CANYON, Texas - A fourth-quarter safety made the difference as Colorado School of Mines came away from West Texas A&M with a hard-nosed 33-31 win in Week 1.

The Orediggers (1-0) opened Bob Stitt's second tenure as head coach with a victory, combining a punishing ground game with timely defensive stops to get past the high-tempo offense of the Buffs (0-2). It was Justin Vaughn's strip-sack in the end zone that gave Mines the fourth-quarter lead to build on a three-touchdown night by quarterback Joseph Capra.

Pierce Richards caught two touchdowns, Nick Stone another, and Braelon Tate ran for one as Landon Walker pummeled his way to 138 yards on 30 carries.

Capra was an efficient 17-of-23 for 195 yards and the three scores, while also rushing for 32 yards. The Buffs (0-2) were led by the outstanding quarterback play of RJ Martinez, who ran for 133 yards and three touchdowns and was 33-of-47 for 273 yards in the air. 

WT came out with a high-tempo offense to score on the opening drive, with Martinez going 7-of-8 before rushing for a three-yard score in the red zone. A booming 65-yard punt by Lucas LeSieur later in the quarter pinned the Buffs at their own 2, and with great field position after a WT punt, Mines marched down to score on Braelon Tate's 10-yard bounce out to the right.

The Buffs answered back with Martinez's 41-yard breakout from midfield to retake the lead 14-7 late in the first quarter, but the Orediggers drove the field and cashed in on Richards' first career touchdown catch to tie it up. 

A defensive stop led to another Mines score with Capra throwing a pinpoint eight-yard back-corner strike to Stone, giving the Orediggers their first lead of the season at 21-14. Mines failed to cash in a Joel Diaz interception, and WT then went 93 yards to score on Martinez's four-yard keeper with 3:59 before the half.

Capra hit Richards again with less than a minute to go, finding him wide open on a scramble for a 38-yard touchdown, but the Buffs got points back before the half, initially missing a 47-yard field goal try but getting a second chance on a roughing-the-kicker flag, letting Levi Crowder make the 40-yard second try. 

Mines was stopped coming out of the break and settled for Preston Kyle's 39-yard field goal, answered by a long, penalty-filled WT drive that concluded with Gene Sledge's one-yard power run to tie it 31-31 late in the quarter. 

The third quarter ended with a key special teams play as LeSieur pinned WT back once again, putting an angled attempt out of bounds at the seven yardline. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Martinez fumbled and recovered the ball on his own three, and on the next play, Vaughn and Brady Zingelmann shot into the backfield untouched, with Zingelmann applying the initial pressure before Vaughn stripped the ball away from Martinez with it heading out of the back of the end zone for the safety and a 33-31 lead.

Mines had to punt away following the free kick, but the defense came up with another key stop as Joel Diaz broke up a 4th-and-5 pass in the red zone to get the ball back with 5:27 left. From there, it was all about Mines' ground game as Walker and the Oredigger offensive line chunked yardage and clock, with Walker's four-yard run into the red zone for a first down giving Mines the kneel-out to win. 

NOTABLES
- Stitt, who was previously Mines' head coach from 2000 to 2014, won his second first game with the Orediggers nearly 25 years to the day after his first, a 55-19 win over Oklahoma Panhandle State in 2000. Stitt won his 109th game in charge of the Orediggers and 130th overall as a head coach.
- In his Mines debut, LeSieur was a weapon in the punting game, putting three of his four punts inside the 20 with an average of 45.5 yards and a long of 65 on his opening attempt that went out at the two. 
- Richards had all of his 74 yards in the first half, catching all seven of his targets in his first career start.
- Walker was the Orediggers' workhorse, rushing a career-high 30 times for 138 yards. He is the first Oredigger to run 30 times in a game since Michael Zeman against Angelo State in 2021.
- Zingelmann and Will Ramsey led the defense with five tackles each. Four different Orediggers - Brock Ewing, JJ lee, Luke Johnson, and Aaron Rhea - had tackles for loss.
- The safety was Mines' first since 2018 when Logan Bock had one against Fort Lewis.
- Mines improved to 3-0 against West Texas A&M.
- Brock Ewing (playing just outside his hometown of Amarillo), Flynn Schiele, Landon Walker, and Jackson Zimmermann served as game captains for Mines. 

NEXT UP
Mines opens at home with Washburn on Sept. 13 at noon.