ELLENSBURG, Wash. – The Central Washington football team (9-3) marches into the NCAA Division II Football Playoff quarterfinals this Saturday as they head back to Colorado to take on the Colorado School of Mines (12-0) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time from Alumni Field at Marv Kay Stadium.
 
LINKS
 
RMAC Network (PPV): HERE
Live Stats: HERE
Tickets: HERE
 
LAST TIME OUT
 
The Wildcats came back after a 17-0 deficit at the end of the first quarter to defeat 21^st-nationally ranked Bemidji State 21-17 in the second round of the playoffs on the road. The victory launched the Wildcats to their first regional final game since the 2009 season.
 
Kennedy McGill once again guided the Wildcat offense completing 16 of his 24 pass attempts for 135 yards and one touchdown while also leading the Wildcats in rushing with 88 yards and one touchdown. Cameron Daniels added 76 rushing yards while Justice Taylor added 46 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown. Darrien Gaines gained 56 receiving yards and a receiving touchdown to lead the receiving corps.
 
Tanner Volk once again led the crimson and black on defense with seven tackles, one tackle for loss, and one interception. Patrick Rogers added six tackles and a forced fumble while Brett McCalla had five tackles a fumble recovery and one pass breakup. Bridger Feldmann and Brett Accimus each recorded four tackles while Jeremy Banks and Isaac Clark each had two. Dominic Wieburg and Jaylen Clay combined for a tackle for loss while Clay also had a pass breakup. Josh Flowers had the final BSU drive-ending interception and Josiah Cochran contributed a pass breakup.
 
Dan Stewart finished the game with six punts for 213 yards and an average of 35.5 yards per punt. Darrien Gains returned four kickoffs for 54 yards. Josh Jones converted all three of his point after touchdown attempts, but missed his lone field goal attempt.
 
SCOUTING THE OREDIGGERS
 
The Orediggers are used to winning, as they've remained undefeated all season and have won by quite a bit throughout the season. They opened up the season with a 31-28 victory at home against fellow quarterfinalist Grand Valley State before traveling to San Angelo, Texas where they defeated fellow LSC member Angelo State 31-21. Mines opened up RMAC play with a splash defeating Adams State at home 70-7 before going on the road and defeating an always solid Colorado State-Pueblo squad 55-14. They went on to defeat Chadron State at home 35-7, Colorado Mesa on the road 52-0, South Dakota Mines 45-22 at home, and Black Hills State on the road 42-17. They manhandled Western Colorado at home 42-7 in their only ranked conference matchup. They rounded out the regular season with a 77-3 victory at home against New Mexico Highlands and then an 82-0 road victory at Fort Lewis. Their opening game in the playoffs was a 56-10 victory over Augustana (S.D.) at home.
 
"It's they number one team in the country," CWU Head Football Coach Chris Fisk said. "I think they're a complete team. They're really really good on defense. They're really really good offensively. You can tell that they spend a lot of time on special teams. You can tell that they have a great culture. I've known Coach Sterbick for a long time and as long as I've known him, I know he's a high-culture guy. It's not a surprise what's been going on at Mines, and it's been going on for a long time, you go back to Coach Stitt and all the recent success that they've had as well, but that's been a good program for a long time. I have a lot of respect for that program, I really love watching the way they play football. They play with relentless effort in all three phases of the game and you can tell that they have a bunch of kids that have bought in and they have a ton of leadership on that team. I think I counted 35 plus seniors on the squad, most of them with at least two degrees, some of them going on three and four degrees. So, they have a bunch of really intelligent athletes that play the game the right way while playing hard and it'll be a tremendous challenge for us to go down there and knock off the number one team in the country."
 
Mines is guided by reigning Harlon Hill winner John Matocha who's completed 263 of his 376 passing attempts for 3,511 yards, 39 touchdowns, and only five interceptions. Matocha can get it done on the ground too having rushed for 336 yards and three touchdowns.
 
The Orediggers use a two-headed monster in the rushing attack in Noah Roper and Landon Walker. Roper leads Mines with 783 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns while Walker has garnered 627 yards and nine touchdowns. Max McLeod has been a monster for Matocha to find, having 93 receptions for 1,417 yards on the season. Flynn Shiele is the next leading receiver with 51 receptions for 748 yards and eight touchdowns.
 
The Mines defense is relatively balanced with 15 players recording at least 20 tackles. Jaden Healy is the leader in tackles with 53 and has racked up 8.5 tackles for loss, six sacks, one interception, three pass breakups, six quarterback hurries, and two forced fumbles. Nolan Reeve has 47 tackles on the season and leads Mines with 11.5 tackles for loss, eight sacks, eight quarterback hurries, two fumble recoveries, and three forced fumbles. Jackson Zimmerman has recorded 26 tackles, 0.5 tackle for loss, a team high six interceptions, and tied for most on the Orediggers with seven pass breakups.
 
Blake Doud had handled the punting duties for Mines, having 36 punts on the season for 1,675 yards and an average of 46.53 yards with 17 landing in the opponents 20-yard line and only five going into the endzone for a touchback. Hunter Pearson has converted six of his 10 field goal attempts with his longest coming at 44 yards. Jacob Click has dealt with kickoff duties having 97 kickoffs for 5,606 yards for an average of 57.8 yards per kick.