GAME NOTES- New Mexico’s 52-33 win over Air Force was the Lobos’ third straight winover the Falcons. It marks the first time in the 44-year history of the series that UNM hascaptured three straight in the series. AFA still leads the series 11-8, including 6-5 in Albuquerque.- UNM recorded 620 yards of total offense Saturday night, the most since a school-record691 at Utah in 1989. It marked the 13th time in school history UNM has eclipsed the 600-yardplateau in total offense and the 620 yards was tied for the 10th-most in school annals. – TheLobos 52 points were the most in head coach Rocky Long’s four seasons and the most for theLobos since UNM beat New Mexico State 61-24 in Albuquerque in 1997. – The 52 pointswas the most scored by UNM against Air Force in the 19-game series. The 85 combined pointswas one shy of the series record 86 (49-37 UNM in 1982). – UNM QB Casey Kelly set acareer-high with 324 yards and three touchdowns. It was the first three-TD performance for aLobo QB since Sean Stein did so vs. Wyoming in 1999 and the first 300-yard passingperformance by a Lobo since Graham Leigh had 359 against San Diego State in 1998. – WRJoe Manning had career-highs of 8 catches, 135 yards and 2 TDs. It was the most yards receivingfor a Lobo since Martinez Williams had 175 against Fresno State in 1998. – K VladimirBorombozin booted a 33-yard field goal in the second quarter, his 12th straight converted FGattempt dating back to last year. In the process, Borombozin has established a new school recordfor consecutive made field goals, breaking the old mark of 11 set by Bob Berg in 1974-75. – Holmon Wiggins’ 47-yard punt return for a touchdown was the first of his career and the first fora Lobo since Stephen Persley returned a blocked punt 18 yards for a score at Air Force last year. Wiggins was also UNM’s leading rusher with 84 yards and is 15th in UNM history with 1,658yards. – Stephen Persley and Scott Gerhardt each intercepted passes Saturday, bringing theirteam-high totals to four for the year. They lead all active Lobos with 7 career picks. – Persleyalso returned a fumble for a 25-yard touchdown, his second TD of the year (also an INT returnfor a TD), and the first fumble return for a Lobo since Mike Barnett did so against Wyoming lastyear. Persley has four career TDs at UNM. – WR Dwight Counter had 4 catches for 81 yardsand has now caught a pass in all seven games this season for UNM. – WR Joel Baker caughtthe first pass of his career for UNM tonight. Baker caught 3 passes for 26 yards.. – Senior FBJarrod Baxter had 20 carries for 81 yards and now has a career-high 7 TD this season. Hecontinues to lead the Lobos in rushing this season and now has 1,789 yards for his career, goodfor 13th place in school history. – The Lobos compiled their longest drive of the season interms of plays with an epic 16-play, 80-yard TD drive in the fourth quarter. UNM had threedrives of 14 plays earlier in the year. Attendance for tonight’s game was 28,047. Averageattendance for three games is 32,951. A total of 98,854 fans have attended so far in 2001.
POSTGAME QUOTES NEW MEXICO VS. AIR FORCE
AIR FORCE HEAD COACH FISHER DeBERRY (general comments): “Realistically, they beatus at our game. In the second half, we only ran about 18 or 19 plays. We left our defense on thefield too long but you still have to give their offense a lot of credit. They found a way to converton third downs and keep possession of the ball. In the second half, we couldn’t sustain a drive onoffense. Our defense just tired out.”
“(on the UNM running game): “Their two backs Jarrod Baxter and Holmon Wiggins are twobig strong backs. They were able to give UNM some ball control on offense.”
(on UNM QB Casey Kelly): “He made a couple of bad decisions in the first half but he settleddown and in the second half played very good football.”
(on the UNM defense): “You have to give the entire New Mexico team credit. Their defenseplayed extremely well. Again, our offense was not out there long enough to get anything going. Our defense simply tired out.”
NEW MEXICO CORNERBACK STEPHEN PERSLEY (on stopping the AFA triple option): “Everybody picked it up. We are trying to go to a bowl game. The first play was just amiscommunication that really didn’t end up hurting us.”
(on his performance): “Our coaches are always working with us on getting to the ball and I wasaround it. Our mentality is that 11 guys go to the ball and we just do it.”
NEW MEXICO TAILBACK HOLMON WIGGINS (on the performance of the Lobo offense):“We knew it was going to be a close game. We knew we needed to come out and score. Wedidn’t try to pick up the defense, we just tried to do our part. There have been some gameswhere we didn’t put up enough points, and Air Force said coming in that we wouldn’t score. Wegot the job done today.”
(on his performance): “I got in a rhythm and then in the second half, it seemed like the grass got alittle slippery. The offensive line opened up some big holes and I just tried to do my part”
NEW MEXICO QUARTERBACK CASEY KELLY (general comments): “I think the team cametogether today and played great. The defense played well and the special teams had a touchdown. The offense came together and scored in the red zone, so we are pretty happy about ourperformance today. We’ve got some things to work on but it is a good feeling to get this winhere.”
(on UNM’s bowl aspirations): “That’s our team’s goal and that has been the goal since thebeginning. With this win, that is still possible. From now on, each game is going to be the mostimportant of the season. We will enjoy this win, but we’ve got to come back and have anotherbig win next week. It feels good to win going away like that though.”