DeMartino’s big day leads Aggies past New Mexico
Running back Joey DeMartino’s career night highlighted a blowout win for the Utah State football team against New Mexico, 45-10 Saturday in Albuquerque. The senior scored four touchdowns in the win.
“First of all, I thought it was a tremendous team effort by all three sides,” said USU head coach Matt Wells. “We had big plays in the kicking game and almost had another one. I thought the defense shut the run game down and were dominant. We ran the ball. That’s what we said before the game, the front seven on both sides of the ball had to play well.”
DeMartino scored three times on the ground and added a fourth through the air and scored on his first touch, going eight yards on USU’s first offensive play for a 7-0 lead.
Five minutes later DeMartino scored on a 21-yard reception from freshman quarterback Darell Garretson. After the Lobos got on the board with a field goal in the second quarter, DeMartino answered with two carries for 74 yards and a touchdown to give the Aggies a 24-3 lead.
The San Diego native finished with 144 yards on 12 carries.
Lost in DeMartino’s big night was the performance of Garretson, who made his first start at quarterback. The true freshman went 15-of-23 for 144 yards and one touchdown.
“I thought that Darell played really efficient, spread the ball around, was stingy with the ball and went through his reads. I thought he did well,” Wells said.
Special teams also played a big role for the Aggies, who got two touchdowns on a 65-yard punt return by Bruce Natson and a 72-yard run from punter Jaron Bentrude.
Natson’s return gave the Aggies a 31-3 lead, and after DeMartino scored his fourth touchdown of the night, Bentrude called his own number on a punt and went the distance.
“It was not a fake punt. They gave it to us,” Wells said. “It’s their (the Lobos’) job to contain the punt and that wasn’t on. It was something that the kicker did and we do it in practice all the time, and it was not called.”
USU’s front seven kept the nation’s second-rated rushing attack in check all night, allowing just 160 yards rushing compared to the Lobos 349 yard average this season.
“They came out with four big, strong dudes in there, and so much more powerful than us on both sides of the ball,” said UNM head coach Bob Davie. “They’re a three-man front team, but they played four-man front on us. They covered those guards and lined up and played us like I would play us with that personnel.”
The Aggies climbed back to .500 with the win, moving to 4-4 this season and 3-1 in Mountain West Conference play. USU remained tied with Boise State for the top spot in the Mountain Division of the conference with four games to play.
USU has a bye this week and will return to action at 3 p.m. on Nov. 2 when the Aggies host Hawaii.
“Every win is big. It is hard to win games in Division I football,” Wells said. “I always say that you can’t go down to Walmart in row 8, third shelf up and pick up a bunch of wins. It’s hard to win and it’s hard to win on the road. Every win is special.”
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