Miners demolish the Aggies in Battle of I-10 shutout
Issue date: 10/4/04 Section: Sports
by Aaron Villalobos
Sports Reporter
With emotions running high and a crucial victory at stake, the New Mexico State University football team suffered a painful defeat against I-10 rivals the University of Texas-El Paso Miners Saturday night.
Leading UTEP with 158 yards rushing, tailback Howard Jackson helped the Miners to a 45-0 victory over NMSU in front of a home crowd of 46,123.
"It was a tough loss," Aggie coach Tony Samuel said. "I give [UTEP] credit; they did a good job."
The Aggies started play with possession of the ball, only to lose it 13 yards down the field in an interception thrown by quarterback Paul Dombrowski. The Aggie defense then worked the Miner offense, forcing a fumble that was recovered by Aggie safety Matt Griebel.
As the Aggies began to plow their way back down the field, fullback David Romaka fumbled the ball on a 32-yard drive. This fumble marked the third turnover for both teams in a period of less than five minutes.
UTEP made sure to take advantage of the NMSU turnover. With a little more than nine minutes left in the first quarter, UTEP kicker Reagan Schneider completed a 47-yard field goal, putting the Miners up 3-0.
The Aggie defense suffered some blows by losing linebackers Richard Glover and Jimmy Cottrell to injury. Cottrell left the game in the first half for what appeared to be a knee or ankle injury, and Glover suffered a concussion later in the half.
"We lost a fair amount of people early in the game," Samuel said. "That was a little disturbing. I hope to get them back by next week."
The Miners continued to turn up the heat on the Aggies. By the end of the first half, UTEP had a 24-0 lead on the Aggies.
Any hopes of a comeback in the second half were quickly shattered when Jackson made a 91-yard return 15 seconds into the third quarter, putting UTEP up 31-0.
"I think everyone is here to win and play hard, but we got down and it just snowballed on us," Dombrowski said.
Quarterback Buck Pierce came in for a brief period during the second half and threw an interception. UTEP went 48 yards in four plays, culminating in quarterback Omar Duarte's 6-yard touchdown pass to Jayson Boyd to make the core 38-0. Durate replaced quarterback Jordan Palmer after a concussion.
"If we expect to win more games, we're going to have to play like we did with Troy [State University]," Griebel said. "If we keep playing like this, we're not going to win any games."
Third-string quarterback Joey Vincent gave NMSU its best scoring chance when he hit receiver Tim Tolbert with a 63-yard pass to the UTEP 11-yard line. The Aggies offense was unable to execute stalling in UTEP territory, and kicker Ryan Guardia failed a 29-yard field goal attempt.
The Miners scored two more times in the second half: once on a 24-yard pass from Duarte to Jonas Crafts and another on a 5-yard run by Jackson.
This was the worst Miner-Aggie blowout since 1949, when UTEP slammed NMSU 69-7.
NMSU takes on the University of Louisiana at Lafayette at 6:05 p.m. Saturday at Aggie Memorial Stadium.
Sports Reporter
With emotions running high and a crucial victory at stake, the New Mexico State University football team suffered a painful defeat against I-10 rivals the University of Texas-El Paso Miners Saturday night.
Leading UTEP with 158 yards rushing, tailback Howard Jackson helped the Miners to a 45-0 victory over NMSU in front of a home crowd of 46,123.
"It was a tough loss," Aggie coach Tony Samuel said. "I give [UTEP] credit; they did a good job."
The Aggies started play with possession of the ball, only to lose it 13 yards down the field in an interception thrown by quarterback Paul Dombrowski. The Aggie defense then worked the Miner offense, forcing a fumble that was recovered by Aggie safety Matt Griebel.
As the Aggies began to plow their way back down the field, fullback David Romaka fumbled the ball on a 32-yard drive. This fumble marked the third turnover for both teams in a period of less than five minutes.
UTEP made sure to take advantage of the NMSU turnover. With a little more than nine minutes left in the first quarter, UTEP kicker Reagan Schneider completed a 47-yard field goal, putting the Miners up 3-0.
The Aggie defense suffered some blows by losing linebackers Richard Glover and Jimmy Cottrell to injury. Cottrell left the game in the first half for what appeared to be a knee or ankle injury, and Glover suffered a concussion later in the half.
"We lost a fair amount of people early in the game," Samuel said. "That was a little disturbing. I hope to get them back by next week."
The Miners continued to turn up the heat on the Aggies. By the end of the first half, UTEP had a 24-0 lead on the Aggies.
Any hopes of a comeback in the second half were quickly shattered when Jackson made a 91-yard return 15 seconds into the third quarter, putting UTEP up 31-0.
"I think everyone is here to win and play hard, but we got down and it just snowballed on us," Dombrowski said.
Quarterback Buck Pierce came in for a brief period during the second half and threw an interception. UTEP went 48 yards in four plays, culminating in quarterback Omar Duarte's 6-yard touchdown pass to Jayson Boyd to make the core 38-0. Durate replaced quarterback Jordan Palmer after a concussion.
"If we expect to win more games, we're going to have to play like we did with Troy [State University]," Griebel said. "If we keep playing like this, we're not going to win any games."
Third-string quarterback Joey Vincent gave NMSU its best scoring chance when he hit receiver Tim Tolbert with a 63-yard pass to the UTEP 11-yard line. The Aggies offense was unable to execute stalling in UTEP territory, and kicker Ryan Guardia failed a 29-yard field goal attempt.
The Miners scored two more times in the second half: once on a 24-yard pass from Duarte to Jonas Crafts and another on a 5-yard run by Jackson.
This was the worst Miner-Aggie blowout since 1949, when UTEP slammed NMSU 69-7.
NMSU takes on the University of Louisiana at Lafayette at 6:05 p.m. Saturday at Aggie Memorial Stadium.