The UNM football team scored 13 unanswered second-half points to earn a 27-17 come from behind victory over the University of Nevada at Las Vegas to keep its bowl game hopes alive.
Saturday's win sets up next week's showdown between the Lobos (5-4 overall, 4-2 Mountain West Conference) and Colorado State University (5-5, 4-2), which will give the winner sole possession of third place and a possible postseason invitation.
"Next week we're playing a team, to go to a bowl game, that's won several championships in this league," head coach Rocky Long said. "It won't be hard at all to keep (our players) pointing in the right direction."
UNLV held a 17-14 advantage at halftime, sparked by Dominique Dorsey's 40-yard touchdown run and quarterback Kurt Nantkes' 26-yard touchdown pass to Andrew Dubiellak. But the Lobos forced two turnovers in the second half and made key defensive stops to put away the upset-minded Rebels, who were without quarterback Jason Thomas because he was battling the flu.
"I think we're getting a little bit better at understanding that when things go wrong we can keep playing and things might go right if we keep playing," Long said. "I thought the defensive kids made a nice adjustment in the second half and adjusted the formations and played them better."
The Lobos took an early 7-0 lead after wide receiver Derrick Shepherd took the ball into the end zone from 21 yards out for his first ever collegiate touchdown. UNLV tied it up with Dorsey's run and took a 14-7 lead when Nantkes threaded a pass between UNM's Stephen Persley and Terrell Golden to find Dubiellak in the right side of the end zone.
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But UNM responded with a 10-play 74-yard touchdown drive, capped by Casey Kelly's quarterback sneak across the goal line, to tie the game at 14 with more than four minutes to play in the first half.
With more than three minutes gone in the second half, the Rebels had the ball first-and-10 from their own 37 when Nantkes found a streaking Bobby Nero downfield for a 55-yard gain. But an illegal shift negated the big play.
Two plays later, UNM's Gary Davis fell on Nantkes' fumbled snap at the 23, though there was nothing but the end zone in front of him.
"I knew I could've scored if I would have stayed up," Davis said. "But when I reached down to get it the first time, I got pushed in the back, so I just wanted to get the ball after that."
On the Lobos' ensuing drive, running back Holmon Wiggins caught a 21-yard pass from Kelly and fullback Jarrod Baxter bruised his way in from two yards out to make the score 21-17.
Kicker Vladimir Borombozin hit his 15th consecutive field goal with 4:41 to play in the third quarter to increase UNM's lead to 24-17.
UNM forced UNLV into a three-plays-and-out drive and as Wiggins awaited Gary Cook's punt, Rebel defensive back Ruschard Dodd-Masters laid a vicious hit on Wiggins before the ball had reached him. The Rebels were assessed a 15-yard penalty, Dodd-Master was ejected and the hit did not seem to affect Wiggins - he ran for a short gain on the Lobos' next offensive play.
"Sometimes in games like this, cats lose their cool and they try to take the game in their own hands," Wiggins said. "So I had to just shake it off and focus on the game. It looked hard but it really didn't hurt me."
With 13:28 left to play, Persley picked off an errant Nantkes pass to negate a Rebel drive, and at the 7:23 mark, the Lobo defense stopped a fourth and short attempt to once again foil the Rebels. Borombozin then hit from 40 yards out with 2:01 to play to all but seal the victory.
Wiggins led UNM with 76 yards on 14 carries, while Kelly completed 11 of 27 pass attempts for 140 yards and threw no interceptions for the first time as the starting quarterback. Davis led the defense with a career-high 15 tackles, 10 of them unassisted.
UNM linebacker Charles Moss said the team is looking forward to clearing its last hurdle against the Rams next week.
"We have one mindset," Moss said. "That mindset is if anyone's in our way, we know we have to knock them down to reach our goal - a bowl game in December. With that in mind, we know what we need to do."
