ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico’s defense hung tough, but UNM’s offense suffered three first half interceptions, leading to 18 points as New Mexico lost 34-24 after falling behind 24-0 at the break. The Lobos scored 24 points in the second half and had a chance with under a minute to go but UNM missed a necessary 2-point conversion and then couldn’t get the onside kick.
In the end, New Mexico trailed too much to make a comeback, although UNM put a strong third quarter that gave it some hope of the largest comeback in school history. The Lobos opened the half by getting a career-long 47-yard field goal by Luke Drzewiecki to get on the board, and after forcing a punt, Dylan Hopkins moved UNM 84 yards in just 45 seconds. First he hit Trace Bruckler for a 25-yard gain, and right after that he found an open Jeremiah Hixon for a 59-yard touchdown, and with just over eight minutes left in the third quarter, the Lobos were down 24-10.
It looked even better when an invalid fair catch signal and a false start forced the Wolf Pack to start at its own 10-yard line. However, Nevada was able to drive almost the length of the field before settling for a fourth Brandon Talton field goal to make it 27-10. On that drive, UNM lost Alec Marenco for the rest of the half and the first half against UNLV on a targeting call.
UNM then went three-and-out and punted the ball away, and Nevada got a big return in which a flag was thrown and then picked up. Nevada then benefited n a two pass interference penalties before finally punching the ball in from two yards out from Jacques Badolato-Birdsell to make it 34-10. UNM then scored the final 14 points on a 1-yard run by Devon Dampier and a 2-yard run by Jacory Croskey-Merritt, but UNM couldn’t get any closer.
The defense allowed just one big play in the first half, a 51-yard pass from Brendan Lewis to Dalevon Campbell, but the defense stiffened and forced a 34-yard field goal from Brandon Talton. On UNM’s next drive, the Lobos went for it on fourth-and-3 at the Nevada 40, but Hopkins was intercepted and Nevada’s Jonathan Maldanado, and he returned it to the Lobo 34-yard line.
Again the defense held tough and allowed just a 47-yard field goal, but disaster struck on the next drive when Hopkins missed Caleb Medford and he was intercepted by Richard Toney, Jr. who returned it for a 43-yard touchdown and a 13-0 lead. After Nevada made it 16-0, a third Hopkins interception was returned 42 yards to the 24-yard line, and Nevada was able to punch it in and get a two-point conversion to make it 24-0.
In a first half where not much went UNM’s way, Nevada even got a break with an extra timeout. With no timeouts, Nevada debated going for it on fourth down, but with one second on the play clock, it called timeout to punt, except they were out of timeouts. Despite that fact, Nevada was allowed to punt the ball without a penalty.
New Mexico allowed just 311 yards depsite missing Donte Martin and Tavian Combs, neither of whom played in the game as UNM started a defense of four true sophomores and a true freshman.