Wildcats beaten by Arizona again

By Eric Maddy
The SCORE

The New Mexico Wildcats lost to visiting Arizona 34-6 Tuesday night and were on the verge of being eliminated from playoff contention in their first season of the American Indoor Football Association.

New Mexico, 2-5, has won its only games against another expansion team, Utah. Four of its losses have been against Arizona, 5-2, which moved closer to a playoff berth with the victory before approximately 2,800 fans at the Santa Ana Star Center.

The top two teams in each division qualify for the playoffs. Wyoming leads the west with a perfect 8-0 record; Utah is 0-8. Only six games remain on the schedule, including Saturday’s home contest with Wyoming.

New Mexico lost two fumbles in the first half and managed just two first downs, but the defense rallied to hold the visitors to only two touchdowns and 133 yards in total offense. Arizona’s scores came on touchdown passes of 5 and 9 yards by Chad DeGrenier, who was knocked out late in the second quarter with an apparent foot injury and did not return to the game.

Arizona rushed for three touchdowns in the second half, two by backup quarterback Jason Swanson and one by Paris Moore. The Adrenaline also scored on a two-point conversion and a “rouge” when kicker Paitaka Miyahira followed Moore’s run by booting his kickoff through the uprights for one point.

New Mexico avoided the first shutout in the league when quarterback Ronnie Simpson hit Darren Haliburton on a 14-yard scoring pass. Lawrence Pullen caught a pass from Simpson for a two-point conversion.

“I didn’t want us to be the first,” New Mexico head coach Floyd Johnson said. “That’s nothing pretty, especially on a coach’s record, to be the first team to be shut out. “

Trailing only 12-0 at halftime and having knocked out the opposing team’s starting quarterback, New Mexico seemed primed to break through touchdowns in the third quarter, and the New Mexico offense never got untracked. The first three New Mexico drives of the half ended with an interception, missed field goal and quarterback sack/fumble.

“With the second-string guy coming in, we should have won that game,” New Mexico head coach Floyd Johnson said. “Their (starting) quarterback (DeGrenier) is one of the top quarterbacks in the league. When we put him out, I thought sure we were going to win that game. I thought in the second half the offense was going to come out, make our adjustments, they’d shake off the cobwebs and come out and play. It just didn’t happen.

“The defense played its heart out. They did everything we asked of them. They’re out there playing three quarters. We can’t ask no more of them.”

The timing for offensive struggles couldn’t be worse for New Mexico, with undefeated Wyoming coming in and the team having only three days to prepare before Saturday’s contest.

“We’ve got Wyoming coming down the street in our backyard,” he said. “It’s going to get a lot uglier if we don’t fix things really quick and get ready to fight. The score tonight will be doubled (if the team has the same performance.”)

Johnson couldn’t put a finger on any specific cause for the offensive struggles.

“We had a center tonight (Luis Lopez) who just couldn’t get it back there, and I don’t know why,” Johnson said. “He played against Utah and had a great game, and tonight he can’t center the ball. We had terrible exchanges from the center.

“Ronnie wasn’t in rhythm tonight and it was like he didn’t even want to be out there. Haliburton too. We had a couple of egos out there that were ‘all about me’ and not about the team. I’m calling it out like I see it.

“I’ve got to work with what I’ve got, but while I’m working on it I’m making some calls trying to get better players. Offensively now I guess I’ve got to do the same thing I did on defense – start moving some people in and pulling some people out.”

Arizona finished with 231 yards in offense, including 50 rushing, compared to 137 for New Mexico, of which 45 came on the final drive. The Wildcats finished with four turnovers, three fumbles and an interception, and missed three field goal attempts at the end of drives.