It took Colorado State until five minutes remained in the first half to cross midfield Friday night. The Rams made the most of their only first-half scoring chance.
Junior running back Dee Hart, a transfer from Alabama, completed a nine-play, 76-yard drive with an 8-yard touchdown run off right tackle with 2:39 left before halftime. With second effort, Hart leaned across the goal line at the end of the run, with his back to the end zone and a CU defender wrapped around his legs.
That reduced Colorado’s lead to 10-7 as the teams headed into their locker rooms for halftime.
The Buffaloes had to be kicking themselves for missed opportunities. They had to settle for a field goal at the end of one drive after failing to score on three runs inside the 5-yard line, then watched place-kicker Will Oliver go wide left on a 42-yard field-goal attempt on another march into CSU territory.
Colorado took a 10-0 lead with 12:23 remaining in the first half on a 23-yard field goal by Oliver. But if either team gained momentum, it would have been Colorado State after its defense kept the Buffs out of the end zone with three goal-line stops after CU stood first-and-goal at the 2.
Paul Richardson, the former CU star receiver now playing in the NFL with Seattle, caught touchdown passes of 82 and 75 yards in last year’s meeting, a CU victory. This time it was Nelson Spruce’s turn to shine.
The junior wideout beat CSU cornerback DeAndre Elliott down the left sideline and, in full stride on a fly pattern, Spruce caught a perfect pass from sophomore quarterback Sefo Liufau to open the scoring. The 54-yard touchdown put Colorado on the board first, a 7-0 lead with 10:31 left in the first quarter.
Colorado State received a potentially devastating blow just 4½ minutes into the season-opening game when standout offensive tackle Ty Sambrailo went down with an injury to his right knee. Sambrailo, a 6-foot-5, 315-pound senior, had to be helped off the field and missed the rest of the game. He is considered a possible early round pick in the 2015 NFL draft.
CSU’s offensive line regrouped without Sambrailo and held its own in the trenches, giving Hart some holes in the second quarter.
