AIR FORCE ACADEMY – The Ram-Falcon trophy has gone missing from Falcon Stadium and Gabe Kirschke is the No. 1 suspect.
Colorado State football nearly gave up a 21-0 lead with less than 12 minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Air Force had a chance, but was unable to find a timely play late in the fourth, ultimately falling 21-13 to the Rams.
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Kirschke has made plays all season long, but hasn’t quite made his presence felt throughout the entirety of a game. Saturday night that changed.
“I hope it is, yes,” said coach Jay Norvell when asked if he felt like this was a breakout game for the redshirt sophomore. “I think he’s a guy that practices extremely hard, he’s a guy that sacrifices for his teammates. And he’s only going to get better and that’s the exciting thing about him.”
Kirschke was in the backfield all night long terrorizing whichever quarterback the Falcons put behind center. He finished with 1.5 sacks, six tackles, one pass break up, a forced fumble and a blocked field goal.
While lots of CSU players made big plays all night long, it felt like Kirschke’s came at the most timely of moments. While he may be the single biggest reason the Rams broke a 22-year winless streak playing at the Air Force Academy, he won’t be the one to take any credit.
“I felt like a lot of things went right,” Kirschke said. “I think as a team we played together and that’s huge. Good D-tackles and good other players on defense, it really helps you play good.”
CSU now gets to be the keeper of the Ram-Falcon trophy for the first time since 2015. A win that is also the first of Norvell’s in CSU rivalry games. A victory he didn’t necessarily feel like brought him any relief.
“No, I mean we wanted to win the game,” Norvell said. “And it was important for us to win it and we’ll get another chance when we play Wyoming,”
The game started off just like CSU drew it up. Two explosive plays for Avery Morrow saw the Rams with very little field left before their first six could be thrown on the board.
Ball security has been a big factor, with the team now totalling seven lost fumbles on the season, something Morrow would add to on the goal line. Norvell called that play a heartbreaker.
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“One, no turnovers and I take full responsibility of mine,” Morrow said. “I think the guy got lucky, but that’s still on me. We got to be better with the ball and we got to be consistent.”
Morrow made up for his first drive blunder, finishing with 132 yards on 20 carries, moving his streak of more than 100 yards on the ground to four games.
Morrow’s season has been a stark contrast to his previous one, something he gives all credit to the guys in front of him.
“Shout out the MOB man,” Morrow said. “Shout out to them five, shout out them tight ends, shout out all them guys. What I do is the aftermath, without them being physical I can’t make a run.”
After that first drive, CSU’s offense fell flat. The ensuing three drives ended with a punt. One of those done by quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi, who kicked the ball down to the 1-yard line, making him 3-for-3 on the year punting inside the 20.
That’s when the flood gates opened for the Rams, who would score on their next three drives. The scoring was capped off with a spectacular leaping one-handed grab by Caleb Goodie, who took the ball 85 yards for a score. The fifth-longest passing play in CSU history.
In the wake of the injury to Tory Horton, getting a guy like Goodie going will be crucial for CSU going forward.
“I think it just adds to their confidence and we’re going to need that going down the stretch, especially not having Tory,” Norvell said. “And Brayden is going to have to have guys that he can count on.”
The good, the bad and the ugly all contributed to what ultimately ended in storytelling fashion.
For now the Rams get to bask in victory. With the trophy now headed back to Fort Collins, Kirschke isn’t quite sure who will sit there eyes fixated on it the most. Maybe it’ll be the entire team. According to Norvewll, only three players were alive the last time CSU emerged victorious in Colorado Springs.
“I don’t know, I’d say as a team everyone,” Kirschke said. “We haven’t had it in so long, it feels good to have a trophy in the case.”
That moment of lifting up the Ram-Falcon trophy on the Air Force logo was 22 years in the making and felt every bit of it.
“It’s the greatest feeling ever,” Morrow said. “This is why you play to win a trophy. There’s no better feeling. We still got more trophies to win, we still got one more.”
Reach Damon Cook at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @dwcook2001.
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