ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico’s offense rolled with five more rushing touchdowns, Luke Wysong had his second career punt return touchdown and the Lobos rolled to a second straight win, taking down Air Force 52-37 in a game that marked the first conference win at New Mexico for Bronco Mendenhall.

The Lobos overall rushed for 255 yards with Eli Sanders scoring two touchdowns on the ground, Devon Dampier scoring two and Sol-Jay Maiava-Peters getting one.  Sanders scored on a pair of long runs, of 35 and 31 yards as he had a team-best 80 yards on just five carries.  The 50 points by UNM in back-to-back games marked the first time UNM had done that is 108 years.

UNM’s only drive in which they didn’t score was the opening drive of the game in which UNM went three-and-out. Air Force went down the field after a 49-yard punt by Aaron Rodriguez, but on a third-and-5 from the Lobo 22, Christian Ellis and Bobby Arnold III tackled Tylor Latham for a four-yard loss forcing a field goal.

From there, UNM’s offense was basically unstoppable.  Dampier led a 75-yard touchdown drive, finishing it off with a 7-yard touchdown run to make it 7-3 with 14 seconds left in the first quarter.  On Air Force’s next drive, Moso Tuitele sacked quarterback Quentin Hayes to force a punt, and Luke Freer outkicked his coverage with a 57-yard boot.  Luke Wysong, returning his first punt of the season, took it at the Lobo 21, shook out of a tackle, got a great seal block from Max Lantzsch in his first game as a Lobo and he was off to the races for a 79-yard touchdown.  That made it 14-3, and UNM really was never threatened after that.

The teams traded touchdowns for the rest of the second quarter, with Air Force scoring on a 5-yard Cade Harris run, but the Lobos quickly answered.  After two Sol-Jay Maiava-Peters runs, Dampier hit Wysong for a 19-yard gain.  Facing third down at the 18, Dampier hit Nic Trujillo for the freshman’s first career touchdown, giving UNM a 21-10 lead.  Air Force responded again on a short run set up by its first completion of the game, but UNM basically killed off the final 2:46 of the half, scoring a back-breaking touchdown with 11 seconds left.

On that drive, Dampier found Wysong twice, and then he combined with him on a lateral play for 16 yards.  Eventually on first-and-goal with 14 seconds left, Dampier waltzed in from two yards out for his third touchdowns of the game, second rushing, and UNM had a 28-17 halftime lead.

On the first drive of the second half, Air Force went for it on fourth-and-1 from its 34 but Noah Avinger broke through for a tackle for loss, and UNM took over at the Falcon 32.  Maiava-Peters entered at quarterback and rushed twice to cover the 32 yards for a 35-17 lead.

On its next drive, Air Force fumbled and Dimitri Johnson recovered, giving UNM the ball again in Air Force territory, and that led to a short Luke Drzewiecki field goal and a 38-17 lead.  Eli Sanders then scored after another failed four down by Air Force for a 45-17 after three quarters.

The game was effectively over from there, although Air Force did put up 20 points in the final quarter.  They got a little help when the only defensive penalty of the game continued a drive after a third-down stop.  Overall, UNM seemingly solved its penalty issues, with just four on the day after a school record 17 in its last game.

Sanders completed the scoring for UNM with a second long touchdown run, giving UNM five rushing touchdowns one game after seven against New Mexico State.

Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall

Quarterback Devon Dampier

Safety Christian Ellis

Postgame Notes

This was 41st meeting between the two teams.

Air Force now leads the series 26-15

The series is now tied 11-11 in Albuquerque

Air Force leads the series 14-2 in Colorado Springs

The series is tied 1-1 in Denver

New Mexico leads the series 1-0 in Dallas

New Mexico has won one straight in the series, ending a five-game losing streak, and New Mexico has won one straight in Albuquerque

Starting lineup changes for UNM from published two-deep

Offense: Nic Trujillo started at receiver for Caleb Medford.

Defense: Antoineo Harris, Jr. started at will for Gabe Lopez. Dimitri Johnson started at linebacker for Jayden Wilson.

*New Mexico’s captains were Luke Wysong, Richard Pearce and Noah Avinger.

*New Mexico’s Na’Quari Rogers carried the state flag of New Mexico onto the field and Caleb Medford carried the United States flag.

*New Mexico won the toss and took the ball.  Air Force kicked off and defended the south goal.

TEAM NOTES:

*The back-to-back 50-point games marked the first time that UNM had scored 50 points in back to back games since doing it three straight times from November 11 to November 30, 1916 when UNM defeated Northern Arizona 108-0, Albuquerque Indian School 55-0 and New Mexico State 51-0.

*The 52 points marked the first time that Air Force has allowed 50 points in a game since UNM defeated them 56-38 on September 30, 2017 in a game in which Richard McQuarley scored five rushing touchdowns.

*UNM’s 52 points marked the second-most ever against Air Force, behind only the 56 in the above game.

*UNM’s seven touchdowns gave UNM 25 on the season.

*Devon Dampier was officially marked for a sack on a run-pass option play when he attempted a pass, paused, tucked and ran and went out of bounds a yard short of the line of scrimmage.  UNM was the last team in the nation to allow a sack.

*UNM scored on seven straight drives, not counting the punt return for a touchdown.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES:

*Luke Wysong’s 79-yard punt return was UNM’s first punt return for a touchdown since October 16, 2021 when Wysong returned one 79 yards against Colorado State.  It tied for the third-longest punt return in UNM history, and it was the second-long punt return since 1959.

*Devon Dampier started the game 1-for-4 passing but went on to complete a personal-best 14 straight passes well into the fourth quarter.

*Sol-Jay Maiava-Peters scored on a 15-yard touchdown run, his second career rushing touchdowns.  His only other rushing touchdown was in the 2022 New Mexico Bowl on a 1-yard run for BYU.

*Dampier now has seven passing touchdowns and eight rushing touchdowns, making him one of three FBS players with seven passing and seven rushing touchdowns, joining Blake Horvath of Navy and Jalen Milroe of Alabama.

*Nic Trujillo’s 85 yards receiving were a career-high, and his four receptions tied a career-hgh.

*Randolph Kpai’s 17 tackles were a career-high, and they were the most by a Lobo since A.J. Haucly had 24 against Fresno State in 2022.

*Aaron Rodriguez punted just once, for 49 yards.  He now has 18 on the season and is on pace to punt just 36 times.  It would be the fewest in a season (non-COVID) in Lobo history.

*UNM has now faced five onside kicks in the last two weeks.