Staff Report
UNM controlled both sides of the ball Saturday in Laramie, dismantling Wyoming 26-3 in brutally cold conditions.
Lobo tailback DonTrell Moore rushed for 153 yards and caught a touchdown pass, while D.D. Cox also contributed with 127 ground yards and a 1-yard touchdown of his own.
Quarterback Casey Kelly completed eight of 14 for 77 yards and two touchdowns.
The Cowboys took the lead with a 22-yard field goal on the game's opening drive, but the rest of the contest belonged to the Lobos. UNM had 413 total yards of offense, while Wyoming gained only 122, with just 23 of those yards coming on the ground.
After Wyoming managed to score, the Lobos responded quickly with an 11 play, 82-yard drive that ended with Kelly's touchdown pass to Moore.
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Wyoming's next possession was squandered when lineman D.J. Renteria sacked Wyoming's star quarterback Casey Bramlett, forcing a fumble that was picked up by safety Sidney Wiley at the Wyoming 25-yard line. The turnover enabled a Wes Zunker field goal that put UNM up 10-3.
Kelly threw his second touchdown of the game in the third, hitting Adrian Byrd with a 12-yard strike that boosted the Lobo lead to 14 points.
A safety and a one-yard scoring run by Cox were the only points scored in the fourth quarter.
The weather was a factor throughout. It snowed all four quarters, and when the game began the temperature was just 9 degrees with a wind-chill of minus 5. Conditions steadily became worse, and by the end the wind-chill was down to minus 14.
The Lobos' regular season wraps up with an record of 8-4. After a 7-7 finish last year and a 6-5 record in 2001, the Lobos have improved in every season under head coach Rocky Long.
With the Wyoming win, UNM secured second place in the Mountain West Conference and an invitation to the Las Vegas Bowl.
Despite the win, the day didn't work out quite as head coach Rocky Long and his team had hoped.
A UNM win, coupled with a Utah loss at BYU would have given the Lobos a share of the Mountain West championship.
The Cougars couldn't manage a single point, however, and lost 3-0 in a snowy game of their own.
Because of their conference-best 6-1 record, the Utes will head to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis on New Year's Eve.
The Lobos, thanks to the second-place finish, are on their way to the Las Vegas Bowl for the second straight year. In the game, to be played on Christmas Eve, UNM will face a Pac-10 opponent that is yet to be determined.
