Utah State survives late Air Force rally for 42-32 victory
Each of the past three seasons when Utah State and Air Force have matched up, the games have been drama-filled and very closely contested.
Saturday night was no different.
In front of a near-sellout crowd of 22,720, the Aggies snapped a three-game losing streak to Air Force, defeating the Falcons 42-32 in their Mountain West Conference opener.
After exchanging punts on the first offensive possession for each team, it was the Aggies who struck first as sophomore quarterback Jordan Love led them on a seven-play, 62-yard drive down the field while passing for 55 yards. The drive was capped off with an exclamation mark when junior running back Darwin Thompson ran the ball six yards into the endzone to earn his fifth touchdown of the season.
After another uneventful Falcon drive, Utah State looked to put another touchdown on the board as Love found sophomore receiver Savon Scarver wide open near the endzone on a 50-plus yard pass attempt, but the ball was bobbled and the Aggies were forced to punt.
Air Force responded with a methodical 11-play, 82-yard drive which included 10 rushing attempts. Junior quarterback Isaiah Sanders kept the ball on a third-and-one quarterback sneak to tie the game at seven apiece. On their ensuing possession, the Falcons strung together another long drive, running 15 plays and taking six minutes off the clock while going up 14-7.
Megan Albrechtsen The USU Hurd showed up in force, completely decked out for Utah State’s “whiteout.”
USU senior wide receiver Ron’quavion Tarver had 112 receiving yards in the first half alone, including a 30-yard catch to put the Aggies in the red zone with just over six minutes to play in the half. Junior running back Gerold Bright evened the game up on the following play with a four-yard run into the endzone. The Aggies went into the locker room with a 21-14 lead after a 43-yard touchdown pass from Love to senior wide receiver Aaren Vaughns.
“I thought that was really key” said USU head coach Matt Wells of Vaughns’ late touchdown. “I knew they were getting the ball to begin the third quarter… To take the touchdown lead heading into halftime was huge.”
With a quick couple of touchdowns to start the second half, the Aggies seemed to be pulling away when they got up to a 35-17 lead. But that changed quickly once the fourth quarter started.
Air Force marched down the field for a quick 77-yard drive topped off by a nine-yard touchdown run by sophomore running back Kadin Remsberg. On the ensuing kickoff, a mass of Falcon players met Scarver near the 20-yard line to jar the ball loose, when Air Force junior linebacker Christopher Musselman scooped up the fumble and ran it into the endzone to trim the Aggie lead to just three at 32-35.
“We were beating ourselves,” said senior safety Gaje Ferguson of the back-to-back Air Force touchdowns. “We were turning the ball over, we were fumbling it, we weren’t executing on plays both on offense and defense, so those unanswered points were just things we were doing.”
The three-point deficit was as close as the Falcons would get, however, as a 70-yard rush by Bright a couple of possessions later followed by a 4th-and-1 defensive stop by the Aggies cemented a 42-32 victory.
“We needed a win like that bad…we overcame some adversity,” Wells said. “At times we tried to hand it to them. We made mistakes, but we rose to the occasion and made plays when we needed to.”
Despite only possessing the ball for just 16:20 of the game and running just 62 plays compared to 107 for the Falcons, Utah State outgained Air Force 489 yards to 471.
Jontrell Rocquemore, a senior OLB, tackles an Air Force player. USU beat the Falcons with a final score of 42-32.
The Utah State defense needed to give a spectacular effort, and they certainly delivered. Five different Aggies recorded 10 or more tackles, while the team came up with seven total tackles for a loss.
“I thought that our defense battled very hard,” Ferguson said. “It seemed like the defense was always on the field. I think they more than tripled us in time of possession, so it’s wear-and-tear, and it really is going to show if your defense has that tough ratatat mentality where they’re going to rally to the ball.”
Ferguson finished with a team-high 15 tackles in the game.
Love finished with a career-high 356 yards, completing 26 passes on 38 attempts, while Bright earned his second 100-plus yard rushing game of the season with 101 yards on 11 carries.
“It’s tough going against that type of offense, I mean they’re holding the ball the whole time so they’ve got it a lot so we’re just over on the sideline,” Love said. “We were able to go tempo on them. I don’t think they were really ready for it, they were having a hard time adjusting and I mean, that’s our offense. That’s what we do.”
With the win, Utah State moved to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in Mountain West play.
The Aggies will now enter a bye week before heading to Provo to take on in-state rival BYU on Oct. 5.
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