Wildcats fall by 2 for 2nd time

By Eric Maddy
The SCORE

The one thing you say about teams that start a game with 1-5 and 0-6 records: They’re evenly matched.

The one-win New Mexico Wildcats stayed they way, falling in the final seconds for the second time in three home games. This time it was the expansion Ogden Knights who earned their first victory, beating New Mexico 51-49 on Jeff Eastman’s 10-yard touchdown pass to Lawrence Walker with eight seconds left.

New Mexico dropped its season opener 56-54 to Utah Valley in an American Indoor Football Association game where special teams decided the contest. On Saturday night at the Santa Ana Star Center, it was the failure to convert on the last two offensive series of the game that proved to be the difference.

After falling behind early in the second half on a 34-yard field goal by the Knights’ Bry Kennington, the Wildcats, who won at Ogden 42-37 in the season opener, seemed to take control. New Mexico scored two touchdowns sandwiched around an end-zone interception by R.J. Lewis to open up a 42-29 lead with 30 seconds left in the third quarter

When the teams traded touchdowns, New Mexico still led 49-37 as Ogden gained a point on the exchange when Kennington made a one-point rouge by booting the ball through the uprights on the kickoff. The Knights went on a lengthy drive and Eastman’s 7-yard run with 5:45 left narrowed the gap to 49-44.

New Mexico started the next drive at its own 21, but an illegal procedure penalty and five yard loss on a bad exchange from center put the Wildcats in a hole. They couldn’t gain a first down and attempted a field goal from their own end in the no-punt league, and kicker Pablo Nava got enough of the ball to get it to the Ogden end zone.

But that meant the Knights had 2:27 left, and they used most of it. The seven-play, 40 yard drive that followed included three incompletions and gains of 14, 6, 10 and nine yards.

Still, New Mexico had a chance to pull out a victory. Kennington’s kick resulted in a touchback, giving the Wildcats the ball at their 20 with eight seconds left. But New Mexico fumbled the snap again, and this time Ogden’s Mario Westbrook recovered with three seconds left.

To be updated with quotes.