Lobos, Wyoming meet in MWC battle
By Eric Maddy
The SCORE
It rained on the University of New Mexico’s halftime homecoming ceremonies Saturday night, but the Lobo football team wasn’t going to let the Wyoming Cowboys rain on their parade.
Playing under a steady drizzle that began in the middle of the first quarter and stopped only briefly in the last quarter, UNM evened its season and conference record with a 24-0 victory at University Stadium before a drenched crowd of 28,752.
New Mexico, which last week rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat downstate rival New Mexico State in Las Cruces, improved to 3-3 overall and 1-1 in Mountain West Conference play despite the absence of running back Rodney Ferguson, who was scratched from the lineup with a right shoulder injury.
Redshirt running back James Wright gained 120 yards and the UNM defense posted its first MWC shutout ever and started the game with a touchdown on the Cowboys’ first play from scrimmage.
Starting from its own 11 after a half-the-distance after a chop block flag, Cowboy quarterback Karsten Sween’s pass was batted into the air by Lobo nose tackle Wesley Beck, then intercepted and returned 13 yards for a touchdown by safety Frankie Solomon.
“It obviously helped our momentum, and I don’t think we gave it up the whole night,” UNM head coach Rocky Long said. “It probably hurt Wyoming psychologically worse than it helped us get the momentum because last week in the first two series they turned the ball over and Bowling Green scored.
“I feel bad for them. It happened to us earlier in the season. You turn the ball over close to the goal line and it’s hard to win games. I’m glad we won, but I’ve been on the other end of that, so I feel their pain.”
New Mexico got the ball on its first offensive possession at the Wyoming 26 after a 24-yard return by Ian Clark. But the Lobos gained only five yards on three plays, and James Aho’s 38-yard field goal attempt hit the right upright.
After another three-and-out Wyoming series, the Lobos extended their lead. UNM drove 47 yards in nine plays, with freshman James Wright diving between right tackle and guard on a fourth-and-1 for a touchdown.
Wyoming got two and three first downs on its next two drives, but it was the Lobos who got the points. The Cowboys’ first drive ended with a punt to the end zone, the next with a Sween fumble on fourth down after Wyoming’s deepest penetration of the night (to the UNM 30).
After an illegal procedure penalty by the Lobos, UNM quarterback Brad Gruner broke free on a 52-yard scramble to the Wyoming 12. UNM scored three plays later, with Gruner taking the ball in the shotgun and scoring up the middle.
UNM got into Wyoming territory one more time before halftime, driving to the Wyoming before taking a sack and throwing an incomplete pass on fourth down to end the drive with six seconds left before intermission.
The second half was pretty much a punting exhibition. UNM scored the only three points after intermission on a 37-yard field goal by James Aho with 7:18 left in the game.
The shutout was New Mexico’s first since 1983, when the Lobos blanked UTEP 35-0 when both teams were members of the Western Athletic Conference.
“That’s one of those good stats you can look back on and bring up,” Long said. “It’s always nice to get a shutout. It doesn’t matter if it was 25 games ago or 25 years ago.”
The Lobos got to the Wyoming 2 on the final series after another Sween fumble with slightly more than four minutes left in the game.
UNM piled up 317 yards in rushing, including 90 by Paul Baker and 80 by Gruner. The Lobos had only 33 yards passing despite the rainy conditions.
“I thought the o-line and both running backs did well. They found some cracks, broke some tackles. I was pleasantly surprised we were able to run the ball that well. I thought it would be a lot harder than that.
“Obviously we’re still struggling throwing the ball,” Long said. “We’re not throwing it and catching it very well, so the only chance you have to win is to play good defense and control the line of scrimmage. We ran the ball good enough and played defense good enough to win.
“Gruner did a nice job running with the football and in getting us in the right play a few times. But he’s going to have to throw it better than he did tonight for us to win down the road.”
Long, who lost starting quarterback Donovan Porterie in a lopsided loss at Tulsa, said he didn’t hold his breath when watching his replacement take some hits at the end of some runs.
“If that’s the only way we can get it down there and score points, he’s got to run with it. He’s a big, tough kid. If he gets hurt, we’ll go to the next one and do the best we can with him.”
NOTES: Long said Ferguson wasn’t cleared to play because his left shoulder had not gained enough strength to be cleared by doctors, but he expects the senior captain to play at seventh-ranked Brigham Young next week …
Last season’s game at Wyoming included a lightning delay of more than an hour, so Saturday’s rain was no surprise to Wyoming coach Joe Glenn.
“I told Coach Glenn before the game it hardly ever rains around here and he said, ‘Yeah, sure,’ ” Long said. “I was surprised it rained the whole game. It usually rains for 5 minutes, then stops.”
Long was surprised at Wright’s total, which included a 42-yard scamper on the next-to-last play of the game.
“Since Rodney couldn’t play, we planned on using James as the Rodney-type back to alternate them,” Long said. “He showed he could run last week and this week he got a lot more carries. Obviously he’s going to be a good running back.”
