Colorado State won a must-win game in the West DIA conference as the Rams beat previously-undefeated Air Force 30-5.

The victory ensured that CSU stays in the hunt for the conference title, a goal tat would likely have been out of their reach had they lost.

“It was a must-win for us,” said CSU Assistant Coach Ryan Walker. “We all talked before the game that we needed at the very least to match them in physicality and aggression. We figured that, our game plan, and our skill would be enough to beat them.”

Flanker Ben Pinkelman scored three tries for the Rams while Lance Eberhard was outstanding at flyhalf, directing the attack and making his tackles. Walker said picking a player of the game was difficult because it was a solid team effort, but Eberhard got the nod.

“We got a complete game from everyone,” said Walker. “We like to play a quick game because we don’t have the biggest guys out there. But our guy go all-out and we needed that. We know we would be in trouble if we came out slow, but the guys came out firing, flew up in defense.”

The result was a lot of Air Force mistakes. AFA Head Coach Joe Muehlbauer said he stopped counting knock-ons once they topped 20.

“You can imagine how I felt, as a coach, about that,” he said.

“Not all of them were forced knock-ons,” added Muehlbauer, “but CSU is a good team and they’re good in attack. But when you can’t catch the ball, you can’t win. I guess this is the game to lose for us, but it did give us something to think about. We need to work the fundamentals more.”

Air Force stays in 1st place thanks to points difference, but if they fail to get a bonus-point win in each of their final three games, CSU could move past. 

Also in action this weekend, Colorado moved to .500 with a 31-5 defeat over New Mexico.