one of the biggest keys to victory last week was starting fast, and we did that," said CSU Pueblo third-year head coach Philip Vigil. "It was awesome to see it come to fruition. I thought we had a really good week of practice last week, and the boys carried that over to Saturday. I was really proud of every phase, and I thought everybody did their jobs and we played to our standard."

Torrie, who was named this week's RMAC Defensive Player of the Week and the NFF Colorado Chapter Player of the Week, scored touchdowns on a 42-yard fumble return and a five-yard interception return. He is just the fourth Division II player since the mid-1970s to score two defensive touchdowns in the same game and the first since Pace's Nick Nasti returned two fumbles for scores in a game against Stonehill on Oct. 15, 2015. The other two players to score two defensive touchdowns in a game were Henderson State's Matt McFadden, who returned two interceptions for scores against Arkansas-Monticello on Oct. 26, 2013, and Mississippi College's Sam Washington returning two interceptions for scores against Troy State in 1974.

"It's a pretty special thing to score one touchdown, but to score two is amazing. He needs to go buy a lottery ticket as that doesn't just happen," the Pack coach added. "I think our defense has been very opportunistic all season long, and we've done a good job at forcing turnovers."

Along with Torrie's defensive touchdowns on a fumble return and an interception, the Pack defense forced a total of five turnovers last Saturday and now has forced a Division II-best 17 turnovers this season, including an NCAA Division II-leading 12 interceptions, and has a plus-10 turnover margin, which is tops in Division II. The other turnovers in the game were interceptions by sophomore cornerback Dre'Monti Jackson (Denver, Colo./Dr. MLK Jr. Early College), sophomore safety Tre Jordan (Tomball, Texas/Midwestern State), and freshman safety Nathan Spivey, Jr. (Tucson, Ariz./Salpointe Catholic). Jackson is now tied for the team lead in interceptions with senior safety Peyton Shaw (Savannah, Texas/Midwestern State) with three on the year.

Along with forcing five turnovers, the Pack defense held the Grizzlies to a total of 224 total yards of offense as they limited them to 80 yards rushing on 43 carries (1.9 yards per carry) and 144 yards passing. In addition, the Pack had four sacks and 10 tackles for loss in the game. The four sacks pushed their season total to 15, which is 10th-most in Division II.

Another positive from Saturday's game was that the Pack were able to play a lot of players as the starters, especially on offense, played just the first half before sitting out the entire second half.

"Anytime you can reward some guys with playing time on Saturday for the hard work they've put in throughout the year, we are going to try and do that, and last week, we were able to get a lot of guys some game reps and experience, and that will only help us as the season progresses."

While the Pack defense forced five turnovers in Saturday's game, the Pack offense also had another strong game against the Grizzlies, as they finished with 442 yards of offense. The Pack rushed 32 times for a season-high 245 yards and averaged 7.7 yards per carry and had touchdown runs of 52 yards from senior running back Devin Cross (Pflugerville, Texas/Midwestern State) and 59 yards from redshirt freshman running back Russell Patton (Denver, Colo./Dr. MLK Jr. Early College). In addition, the Pack was 14-for-24 passing for 197 yards.

Patton paced the Pack's ground game with a career-high 108 yards on 10 carries and averaged 10.8 yards per carry, while Cross gained 70 yards on four carries and averaged 17.5 yards per carry.

"I was really pleased that we were able to finally put together some explosive runs. Both Devin and Russell did a really good job, and it was great to see them go out there and reset the line of scrimmage, offensive line-wise," added Vigil, who is now 22-6 as the Pack's coach.

Senior quarterback Roman Fuller (Decatur, Texas/University of Tulsa) had another efficient game directing the Pack offense as he completed 65 percent of his passes (11-for-17) for 197 yards and had two touchdown passes in the first half. Fuller's touchdown passes were a 20-yard strike to sophomore receiver Marcellus Honeycutt, Jr. (Aurora, Colo./Eastern Washington) and a 17-yard connection to junior receiver Dedrek Taylor-Akins (Fontana, Calif./Northeastern State).

Fuller comes into Saturday's game leading the RMAC in passing yards (1,241), passing yards per game (248.2), and passing touchdowns (13), and is second in passing efficiency (145.2 efficiency), points responsible for (90), and third in total offense (244.0). Fuller is 106-for-173 passing for 1,241 yards with 13 touchdown passes and one interception.

Since his arrival on campus last season, Fuller is tied for eighth in career pass attempts (368), fourth in career passing completions (243), fifth in career passing yards (3,083), fourth in career passing touchdowns (31), tied for seventh in career touchdowns responsible for (33), and ninth in career total offense (3,034). Fuller is now one of five quarterbacks in school history to throw for 3,000 or more yards and is one of three quarterbacks in school history with 3,000 passing yards and 30 or more touchdown passes.

Fuller's top targets in the passing game last Saturday were redshirt senior Reggie Retzlaff (Corona, Calif./Riverside City College) and Honeycutt, Jr., as Retzlaff caught five passes for 59 yards and Honeycutt, Jr., caught three passes for 64 yards.

With his five receptions and 59 receiving yards, Retzlaff pushed his career totals to 139 receptions for 2,346 yards and has had a school record 30 touchdown receptions. His 139 receptions are third on the school's all-time chart, while the 2,346 yards are second-most in school history. He enters Saturday's game just 13 receptions and 161 yards shy of Paul Browning's career school records for receptions (152) and receiving yards (2,507).

The Pack offense continues to lead Division II in red zone offense as they are 20-for-20 on the season in the red zone as they have scored 15 touchdowns and five field goals. In addition, the Pack offense leads the RMAC and is fifth nationally in first downs with 121. Against Adams State, the Pack was 3-for-3 in the red zone as they scored two touchdowns and added a 31-yard field goal from junior kicker Jackson Smith (Centennial, Colo./Santa Barbara City College). Smith also made a career-long 51-yard field goal in last Saturday's game, as he tied a single-game school record with 13 points as he was 7-for-7 on extra points and made two field goals.

The Pack's opponent on Saturday, New Mexico Highlands, will present numerous challenges for the Pack in all three phases of the game, according to Vigil.

"Offensively, what they do is very difficult to defend. They are a gun option team, and you have to be very sound and have great eye and gap discipline defensively to be able to defend that on every single play. They have athletes at every position," Vigil added. "Offensively for us, they are very multiple defensively, and on special teams, they have played really hard and will present some challenge there. They come into this game 3-1 on the season with their only loss coming to the No. 7 team in the country in Western Colorado. So, we are going to have to be ready to rock and roll."

Vigil says that one of the key factors for the Pack this Saturday will be to start fast again, as they did last weekend against Adams State.

"We want to start fast again on Saturday. If we can start quick and put them (Highlands) in a position where they can't just run the football the entire game, that will benefit us. We want to be able to start fast offensively and get some stops on the defensive side of the ball," the Pack coach stated.

Saturday's game will mark the 29th all-time meeting between the two schools and the 17th time since CSU Pueblo restarted its football program in 2008. The Pack leads the all-time series 23-5 and has won 18 of the last 19 games in the series, with the lone New Mexico Highlands win coming in Las Vegas, N.M., in 2021 as the Cowboys earned a 28-21 victory. The Pack is 11-3 on the road and 13-2 at home in the series. The Pack is 15-1 in the series since the 2008 season. Last season, the Pack earned a 67-28 win on Homecoming in the ThunderBowl.

Following Saturday's game with New Mexico Highlands, the Pack will return to the ThunderBowl to play its lone October home contest against Fort Lewis for Homecoming 2025 on Saturday, Oct. 11. Kickoff for the homecoming game with Fort Lewis is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. The Pack is 32-6 all-time in homecoming games and has won all 16 of its homecoming games since the football program was restarted in 2008.

ABOUT NEW MEXICO HIGHLANDS
New Mexico Highlands comes into its third home game of the 2025 season looking to rebound after having its three-game win streak to open the season snapped last Saturday with a 30-3 setback at seventh-ranked Western Colorado. Before the loss at Western Colorado, NMHU started the season 3-0 for the first time since 2011.

As a team, New Mexico Highlands, which is coached by second-year head coach Kurt Taufa'asau, comes into Saturday's game as one of the offensive and scoring teams in Division II as they lead Division II in total offense, averaging 497.0 yards per game and is second nationally in rushing offense as they are averaging 349.5 rushing yards per game and are third in the RMAC in scoring as they are averaging 38.5 points per game. The Cowboys have scored 34 or more points in all three of their wins this season, including tallying 69 points in a 69-55 home win over Western New Mexico.

"They've done a really good job there at New Mexico Highlands. Coach (Kurt) Taufa'asau has done an amazing job. He's gotten some talent in there that they were lacking last year," Vigil said when asked about New Mexico Highlands.

One of the key reasons for Highlands' success this season can be attributed to freshman running back Jeffery Jones, who leads Division II in rushing with 893 yards as he is averaging 223.3 rushing yards per game, a D-II best 12.1 yards per carry, is third in rushing touchdowns with eight and is averaging 223.3 yards of total offense. Jones, who has been named a two-time RMAC Offensive Player of the Week and was the D2Football.com National Offensive Player of the Week on Sept. 9 after rushing for a Division II freshman single-game record 385 yards against Western New Mexico. He has gained over 200 yards rushing in three of his four games, but was held to a season-low 57 yards rushing on 12 carries last weekend at Western Colorado.

Other key offensive performers for the Cowboys are sophomore running back Tevita Valeti, junior receiver Mike Jones and senior quarterback Ike Udengwu III, who is a transfer from Grand Valley State.
Valeti, who was named the RMAC Offensive Freshman of the Year last season, has gained 221 yards rushing on 38 carries and has scored three touchdowns, while Jones has caught 13 passes for 304 yards and has had five touchdown receptions and is averaging 23.4 yards per reception and Udengwu III has passed for 551 yards as he is 30-for-58 passing for seven touchdowns and two interceptions and is averaging 132.8 yards of total offense.

"The tailback position is probably the most loaded that they have, and maybe one of the most loaded in the country. They've got Tevita (Valeti), who was the Freshman of the Year in the conference last year at running back, and they have (Jeffery) Jones, who is leading the country in rushing yards as a true freshman, and he is very dynamic and explosive," said Vigil about Highlands' running backs. "Their quarterback is a great decision maker, and he puts his team in the right spot from the gun read option game, and he can also throw the ball, too. They also have receivers who can go and make plays. We are going to have to make sure that we're very sound in what we do defensively."

On defense, the Cowboys have recorded nine sacks, 26 tackles for a loss, picked off four passes and have forced three fumbles. In addition, they have blocked two kicks, which is tops in the RMAC.

Among the key players on defense are freshman defensive back Awsten Turnbow, who has recorded a team-best 35 tackles, including 21 solo stops, and has had 1.5 tackles for a loss, an interception, and a blocked kick. In addition to Turnbow, junior defensive lineman Corey Martin has tallied 14 tackles, four sacks, four tackles for a loss, and a forced fumble, and sophomore defensive lineman Keenan Carter has had 13 tackles, 3.5 tackles for a loss, one interception, and one pass break-up.

"They are going to play a lot of different fronts and will change up their coverages, and are going to bring pressure," added the Pack coach.

Another strength for the Cowboys is their special teams, as Jones is one of the kickoff returners in the country, averaging 47.0 yards per return and returning a kickoff 99 yards for a score against South Dakota Mines en route to earning RMAC Special Teams Player of the Week accolades. In addition to Jones, freshman running back Jaden Montalvo is averaging 32.7 yards per kickoff return and has also had a kickoff return touchdown. On the season, the Cowboys have recorded 13 kickoff returns for 397 yards and is averaging 30.5 yards per return and have returned two kickoffs for touchdowns.

In addition, freshman kicker Alekzander Britt is 3-for-3 on field goals and has made 19 of his 20 extra points, and has scored 28 points. Britt's 19 extra points are second-most in the RMAC.

PACK FOOTBALL NOTES

• The Pack Football Show will once again return this season to the ThunderZone, which is located across the street from the ThunderBowl. The sixth show of the 2025 season aired on Wednesday, Oct. 2, at 6 p.m., with the next show scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 8, at 6 p.m. 
• In the Preseason RMAC Coaches' Poll, the Pack was tabbed to finish tied for first with Western Colorado, as the Pack and the Mountaineers each earned 76 points, including each team earning five first-place votes, four second-place votes, and one third-place vote.  
• The Pack's football game on Saturday at New Mexico Highlands will be broadcast once again this season on Fox Sports Pueblo (1350 AM) with CSU Pueblo Class of 2025 Hall of Famer Jim Brooks and Joe Cervi on the call. The broadcast will begin with a pregame show 30 minutes before the opening kickoff. Saturday's pregame show with Colorado Mesa will begin at 12:30 p.m. MT. 
• The Pack is the winningest football program in the state of Colorado, boasting a winning percentage of nearly 65.3 percent since its inception in 1963. The Pack has posted a 269-142-4 record in football since 1963. Colorado is the second-winningest team in the state, as Colorado has won 57 percent of its games all-time, as the Buffs have posted a 735-551-36 record. 
• New Mexico Highlands is the fifth most common opponent for the Pack football team in school history, as the two teams have played 28 times all-time, with the Pack holding a 23-5 record in the series.
• The Pack's 19-game RMAC win streak is the longest active conference win streak in Division II and the second-longest RMAC win streak in school history behind its league-record 33-game RMAC win streak that spanned from 2010 to 2014. 
• With his punt return for a touchdown last Saturday against Adams State, Robinson and redshirt senior receiver Andrew Cook (Tucson, Ariz./Ironwood Ridge) are two of the four active Division II players with two career kickoff return touchdowns.
• Torrie's interception return for a touchdown last week was the Pack's 54th interception for a touchdown since the start of the 2008 season. Since the beginning of the 2019 season, the Pack have recorded 18 interception returns for a touchdown.