Wildcats rout Utah in season finale
The New Mexico Wildcats ended their inaugural season in a big way, routing the Utah Saints 61-30 in their final game of their first American Indoor Football Association season Saturday night at the Santa Ana Star Center.
The Wildcats scored early, often and in several different ways in posting their most lopsided victory of the season. New Mexico rolled to a 28-0 lead at halftime and built it to 40-0 early in the third period before Utah could get on the board.
The Saints’ only scores came after starting quarterback Jeff Wissler was pulled in favor of Mike Affleck after one series in the second half.
New Mexico’s domination was thorough. The Wildcats had four one-play drives, forced two turnovers and protected its own quarterback well, something it had struggled with at times earlier in the season.
In the first half alone, New Mexico had five sacks, two interceptions and at least four pass breakups to frustrate Utah the entire half. Typical of the Saints struggles: Utah drew a delay of game penalty before getting off its first snap of the game, drew a personal foul for pushing a New Mexico defender and had an on-field argument between Wissler and coach Brian Finn.
At halftime, Utah had managed just 49 yards of offense, including four rushing, compared to 116 for New Mexico.
And it only got worse for Utah.
In the battle between two expansion teams in the Western Division, New Mexico (5-9) continued to show improvement from the start of the year while Utah (1-13) lagged behind. The Wildcats closed their season by winning three of its last four games by beating all of its division rivals at home.
New Mexico scored its first touchdown on a 40-yard run by Dwayne Davis, a rarity in indoor football. The Wildcats also scored when Lawrence Pullen returned a missed field goal for a touchdown and on a back-and-forth drive where New Mexico overcame several penalties to finally score with 22.1 seconds left in the half.
New Mexico had two touchdowns called back, including a long interception return by Darryl Williams which was initially a touchdown but called back for an illegal block on the return. That drive eventually turned into a 1-yard run by quarterback B.J. Hall for the last score of the half.
If there was any doubt of which team would win, New Mexico scored two more touchdowns at the start of the second half on 15- and 35-yard touchdown passes from Hall to Davis and Darren Haliburton. And when Utah did finally score, New Mexico responded with a 20-yard TD pass from Hall to Pullen, the short field having been set up on a personal foul penalty against Utah.
After that, it was simply a matter of how big the final margin would be. The Saints even resorted to playing Guy Combs, normally a defender with uniform number 54, at running back for much of the second half.
Tempers erupted several times in the second half, with Utah being whistled for three personal fouls related to late hits. Lineman Justin Johnson was ejected in the final 31.5 seconds for a late hit against New Mexico.
Will be updated with final stats, quotes.
