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.

Postgame Notes

This was the 10th meeting between the two teams.

Nevada now leads 6-3-1 in the series

Nevada now leads 4-0-1 in Reno

New Mexico leads 3-1 in Albuquerque

Nevada leads 1-0 in Las Vegas

Nevada has now three straight in the series, and four straight in Reno.

Starting lineup changes for UNM from published two-deep

Offense: Duece Jones started at WR for DJ Washington, Kaydin Pope started at WR for Hixon.  Wyatt McClour was the offensive player who didn’t start.

Defense: Ja’Shon Lowery started at LB for Syaire Riley. Derreck Moore started at LOBO for Tavian Combs. Bryson Taylor started at LC for Donte Martin.

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

*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.  Nevada elected to receive UNM defended the North goal. After opening with the ball in 36 of 38 games in the Danny Gonzales era, UNM deferred and kicked off to open the game for the second straight week.

TEAM NOTES:

*Nevada opened the scoring with a 34-yard field goal. It marked the first time since the opener that UNM didn’t score first, as it had done so six straight games.

*Game time temperature was 37 degrees, and UNM has lost 12 straight games when the temperature was below 40 degrees.  The last win was on December 22, 2007 when UNM defeated Nevada 23-0 in the New Mexico Bowl when the temperature was 34 degrees.  The last regular season win was November 22, 2003 when UNM beat Wyoming 26-3 when it was nine degrees in Laramie (-5 with the wind chill).

*New Mexico’s largest-ever comeback is from 21 points down, in 2006 against Utah (down 24-3, won 34-31) and in 1974 against UTEP (down 21-0, won 37-21).

*New attempted and was successful on its first two-point conversion since November 23, 2019 when Trae Hall got threw a two-point conversion.  UNM had never attempted a two-point conversion in the Gonzales era.

*New Mexico’s Dylan Hopkins and Devon Dampier combined for 317 yards.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES:

*The pick-six for Nevada was the first against UNM since 10/8/2022 when Wyoming’s Cameron Stone returned one 38 yards in the final minute for a 27-14 Cowboy win.

*Dylan Hopkins threw three interceptions in the first half. He had thrown four the entire season entering the game.

*Luke Drzewiecki’s 47-yard field goal to open the third quarter was a career-long.  His previous best was a 44-yarder against New Mexico State in 2022.

*Jeremiah Hixon’s 59-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter was his longest career reception. His 116 yards receiving tied a career-high and his fourth career 100-yard game.  His last 100-yard game was also his previous high of 116 yards against Alabama A&M in 2021.

*Dylan Hopkins now has 1,638 yards passing, throwing for a season-best 271 yards, giving him the most yards thrown by a Lobo quarterback since Donovan Porterie threw for 2,411 yards in 2009.

*Dereck Moore’s 10 tackles were a career-high.