GUNNISON, Colo.  Growing accustomed to top-10 matchups, No. 8 Western Colorado on Saturday will entertain No. 10 Colorado State University Pueblo at the Mountaineer Bowl, the Mountaineers' second consecutive top-10 game and the Bowl's first NCAA top-10 battle in its history.

WESTERN COLORADO COMING INTO THE GAME | 2024 Stats

• The Mountaineers are coming off a 38-28 win last Saturday at then-No. 10 Colorado School of Mines, keeping Western undefeated with an 8-0 overall record and a perfect 6-0 mark in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action.
• The victory over the Orediggers snapped a six-year losing streak to Mines.
• The win was keyed by big plays from the Western offense. Quarterback Drew Nash opened the scoring with a 32-yard touchdown pass to Elias Zarate early in the second quarter. The lead doubled on the Mountaineers' next possession with running back Braeden Hogan's 53-yard touchdown run.
• Nash opened the fourth quarter with his own touchdown gallop, racing untouched off the right tackle for a 30-yard touchdown. And late in the quarter Hogan added a 21-yard touchdown run to extend Western's cushion.
• Even special teams had its own big play as Adam Tasei connected on a career-long 49-yard field goal to end the first half.
• Hogan finished with a career-best 148 yards while adding a pair of touchdown runs.
• The defense limited Mines to 56 yards on the ground, though the Orediggers struck three times through the air in the fourth quarter on long touchdowns totaling 170 yards that kept the home team in the game.
• Ricky Freymond registered three sacks on the day, elevating his career sack total to 21.5, just a half sack behind program leader Luke Solomon's 22.
• The expectation is that Pueblo will have to continue to rely on its passing attack — fifth nationally at 334 YPG — as Western's rush defense ranks second nationally surrendering just 60 YPG.
• Early in the season the Mountaineers were pounding away on the ground, but pushed through a couple of recent games behind the arm of Nash. However, the rushing attack, at 203 YPG, does rank 15th nationally among Division II programs.
• Overall, Pueblo owns a 19-10 record against Western, but the Mountaineers broke a CSUP 12-game win streak by winning the past three games between the two.

COLORADO STATE PUEBLO COMING INTO THE GAME | 2024 Stats

• Pueblo, at 7-1 overall and 6-0 in the RMAC, suffered its lone defeat of the season in its third game, dropping a narrow 24-21 home decision to then No.-3 Grand Valley State. The ThunderWolves followed that loss with a 38-14 win over visiting Colorado Mesa, the team that defeated Mines 14-13 on Oct. 5.
• Pueblo downed visiting Black Hills State, 24-21, in its last outing, and follows its game at Western with a home game against now-No. 18 Mines.
• Scoring nearly 44 points a game, the ThunderWolves rank fourth nationally, while Western is eighth at 38 PPG.
• Recently, Pueblo has been playing both season starter Devin Larsen as well as Roman Fuller at quarterback. Larsen has thrown for 1,7-5 yard and 16 touchdowns with just 3 interceptions, while Fuller has completed 65% of his passes for 619 yards and 8 touchdowns.
• Larsen averages 213 yards through the air with Fuller averaging 103.
• Favorite targets in the passing game include Reggie Retzlaff (45 catches, 833 yds., 7 TDs) and Taylor Tosches (31 catches, 505 yds., 6 TDs).
• Though generally a pass-heavy attack, running back Howard Russell V is nearing a 1,000-yard season, rushing for 886 yards for 10 TDs while averaging 111 YPG and 7.9 yards per carry.
• Linebacker Jon Nuschy and defensive back Daniel Bone III are the defense's leading tacklers, Nuschy with 57 for the year and Bone right behind with 56.
• Defensive linemen Makeah Scippio and Dominick Fini have nine of the team's 23 sacks on the year. Scippio has taken down five QBs for losses totaling 37 yards with Fini ringing up 4.5 sacks for minus-18 yards.

UP NEXT
The Mountaineers close out the home slate of their 2024 schedule with their next game, a 1 p.m. home contest against Chadron State College.