PUEBLO, Colo. – The 12th-ranked Colorado State University Pueblo football team scored in all three phases of the game here Saturday afternoon en route to posting a 55-7 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference victory over Adams State on Band Day at the CSU Pueblo ThunderBowl. The 55 points scored were a season high for the Pack.

With the victory, the ThunderWolves improve to 4-1 overall and 3-0 in the RMAC, while Adams State falls to 0-4 overall and 0-2 in the league. The win extended the Pack's RMAC win streak to 19 consecutive games, which is the longest active conference win streak in Division II football.

"I thought we were on the same page today from the beginning in all three phases of the game, but those things happen because we had a great week of practice. We did some things differently at the start, and we were able to start faster, which was awesome to see," CSU Pueblo third-year head football coach Philip Vigil said following his team's third straight victory.

In the win, which was the 16th consecutive in the series against the Grizzlies, the Pack forced five turnovers and scored 21 points off the turnovers, including junior linebacker Bryson Torrie (Denver, Colo./Vista Peak) forced and then returned a fumble 42 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter and then picking off a pass and returning it five yards for a touchdown in the second quarter. Torrie's two defensive touchdowns are the most in a game by a Pack defensive player since the program restarted in 2008.

"Our defense continues to do a great job covering in the back end, but that doesn't happen if our guys up front aren't doing a good job at getting after the quarterback. It was fun to see some guys do some things with the ball today," the Pack coach added.

Along with scoring two defensive touchdowns by Torrie, senior receiver Reece Robinson (Los Angeles, Calif./Antelope Valley) returned a punt 65 yards for a touchdown, and junior kicker Jackson Smith (Centennial, Colo./Santa Barbara City College) connected on a career-long 51-yard field goal as the Pack special teams contributed 13 points to the scoring tally as Smith also made a 31-yard field goal.

In addition, the Pack offense scored on its four possessions of the game as they sprinted out to a 45-0 lead at the half. The 45 first half points were the most scored by the Pack in the opening half since scoring 46 first-half points in last year's Homecoming game against New Mexico Highlands.

The Pack finished the game with 442 yards of offense as they ran the ball 32 times for a season-high 234 yards and were 14-for-24 passing for 197 yards. That snapped a streak of eight straight games by the Pack with 200 or more passing yards. The 234 yards rushing were the most in a game for the Pack since rushing for 291 yards last season at Fort Lewis.

"I was pleased to see us have some explosive runs today as that is something that we really haven't had so far this season," Vigil said. "I thought our offensive line did an excellent job again today."

Redshirt freshman running back Russell Patton (Denver, Colo./Dr. MLK Jr. Early College) paced the Pack ground game with 108 yards rushing on 10 carries and scored the Pack's final touchdown of the game on a 59-yard run just 22 seconds into the fourth quarter. Patton averaged 10.8 yards per carry.

Along with Patton, senior running back Devin Cross (Pflugerville, Texas/Midwestern State) added 70 yards on four carries and scored the game's first touchdown on a 52-yard run.  

The Pack got on the scoreboard on its first possession of the game as they drove 75 yards in four plays and capped the drive with that  52-yard touchdown run by Cross.

On the Pack's second possession of the game, they drove 54 yards in nine plays, capping the drive with a 31-yard field goal to take a 10-0 lead with 5:41 left in the opening quarter.

Following Smith's field goal, ASU got the back and two plays later, Torrie forced a fumble on ASU running back Gabe McFarland, and he returned the fumble 42 yards for a touchdown to give the Pack a 17-0 lead with 5:08 left in the opening quarter. The fumble return for a touchdown was the second this season.

On ASU's ensuing possession, sophomore cornerback Dre'Monti Jackson (Denver, Colo./Dr. MLK Jr. Early College) picked off a Gavin Herberg pass at the Pack 28-yard line. Six plays later, the Pack pushed its lead to 24-0 on a 20-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Roman Fuller (Decatur, Texas/University of Tulsa) to sophomore receiver Marcellus Honeycutt, Jr. (Aurora, Colo./Eastern Washington). The interception by Jackson was his third in the last two games as he picked off two passes last weekend at Colorado Mesa.

Following a 3-and-out by ASU on its next possession, Robinson would give the Pack a 31-0 lead following his 65-yard punt return touchdown. The punt return was his second of his career and the first for a Pack player since Robinson returned a punt 73 yards for a score last season against New Mexico Highlands.

Torrie would give the Pack a 38-0 lead with 11:07 left in the second quarter as he picked off a Herberg pass and returned it five yards for a touchdown. The interception return for a touchdown was the 54th for the Pack since restarting the program in 2008 and the 18th since the beginning of the 2019 season, and the first since senior cornerback Keith Mckaney, Jr. (Avondale, Ariz./Desert Edge) returned an interception 48 yards last season against UT-Permian Basin.

After a failed fake punt at their own 31-yard line on fourth down, the Grizzlies gave the ball back to Pack, and the Pack drove 28 yards in five plays and capped the drive with a 17-yard touchdown pass from Fuller to junior receiver Dedrek Taylor-Akins (Fontana, Calif./Northeastern State) to give the Pack a 45-0 lead with 7:05 left in the opening half.

Fuller, who played only one half on Saturday, finished the game 11-for-17 passing for 160 yards and had two touchdown passes and no interceptions. On the season, he is 106-for-173 with 1,241 yards and has had 13 touchdown passes and one interception. In addition, he has now passed for 3,083 yards and has had 31 career passing touchdowns with the Pack.

Holding a 45-0 lead at the half, the Pack had its back-ups play a majority of the second half, especially on offense as redshirt freshman quarterback Cam McGuire (Dallas, Texas/Woodrow Wilson) played the entire third quarter and about half the fourth quarter, before sophomore Brayden Dorman (Colorado Springs, Colo./Arizona) made his Pack debut with 6:37 left in the fourth quarter and played two possessions.

The Pack would cap its opening drive of the third quarter with points thanks to Smith's 51-yard field goal to give the Pack a 48-0 lead. The field goal capped an 11-play, 51-yard drive orchestrated by McGuire. On the drive, the Pack had a 40-yard touchdown run by Patton negated by a holding penalty. For the game, the Pack committed 13 penalties for 108 yards.

"We've got some things that we have to fix, including cleaning up some penalties we had, as we'll have a lot of up-downs at practice on Monday," added Vigil.

Following Smith's field goal, the Grizzlies, who has now lost 21 straight games dating to the 2023 season, mounted their best drive of the game as they drove 75 yards in seven plays and capped the drive with a 7-yard touchdown pass from Herberg to Jaysn Wade to cut the Pack's lead to 48-7 with 5:52 left in the third quarter.

On the following Pack drive, they drove to the ASU 41-yard line, but McGuire was picked off by ASU's Ron Meafua. The turnover was the second of the game for the Pack.

The Pack defense, though, would hold the Grizzlies out of the end zone following McGuire's interception as sophomore safety Tre Jordan (Tomball, Texas/Midwestern State) picked off a Herberg pass at the ASU 29-yard line and returned it 11 yards to give the Pack the ball near midfield with 14:47 left in the game.

One play later, following Jordan's interception, Patton sprinted to the end zone as he scored on a 59-yard run to give the Pack a 55-7 lead just 22 seconds into the final quarter.

The Pack would pick off its fourth pass of the game with about a minute left in the game as freshman safety Nathan Spivey, Jr. (Tucson, Ariz./Salpointe Catholic) picked off a pass from ASU back-up quarterback Daelyn Williams and returned it 64 yards to the ASU 34-yard line to cap the Pack's victory.

Redshirt senior All-American receiver Reggie Retzlaff (Corona, Calif./Riverside City College) was Fuller's main target in the passing game as he finished with five catches for 59 yards and has now recorded 139 career receptions for 2,346 yards and has had 30 career touchdown catches.

The ASU offense, which entered the game having scored just 34 points, was held to just seven points on Saturday as they finished with 224 yards of offense. The Grizzlies tallied 80 yards rushing on 43 carries and averaged just 1.9 yards per carry, and passed for 144 yards.

Herberg was 9-for-17 passing for 113 yards and had one touchdown pass and three interceptions, while Williams was 3-for-5 passing for 31 yards and had an interception.

Geovonni Ribalta caught three passes for 68 yards, while Williams was the leading rusher with four carries for 24 yards.

The Pack finished the game 3-for-3 in the red zone and is now 20-for-20 in the red zone on the season and was a combined 4-for-11 on third and fourth down. Meanwhile, ASU was 1-for-3 in the red zone and was 5-for-18 combined on third and fourth down.

Along with forcing five turnovers, including a season-high interceptions, the Pack defense also had three sacks and 10 tackles for a loss in the win. The Pack has now forced 17 turnovers this season and has had just seven for a +10 margin, which is among the tops in Division II.

The Pack will look to make it four consecutive wins next Saturday, Oct. 4, as they travel to Las Vegas, N.M., for a 1 p.m. RMAC game against New Mexico Highlands (3-1 overall, 1-1 RMAC). The Cowboys fell from the ranks of the undefeated on Saturday as they suffered a 30-3 loss at seventh-ranked Western Colorado.