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LAS CRUCES — For the Lobo football team, revenge is a dish best served with an authoritative beat down.
UNM dominated in-state rival NMSU in every facet of Saturday’s 27-14 victory at Aggie Memorial Stadium. Defensively, the Lobos forced the Aggies to fumble twice, punt five times and turn over a possession on downs.
Offensively, UNM thrashed NMSU on the ground, gaining 302 yards and controlling the ball with a time of possession of 38:15.
Junior running back Kasey Carrier led the way with 129 yards on 21 attempts and one touchdown, while freshman running back Jhurell Pressley gained 71 yards on 15 carries and scored twice.
The game was the Lobos’ first win over the Aggies since 2008, and first-year head coach Bob Davie said he made it a priority to highlight the importance of this game whenever he could.
“I knew as soon as I became head coach here they were our No. 1 rival,” Davie said. “It’s the biggest game of the year, and I think it was probably February, I walked in and started putting in ‘9-22-12’ with every time we met. I got a little tired of doing it. There’s no question we put a lot into this emotionally. But bigger than that, I’m just proud the monkey is off these kids’ backs.”
Davie said he knows what a challenge this victory was because of the injuries to the defensive secondary, specifically not having senior safety Matt Raymer and senior defensive back Freddy Young available.
“I’m really proud of this team. To physically come in here — after two games on the road at Texas and at Texas Tech — beat up … you know the secondary got a lot of publicity for being beaten up, but we had a lot of guys who were beat up,” Davie said. “Just the physical nature in which they play the game is something I think we can build on. I really do.”
Senior linebacker Joe Stoner, who had four tackles and recovered a fumble, said it’s a relief to finally defeat the Aggies.
“It feels great. We lost three straight; to get the last one is a big weight off our shoulders. We didn’t want to go out and be the senior class that didn’t beat State,” Stoner said. “Four losses in a row would have been devastating and made our season go the other way. We won the game, we’re 2-2 and anything can happen from here on out.”
UNM scored the first touchdown of the game when Pressley punched in a 7-yard run to put the Lobos up 10-0 with 10:57 left in the second quarter. NMSU answered right back with a touchdown of its own, thanks to an 11-yard scamper by senior running back Robert Clay with 8:48 remaining in the first half.
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The Lobos went to halftime with a 13-7 lead after another field goal by junior kicker Justus Adams, this time from 29 yards out.
Carrier added the first score after halftime when he went 29 yards unmolested for his first touchdown of the game, pushing the Lobo lead to 20-7. UNM put the game away thanks to Pressley’s second touchdown, which brought the score to 27-7 with 9:10 left in the game.
The Aggies went down swinging with a 23-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Andrew Manley to cut the Lobo lead 27-14 with 3:54 to play. Manley went 22 of 34 with 256 yards and one score.
Stoner said the win shows the heart and strength of the seniors who stayed through all of the upheaval.
“It felt great. I had to keep from crying. I hugged my mom for about five minutes; she was here at the game,” he said. “It was a great feeling to stick around and keep fighting. A bunch of us could have left, but we wanted to stick it out and show everybody that we can win here and we will win here.”
