By Con Marshall
Long-time football rivals Chadron State and Black Hills State will collide late Saturday afternoon in Spearfish for a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference contest. Kickoff will be at 4 o’clock.
The Eagles and the Yellow Jackets have identical records this fall. They are 3-4 overall and 2-3 in conference play.
Both teams have new quarterbacks who have been playing well. The Yellow Jackets’ Luke Duby, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound junior, has completed 151 of 262 passes for 1,641 yards and 10 touchdowns and has thrown only four interceptions.
Chadron State’s DJ Ralph, a 6-3, 215-pound graduate student, missed most of the first four games because of injuries, but has been available full-time the last three weeks and has completed 61 of 93 passes for 677 yards and seven touchdowns while being picked off just twice. He’s also run for a touchdown in each of the last three games.
The Black Hills State-Chadron State rivalry dates back to 1912. It was suspended in 1996, when the Eagles were playing a full slate of conference games, but was revived in 2012 when the Yellow Jackets joined the RMAC. Since then the Eagles have won eight of the 11 games, but Black Hills has won the last two.
Last year’s game was one CSC would like to forget. Black Hills threw for five touchdowns and rolled up 556 yards of total offense during the 55-19 victory. Chadron State has a 60-17-2 lead in the all-time series.