Ledes from the Land of Enchantment

Utah State exit Las Cruces with their seventh win after a shutout in the second half – Cache Valley Daily

Photo by Robert K. Scott

LAS CRUCES – Utah state football was expected to have a big win on Saturday afternoon, and it did. The team only waited until the second half to do it. After trailing 13-7, USU New Mexico State beat 28-0 in the second half to take off-conference victory and improve to 7-2 overall. NMSU fell to 1-8 overall.

“I’m proud of the win,” said head coach Blake Anderson. “Not proud of the way it looked.”

Anderson described his team’s game as uninspired in the first half and that was exactly what worried him when he went into the game. Not only was it nearly 40 degrees warmer than what the players at home in Logan were used to, but Anderson had trained at the stadium too. He said the small crowd the stadium lacked energy and he didn’t want his players to keep up.

“I’ve been honest with them all week about how tough this road trip is, what this opponent really looked like,” he said, “and that it was our responsibility to play at the level we should be playing at, not” for that To play the audience, not to play for the environment, not to play for the opponent. “

USU quarterback Logan Bonner threw for 355 yards, four touchdowns and one interception. His receiver Deven Thompkins had nine receptions for two touchdowns and a career high of 215 yards, which is the same for most in USU history.

Thompkins, who now leads the nation on total reception yards this season, said he has his eye on a 200-yard game year round.

“It’s something I wanted and got close to every week,” Thompkins said. “For example 100 yard games, 177 yard games, that’s cool and everything, but I was just waiting for this 200 yard game. To be honest, it’s a relief in a way, but it makes me even hungrier. “

USU running back Calvin Tyler Jr. ran 10 times for 60 yards while teammate Elelyon Noa added another 14 touches for 50 yards and a touchdown. Tyler left the game early with the possibility that he sustained an injury that kept him out of previous games.

“I hope it looked worse than it is,” said Anderson, “but I really don’t know at this point.”

The first quarter wasn’t even close as the New Mexico Aggies took the lead 10-0 and gained 187 yards on USU’s 22 and 11 first downs to just one of USU’s. A blocked field goal by Justin Rice from USU in the opening game was one of the few positive points for USU and prevented the score from getting any further out of hand.

The Utah state offense had more success moving the ball in the second quarter, but flipped the ball onto downs just eight yards from the end zone on the first try. The second attempt went better. Thompkins blew up for a 23-yard Bonn pass in the end zone, reducing the other Aggies’ lead to 10-7.

The state of New Mexico continued its scoring with another three points on the following possession. USU’s last drive of the half ended in a Bonn interception, USU 13-7 behind.

The second half was very different. It started with Thompkins finding the end zone less than a minute into the start. The Aggie defense also stepped up, forcing two threes in a row while Derek Wright and Elelyon Noa hit the alternate possessions, giving USU a 28-13 lead entering the final quarter.

“We started to look like the team we’re capable of,” said Anderson. “That’s how we should have played the whole game.”

Utah State scored again as wide receiver Justin McGriff used his economies of scale early in the fourth quarter to score a one-yard touchdown pass while the USU defense held when needed and for the final 30 Minutes triggered a shutout.

USU will return to conference play next Saturday evening at 8:30 p.m. in San Jose State. At 4-1 in the conference, the Aggies will try to keep their position at the top of the Mountain Division.

Comments are closed.