It was by no means perfect, but the UNM football team held on to win its first Mountain West game of the season 48-41 against the San José State Spartans.
With the win, New Mexico improved to 2-2 (1-0 MW) and 2-0 at home. A win is usually a positive, but head coach Bob Davie is trying to improve his team’s standards.
“I’m happy we won. I think we have some good things going,” Davie said. “I just thought we would be playing at a higher level right now, defensively, and I know we all feel that way across the board.”
The Lobos never trailed in the game, but it proved to be a difficult task, and Davie said his team needed to work on defense.
“That’s been a recurring deal, we can’t get it exactly solid on defense; we are disappointed,” he said. “We are better than that, we should be better than that.”
The Lobos opened up the scoring less than a minute into the match, as redshirt sophomore running back Tyrone Owens scored a touchdown from 14 yards out.
UNM scored again seven minutes later to take a 14-0 lead against the Spartans. This time it was Teriyon Gipson with a 40-yard run.
But the Lobos were not able to keep that dominance in the game very long, as the defense started allowing the big play that they have been adept at giving up in 2016.
The clock read 7:32 when Gipson scored. By 7:21, San José’s Zamore Zigler got a 75 yard touchdown.
Then, with 1:07 left in the 1st quarter, the Spartans got a second touchdown as Tim Crawley recorded a 21 yard run. However, instead of tying the game up, Bryce Crawford’s kick was blocked, leaving the Lobos with a 14-13 advantage.
New Mexico scored 17 more points in the 2nd quarter via two touchdowns by junior running back Richard McQuarley, and three successful PATs by Sanders. San José got seven points from another Crawley touchdown and a kick by Crawford. Crawley scored on a 65 yard pass from Kenny Potter.
The first half ended with New Mexico holding a 31-20 lead.
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In the third quarter, Lobos redshirt junior linebacker Austin Ocasio recorded his first career interception and went on to score a 37 yard touchdown. UNM finished the quarter with a 41-20 lead.
But New Mexico’s 21-point lead did not last very long.
The Spartan offense got a 2 yard touchdown from Deontae Cooper with 12:06 on the clock. Cooper struck again with 9:27 on the clock, this time taking a 45 yard pass from Potter.
The New Mexico offense scored one last time with 2:54 remaining. McQuarley got his third touchdown of the night with a 6 yard run.
With 31 seconds remaining, San José got one last touchdown from Tre Hartley. This was from a 14-yard pass from Potter. After Crawford’s kick, the scoring stopped at 41-48.
Although the game wasn’t perfect, McQuarley said the win turned into a much-needed confidence booster for the team.
“As of right now we have everybody here back on the same page,” he said. “Everybody feels good and comfortable now, we lost two games back to back, everybody was waiting on that punch to make (us) get back on the right track.”
Davie agreed that the win was something his team really needed but that the Lobos can’t get too comfortable yet.
“It’s a positive that we won. We are excited, we are happy,” Davie said. “But I also know today is like Sunday to me, because we play Friday night against Boise. So I’m back to reality right now….We have to get better.”
Isabel Gonzalez is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. She mainly covers men’s soccer and basketball. She can be reached at sports @dailylobo.com or on Twitter @cisabelg.
