DURANGO, Colo. — No. 3 Fort Lewis (15-1-0 overall, 10-1-0 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) clinched the RMAC regular season championship today with a 4-1 win over Colorado Christian (0-14-1, 0-10-0) today at Dirks Field.

I’m very proud to add my second title in three years and proud of the boys for what they’ve accomplished,” said FLC skipper Oige Kennedy. “Obviously, we’re not done yet and we’ve got plenty left to play for. We’ve just got to keep ourselves focused.”

Despite the obvious disparity in records, the game started ominously for Fort Lewis. In the 15th minute, CCU’s Weston Leake blasted an absolute firecracker from the left flank that was ticketed for the upper 90. FLC goalkeeper Ryan Wirth made one of his finest saves of the season, leaping to his left to tip the shot wide.

Six minutes later, CCU’s Graham Delano was able to beat Wirth and give the Cougars a 1-0 lead. Delano was sprung by a long pass into space by Luke Burgard.

“Their coach (Gary Evans) has done a great job with them,” Kennedy said of the Cougars. “They’re more organized and a more difficult team to beat than in years past. There’s no pressure on them to come in here and get the result, which enabled them to play with a lot more freedom.”

Colorado Christian also packed it in in front of their goalkeeper, David Ilgenfritz, which confounded the Skyhawks for most of the first half.

The Skyhawks turned to an unlikely source for the equalizer. Cory Dean, a defensive-minded central midfielder, struck a shot from near the top of the box in the 42nd minute that sailed over Ilgenfritz’s head, struck the crossbar, bounced straight down, back up off the cross bar and into the goal.

The score was set up by Joey Madigan, who played a ball into traffic in front of the goal from the edge of the box on the left side of the goal. After the ball careened around a bit, Alberto Capdepon-Rodriguez flicked it backwards to Dean.

Both Cory and Casey Dean were playing the game with heavy hearts, with the passing of their paternal grandfather yesterday.

“It was great to see them be able to play,” said Kennedy. “Cory’s return this year (he graduated last spring, but returned to the team for his fifth season this fall and to take additional coursework) is a big reason we’ve had so much success.”

Fort Lewis was able to finally break down the CCU defense in the second stanza.

“It’s difficult when a team gets all 11 players behind the ball,” said Kennedy. “Thankfully in the second half we were a little more crisp with our passing and clinical in front of the goal.”

The game-winner was a thing of beauty. Aaron Kloer and Jordan Alexander worked a give-and-go down the right flank, with Kloer finding Thomas Hoang open on the left side of the box. Hoang hit a low shot to the far post for his fifth goal of the season at 68:15.

Alexander scored his team-leading eighth marker at 78:51, floating a ball from the extreme right flank that eluded Ilgenfritz and sailed inside the far post. Casey Dean played the ball into the corner to Alexander to pick up an assist.

Hoang nearly struck again in the 83rd minute when he fielded a centering pass from Nick Hofman and blasted a shot from near the top of the box that hit the crossbar and bounced around in front of the goal. A CCU defender slid in an attempt to clear the ball across the end line, but instead knocked it into the back of the net for an own goal that made the final count 4-1.

Fort Lewis outshot the Cougars 29-4, but the shot count was deceiving, with most sailing high, wide, or being blocked by CCU defenders. Shots on goal favored FLC by a much slimmer 7-2 margin.

Ilgenfritz made three stops for the Cougars, while Wirth had one save for FLC.

Kennedy was able to use nearly his entire roster, with all healthy field players seeing action.

With the victory, the Skyhawks earned a league championship for the 14th time in 19 seasons. Fort Lewis has won nine RMAC regular season titles (1997, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011), two Colorado Athletic Conference regular season crowns (1993, 1995), and ten RMAC postseason championships (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009).

The Skyhawks have also won a pair of NCAA Division II national championships (2005, 2009) and finished as national runners-up on two other occasions (1999, 2006).

The Skyhawks conclude their regular season home schedule at 3:30 p.m. Sunday against Colorado State-Pueblo (4-8-3, 4-5-2) in the final regular season home game for Berekk Blackwell, Cory Dean, Hoang, Fabian Kling, Joey Madigan, and Markus Lux. Wirth is an academic senior, but has eligibility remaining and could return season next year should he choose.

Today’s win guarantees the Skyhawks will play at least one more home game at Dirks Field — an RMAC semifinal tilt on Friday, Nov. 4. The final schedule and sites for the league playoffs won’t be announced until Sunday, Oct. 30, following the conclusion of the RMAC men’s and women’s soccer regular seasons.