🏈 Highlights from @UNMLoboFB‘s 42-21 win over Hawai´i#AtThePeak l #MWFB l #GoLobos pic.twitter.com/10h5Bahalx

— Mountain West (@MountainWest) October 22, 2023

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico was super-efficient on offense, scoring touchdowns on its first four drives of the game, and the Lobo defense picked off a season-high three passes and recovered a fumble as the Lobos ended a pair of long streaks with a 42-21 win over the visiting Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors.  The win moved UNM to 3-4 on the season and 1-2 in the conference while Hawai’i dropped to 2-6 and 0-3 in the Mountain West.

It was a game of a lot of firsts, starting with the opening coin toss when UNM won the toss and actually deferred their option to the second half. It marked the first time in Danny Gonzales’ four seasons as head coach that his squad won the toss and deferred.  He did it to change the mojo of a slow third quarter trend, and it worked perfectly.

Of course, the first half went pretty well too.  UNM’s defense pitched a quick three and out and Dylan Hopkins and company went to work, going right down the field in seven plays, the last a picture-perfect pass from Hopkins to Jeremiah Hixon for a 28-yard score.  It was one of three touchdown passes for Hopkins and one of two TD receptions for Hixon.

UNM then got a second straight three-and-out, this time with Zach Morris intercepting a Brayden Schager pass for UNM’s first pick of the year.  UNM got a key third down conversion when one of five N.M. Gatorade Players of the Year on the team, Zach Vigil, converted a third down with a nine-yard catch.  That set up a 3-yard touchdown catch by Ryan Davis for a 14-0 lead.

Hawai’i answered with a Steven McBride touchdown, but UNM kept the offense moving, and early in the second quarter Jacory Croskey-Merritt scored the first of his two rushing touchdowns for a 21-7 lead.  Hawai’i drove into UNM territory to the Lobo 29 with second-and-three, but after two incompletions, Gabriel Lopez sacks Schager and forced a fumble to end that drive.

That gave UNM a fourth drive of the half and it led to a fourth touchdown.  UNM quickly moved downfield but faced a first-and-25 at the Hawai’i 33-yard line after a hands to the face penalty.  That just allowed Andrew Henry to race 33-yard touchdown, his first as a Lobo.  It was a part of his first 100-yard effort with UNM, going for 114 yards.

The Rainbow Warrior did score late in the half to make it 28-14, and UNM finished the half with one play with 24 seconds left, the only drive it didn’t score on.  But, UNM got the ball to open the second half and quickly erased any thoughts of the miserable second half a week ago against San Jose State.

The drive went 12 plays and looked like it might stall at the Hawai’i 30-yard line as UNM faced third-and-11, but Hopkins hit DJ Washington for 10 yards, and UNM converted the fourth-and-1 as Croskey-Merritt bullied over for three yards.   On the next play Hopkins found Hixon again from 17 yards out, and that ended a lot of the drama.

UNM made it 42-14 in the fourth on Croskey-Merritt’s second rushing touchdown, and only a late touchdown with six seconds on the clock messed up a pretty perfect half for UNM.  Three times in the second half UNM got stops, with Jermarius Lewis figuring in on three strait takeaways.  First, on a fourth-and-3 from the Lobo 14, Lewis sacked Schager and forced a fumble, which UNM recovered.  On the next two drives, Lewis intercepted Schager in the end zone twice to end drives.

UNM travels to Reno to take on Nevada at 7:30 pm Pacific, 8:30 pm Mountain Time on CBS Sports Network.

New Mexico Head Coach Danny Gonzales

New Mexico Quarterback Dylan Hopkins

New Mexico Running Back Andrew Henry

New Mexico Wolf Safety Jermarius Lewis

Postgame Notes

This was the 27th meeting between the two teams.

Hawai’i now leads 16-11 in the series

New Mexico now leads 5-4 in Albuquerque

Hawai’i leads 12-4 in Hawai’i

New Mexico has now one straight in the series, and one straight in Albuquerque.

Starting lineup changes for UNM from published two-deep

Offense: Isaiah Sillemon started at LG for Taurian “Teedo” Stafford.  was the offensive player who didn’t start.

Defense: Ja’Shon Lowery started at LB for Syaire Riley. Jermarius Lewis started at RWOLF for Noa Pola-Gates. Derrick Moore started at Lobo for Tavian Combs.

*New Mexico’s captains were Dylan Hopkins, CJ James, Alec Marenco and Kyler Drake.

*New Mexico’s Bryce Santana carried the state flag of New Mexico onto the field and Charles Steinkamp carried the United States flag.

*New Mexico won the toss and deferred.  Hawai’i elected to receive and defend the North goal. It marked just the third time in 38 games under Danny Gonzales that UNM has not received the opening kickoff and it was the first time UNM won the coin toss and deferred.

TEAM NOTES:

*New Mexico is now 49-46-3 all-time in Homecoming games as the team had lost four straight Homecoming games.

*New Mexico went 20-for-26 as a team passing, a 76.9 completion percentage.  That marl is tied for the 15^th-best passing game in school history.

*New Mexico’s win ended a pair of streaks, as UNM had lost 14 straight conference games (the longest losing streak in the nation) and UNM had also lost 20 consecutive conference games at home, last winning a home conference game on September 30, 2017 when UNM beat Air Force 56-38..

*New Mexico entered the game with just two takeaways, both fumble recoveries against Tennessee Tech.  UNM got four takeaways against Hawai’i including its first three interceptions.  Those were the first interceptions of the season for UNM.  Entering the game, UNM and Arizona State were the only two teams in the FBS without an interception.

*UNM is now averaging 29.9 points per game, and that would be the third-best single season average in the last 20 years, topped only by the school-record 36.7 points per game in 2016 and 32.8 points per game in 2023.  UNM has only averaged 30.0 points per game nine times in school history.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES:

*Derrick Moore, Zach Vigil and Kaydin Pope all made their first career starts.

*Zach Morris picked off a first quarter pass, UNM’s first interception of the season.

*Jermarius Lewis made his third start of the season but first as the Right Wolf Safety. He led UNM with seven tackles, had a tackle for loss, a sack, a forced fumble on a fourth down attempt, two pass breakups and a pair of interceptions.  It was UNM’s first two interception game since Jerrick Reed II did it on November 7, 2020 at Hawai’i.

*Andrew Henry rushed for a season-high 112 yards on just 13 carries, scoring his first UNM touchdown.  It was the second-most rushing yards in his career, behind a 123-yard game when he was at ULM against Louisiana on September 24, 2022.

*Dylan Hopkins threw for 202 yards, giving him 1,367 yards.  He needs 124 to have the most by a Lobo quarterback in the last 15 seasons.

*Hopkins set a school record for completion percentage in a game (minimum 20 completions) with a 20-for-25 day, 80.0%.  The previous best for a 20-completion game was 20-for-26 (76.9%) by Terry Wilson against Houston Baptist on September 2, 2021 and Donald Sellers against SMU on October 26, 1996.

*Aaron Rodriguez punted three times for a career-best 53.7-yard average, and a career-best net of 58.7 yards as the only return was a muff for -15 yards.

*DJ Washington tied his career-high with four catches.

*Ryan Davis’ touchdown was the first of his five-year career.

*Jeremiah Hixon had his second two-TD game of the season, catching two against Wyoming.  His four receiving touchdowns is more than UNM threw for the entirety of the 2022 season (three).