Ags finish home season in style
For the fourth straight game, the outcome came down to the final play for the Utah State football team.
But for the second time in those four games, USU came out on top, beating the New Mexico State Aggies 32-30 Saturday afternoon in a desolate and cold Romney Stadium.
Down 32-24 with five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, NMSU started the final drive of the game from the USU 47 yard line courtesy of a 42-yard Tyrone Gifford punt return. NMSU quarterback Paul Dombrowski marched his team to the USU one-yard line in nine plays before he wedged his way in the end zone to make the score 32-30 with 19 seconds left.
A two-point conversion would have put USU in its third straight overtime game, but Dombrowski’s pass was dropped by backup tight end Chris Gocke in the right corner of the end zone, sealing USU (3-6) its third win of the season.
“We thought there was [going to] be some kind of a play action pass and they ended up bootlegging it,” said USU Head Coach Mick Dennehy. “We started making plans for defending the two-point play before the touchdown was scored. You go into overtime and who the hell knows [what will happen]?
“Our guys played well enough that we deserved to win this game. I’m really proud of the way we moved the ball,” he said.
The loss snapped New Mexico State’s five-game winning streak – its longest since 1960.
USU’s James Samuel and Richard Watson each had one rushing touchdown and combined for 148 of the team’s 182 rushing yards, the most Utah State has compiled in a game this season.
“We knew what [USU was] going to come out and do,” Gifford said. “They broke free with a few runs and it opened up the pass.”
Samuel said, “We’re probably getting more respect now running the ball. As the season goes we just get better and better. I don’t know if there’s that much faith in us, but I guess we’re bringing it now. It would be hard for teams to stop us if we call the right run plays.”
The passing game, as has always been the case this season, was also working for USU.
Jose Fuentes had one of his more accurate games as an Aggie, completing 27-of-40 passes (7 of 8 in the first quarter) for 299 yards, two touchdowns and, maybe most important of all, did not throw an interception for the second time this season.
At the half, USU was up 23-10, converting its four drives into three touchdowns and a field goal, not to mention going eight-of-eight on third down conversions.
On its second drive of the game USU was put into third-down situations three times, going to tight end Chris Cooley each time – twice for 14-yard gains and the final being a 6-yard touchdown pass for a 14-10 USU lead.
“I know coming into the game that I’m [going to] be a huge target on third down,” Cooley said. “A lot of times on third-and-five I’m one of the easiest guys to throw the ball to in front of [Fuentes]. In the huddle I was surprised because play after play after play they were calling plays that were to me.”
The second half was a slightly different story as NMSU outscored USU 20-9.
USU’s Dane Kidman put in the game-winning 26-yard field goal with 12:03 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Dombrowski, a redshirt freshman who has a 4-2 record filling in for the season’s original starter Buck Pierce, rushed for 89 yards on 17 attempts along with breaking NMSU’s single-season record for rushing touchdowns (9) by a quarterback as he ran for two Saturday.
NMSU did not turn the ball over for the fifth time this season.
Overall there was only one turnover, a fumble coming from USU’s Matt Wiser on a kickoff return to open the second half. New Mexico State capitalized quickly, driving the ball 32 yards in 54 seconds for seven points.
New Mexico State will travel to North Texas Oct. 16 to compete for the Sun Belt Conference championship and a trip to its first bowl game since 1978.
Saturday’s game was sort of an enigma for NMSU because it has no effect on its conference standing.
“North Texas, that one really counts and all the marbles will be on the table,” said NMSU Head Coach Tony Samuel. “We need to take a look at ourselves [this week]. Mentally we need to take care of the mistakes we made. We were a little bit distracted this week, [but] given the circumstances I thought we responded well and played well.”
USU did not get the 15,652 fans it needed to break the single-season attendance average record.
According to post-game statistics, a crowd of 12,291 was present, but to the naked eye a generous estimation was maybe 5,000.
“It’d be nice to set records and get people here,” Dennehy said. “I think historically, [when] you get late in the season, you get hunters going out, you get bad weather and it seems like people have a tendency not to come. I thought the students did a great job. There weren’t as many as I would’ve liked to have seen, but the ones that were here did a hell of a job.”
-samhis@cc.usu.edu