By RIchard Anderson, Rapid City Journal
Dixie State University went to their big guns in the second half and pulled out a 28-16 win over South Dakota School of Mines Saturday night at O'Harra Stadium, to spoil the Hardrockers' M-Day homecoming game.
The Hardrockers played well at times, and led 10-6 at halftime, but Dixie State quarterback Keaton Mott found wide receiver Dejaun Dantzler on several big pass plays, including a pair of second-half touchdowns.
Mines also had a couple of miscues on special teams that swung the momentum over to the Trailblazers.
"We put ourselves in position, and then they played us out of it," Mines coach Zach Tinker said. "They had a couple of explosive plays on both sides of the ball. We just didn't sustain anything in the third quarter on offense. Once we kind of got it going in the fourth, we were too far behind. We are really not built to play from behind right now."
Mines battled back to cut the Dixie State lead to 20-16 on a 1-yard touchdown run by Ahmad Lewis, but the Trailblazers blocked the point after touchdown kick and Simote Lokotui picked it up and rambled 98 yards for the 2-point score.
On their next possession, the Blazers scored again to put the game away.
"It was a huge play. We had two self-inflicted mistakes with our kicking until point after touchdown. Two of those mistakes and those are major plays," Tinker said.
The quarterback protection broke down after the loss of Jack Batho IV to injury in the second quarter. The Trailblazers sacked quarterback Toby Smith five times.
"We were getting some control of the game in the second quarter, and when Jack got hurt that was a pretty major emotional moment," Tinker said. "We don't have a lot of players like that. It took us quite a while to recover from that. We had to shuffle the lineup quite a bit. You could tell."
In a tough defensive struggle in the first half, all Dixie State had to show from it were a pair of field goals from James Baird, from 35 yards and 40 yards.
After an earlier miss, Ennis Sefa got the Hardrockers on the board in the second on a 39-yard field goal, before Mines got in the end zone.
The 2-yard touchdown run by Lewis was set up on a huge 48-yard pass from Smith to a wide open Collin Zur down the right sideline to the 2.Â
In the third quarter, the Trailblazers regained the lead with their best ball movement of the game when Mott hit receiver Dantzler on a 12-yard TD pass, capping a 10-play, 80-yard drive.
With 7:28 to play in the third, the Blazers led 13-10.
After a promising drive by the Hardrockers stalled after Smith was sacked twice, the Trailblazers used that momentum despite Casey Knutsen's 52-yard punt, which rolled out of bounds at the 1-yard line.
Dixie State took control and went 99 yards — the final 61 yards when Mott found Dantzler again wide open down the right sideline. With 14:23 to play, the Blazers built their lead to 20-10.
The Hardrockers, however, took advantage of an off-sides penalty by Dixie State that nullified a pass interception and a personal foul penalty, and then the strong arm connection of Smith to Zur to get back in the game — briefly.
Smith hit Zur down the right sideline again, this time for 45 yards to the Trailblazers 1, where Lewis took it in for the score.
But Dixie State blocked Sefa's kick and the Trailblazers were in control the rest of the way.
With 11:23, the score was 22-16 in Dixie's favor.
Dixie then kept the momentum of the return when Mott hit Dantzler for 37 yards down to the Mines 22-yard line. Three plays later D'Arman Notoa ran it in from 16 yards out for the score. Dixie failed on a 2-point conversion pass but still led 28-16 with 9:24 to play.
Mines would stop Dixie on downs on its own 14 to avoid further damage, but could not take advantage to get back in the game. The Hardrockers moved the ball to the Trailblazers' 16, but two holding penalties and two sacks ended the drive in the final minute of the contest.
"That's a good team," Tinker said. "They have some matchups that are tough for us. When we lose one of our really good matchup guys, that affected us for the third quarter, there's no question. Moving forward when we get the guys reps that are going to be in those spots, we'll have a better chance."
Smith was 10-of-33 passing for 209 yards and two touchdowns. Lewis ran the ball 24 times for 96 yards, while Zach Hoopman ran for 61 yards.
Mott was 21-of-38 for 300 yards and the two TDs. Dixie ran for 161 yards as a team, with Sei-J Laugo running for 48 yards and Notoa 47 yards.
Dantzler had four catches for 116 yards, while Malcolm Ross-Turner had five catches for 72 yards.
"We had a hard time handling them in the third and fourth quarters," Tinker said. "I thought their best players started to really impact the game, whereas we kind of neutralized those guys in the first part of the game. Later in the game their best guys shown through. They have some good players."
 The loss dropped the Hardrockers to 0-3 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play and 1-3 overall. Mines will host perennial power Colorado State-Pueblo next Saturday afternoon.
"We expect to win at home, at night, especially at homecoming," Tinker said. "It is a big game for everyone. There's a lot to build off of. But at some point you have to stop building off stuff and start finding wins. Certainly that is going to be our plan going into next week. We have a lot of film to watch and a lot of things to correct."
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Gallery: (9/30/2019) Hardrocker Football vs. Dixie State
