New Mexico Football Report

"Where we love is home..... home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts"

This edition of New Mexico Football Report is running a tad late, I apologize for that. We're in the midst of the college homecoming season.  The trick to scheduling your homecoming game is to pick a team that you can beat in front of your family, alumni etc.  In the past all three of New Mexico's small college teams have been homecoming fodder for many teams. This season scheduling WNMU or NMHU as homecoming opponents is probably a bad move, ENMU hand picked what they thought was an easy opponent only to have it come back and bite 'em on the ass.  Kick off time is...... now!

ENMU Greyhounds  19       Angelo St. Rams 49

When the highlight of your game coverage, (a game that you lost 49-19) is a fumble recovery and subsequent touchdown by a safety, you know that something went terribly wrong with your offense.  ENMU Sr. Perron Sellers plucked a fumble out of the air, like manta from heaven and dashed off for "a glimmer of hope" touchdown. Big day for Sellers, who also made a game high 11 tackles, 5 of them solo stops.

No doubt, this was a game that left the Hounds confused, even the game recap was a ball of confusion. Angelo St. played like contenders, and they're not. For Pete's sake! the Rams used four quarterbacks in the game including a redshirt freshmen. Starting Qb. Blake Hamblin ripped Eastern for 171 yds. passing and two td's, before he went to the sidelines with an injury right before the first half ended.

With the Rams up 28-6 at the half, Second stringer Michael Cochran stepped in and burned ENMU's defense for 170 yds. before he too was injured and left the game. While the Hounds do get off a big play or two every now and then, they run an offense that is not built to come from behind. The predictability of their play calling allowed Angelo St's defense to tee off and harass ENMU Qb. Wesley Wood.

Without Wood, Eastern's offense goes limp.  A second quarter interception by Wood was returned 25 yds. for a touchdown, snapping a string of 85 consecutive pass attempts by Wesley without an interception. It was that kind of day for Wood, who passed for a mere 79 yds. but ran for a respectable 79 yds.  Note: ENMU runs an option offense that's not much different from Bob DeBesse's offense at UNM.

Angelo State's four  quarterbacks combined for 17-24 passing, 366 yds., 2 td's and no ints. The Angelo St. fab four also tacked on 50 yds. in rushing and 2 more td's. I can't imagine why more teams don't use four Qb's.  The Rams picked up 185 of their total yards for the game in the first quarter. The Hounds can thank their lucky stars that Angelo St. couldn't keep up that pace.

Eastern was averaging 359 yds. per game (206  rushing) coming into the game but were held to 216 total yards, 137 on the ground.  The Rams were not forced to punt until late in the fourth quarter.  All the way around, it was a bad day at Blackwater Draw, made worse by the fact that it was ENMU's homecoming game. One bright spot for the Hounds, they were a perfect three-for-three on fourth down tries.

Blue 42, Blue 42... hut,hut,hut.... Angelo St.'s greenhorn Qb. leans in and whispers to the center, "Now's when you snap the ball shithead!" the center promptly fires the ball into the quarterback's groin.... Hiiiike!  It's time to do some soul searching in the kennel, there are never an easy games in this league and ENMU just got stomped by one of the few teams that they thought, they could match up with. 

The Hounds now stand at 2-3 overall, 1-2 in the Lone Star. They hit the road, next Saturday, for a Lone Star match up at Abilene Christian. ACU  is a private university affiliated with Churches of Christ, it was founded in 1906 under the Christian principle of  "hit 'em high, hit 'em low" a religous adherence to gridiron glory has led the Wildcats to the Div. 1 ranks, where they will begin play as of  2013 in the FSC aligned Southland Conf. 

The Cat/Dog series started in 1967 and they have played 33 times since then with the Wildcats holding a 22-11 lead in the series.  But, it's all over now, with Abilene Christian stepping up in the ranks, this will be the last meeting between the two for now if not forever.  With no more trips to sweet Abilene in the foreseeable future, San Angelo and Amarillo just moved up a notch as desirable road trip destinations for Greyhound fans.

WNMU Mustangs  54     Colorado School of Mines Orediggers  28

I have already proclaimed Mitch Glasmann as the best passing quarterback in the State of New Mexico and the big fella is doing nothing to disprove my theory. With UNM's B.R. Holbrook relegated to sidekick status (he's Chris Leak to Cole Gautsche's Tim Tebow) and with NMSU Qb., Andrew Manley going Marinovich on us. Glasmann has no competition in the state other than Emmanuel Lewis at NMHU 

"And Brother! is that ever a big other"  Lewis, who started out as backup to Taylor Genuser has been on a tear as of late. Yet as a pure, pro style, drop back, look down field and unleash the cannon quarterback, I'll stick with Mitch Glasmann. How did Bob Davie and his staff miss out on both of these gifted signal callers?  Lewis is everything Lobo fans thought Stump Godfrey would be and Glasmann is everything that B.R. Holbrook will never be.

For his efforts against Colorado School of Mines, Glasmann was named the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conf. offensive player of the week. His 430 passing yards is a season high, he also passed for four touchdowns,his third 4 td game of the season.  Some of the credit must go to his offensive line, who have allowed just one sack on Mitch all season. WMNU's kicker, Josh McIntire also a Freshman was named special teams player of the week.    

WNMU jumped out to a fast start, scoring twice in the first quarter while Mines was shut out and then adding a McIntire field goal to go up 16-0 in the second quarter. CSM finally got on the board by using a trick play that had WR Jerrod Doucet pass to Qb.  Matt Brown who recovered his own fumble  in the end zone for a touchdown. Brown then connected with Cody Renken for another td, to pull within 2 points of Western 16-14. 

With a mere 00:48 left before the half, Glasmann found his favorite receiver Marquis Sumpter for a 28 yd. td pass. (Sumpter appears to have recovered from a scary hit he took in the Ft. Lewis game)  The Mustang went into the break up by nine points 23-14. Western dominated the third quarter, scoring three touchdowns, following a McIntire field goal. Abraham Macias picked his second td of the night (he had scored on Western's opening drive)

Speedy receiver Donald Byrd caught two touchdown passes from Glasmann as the Mustangs stretched out their lead.  Byrd's first td came after Dakota Furr forced a CSM fumble that was recovered by Dylan Contreras. CSM's misfiring offense finally found some traction in the fourth quarter as Matt Brown connected with Jerrod Doucet for a pair of touchdown passes to narrow the gap to 19 points. (47-28)

WNMU then closed out the scoring with a touchdown drive that culminated with Mitch  Glasmann connecting with Brent Courtney for a score, giving us our final score of 54-28. Back to back conference losses for Mines, a team that just two weeks ago was ranked in the top twenty in the AFCA poll. Although, the score was lopsided, the stats for both teams were fairly even across the board. With the exception of two vital categories. 

The Mustangs rushed 45 times for 145 net.  WNMU's strong offense line did not allow a single sack while Mines Qb. Matt Brown was sacked eight times.  WNMU racked up 575 yds. in total offense, 430 passing. CSM had 387 yds. total offense with a measly 19 coming from their running game. Glasmann finished at 29-36 passing, 430 yds., 4 td's and one int. Abraham Macias carried 18 times for 76 yds. and 2 td's.

The win snapped a nine game Mustang losing streak against the Orediggers. Western head coach Adam Clark was the defensive line coach and strength and conditioning coordinator at Colorado Mines before he was hired as the Mustang's defensive coordinator in 2010.  WNMU will be at home next week for their homecoming game against Colorado Mesa University. The Mavs are coming off a close loss to NMHU. 

NMHU Cowboys  40     Colorado Mesa University   36  

Emmanuel Lewis is a human highlight reel, it's just too bad that he toils in relative obscurity in Las Vegas, N.M.  Lewis and the Cowboys can score more points than a pinball machine and last Saturday, they needed every single point that they could score. Colorado Mesa Univ. came at NMHU like a pug boxer determined to go down swinging. Unfortunately for the Mavs, they punched themselves out by the fourth quarter.

Highlands took an early 6-0 lead, then we witnessed a rare event in American football. NMHU's PAT attempt was blocked, a Maverick scooped it up and ran back to their end zone for two points!!!  I can take that off my list now,  leaving just "the single" or as they say in Canada, "rouge" on my list of things to see related to football before I die. That unlikely two pointer seemed to fire up the Mavs as they surged to the lead.

CMU ran off sixteen unanswered points to take a 16-6 lead. The highlight of which was a 77 yd. td run by Jake Cimolino (more on him later) Was Emmanuel Lewis worried?... no he wasn't!  Lavelle Peterson broke off a nifty 12 yd. scoring run to trim the lead to three points.  CMU Qb. Jason Haferman (filling in for injured starter Deke Cisco) found a wide open receiver for a touchdown, extending CMU's lead to ten points 23-13.

As you will see, Colorado Mesa's roster is loaded with some of the best football names I've ever seen, all they're missing is someone named Bronco or Red. Lavelle Peterson scored again for NMHU to stay within striking distance 23-20, then with just 00:25 left in the half Cimolino scored from five yards out, the PAT failed and the Mavericks went into the locker room leading by nine 29-20.

The Mavericks picked up where they left off in the second half. Haferman found Robert "Flea" Fleberg for  an acrobatic 26 yd. touchdown pass. The homecoming crowd at Stocker Stadium whooped and hollered as CMU had rolled to a sixteen point lead (36-20) However, good fortune in football is a fickle bedfellow. That celebration would be the last, the Mavs would not reach the end zone again.

The rest of the second half belonged to Emmanuel Lewis, as he shook off would be tacklers left and right to complete one pass after another. Zach Tapia's 30 yd. field goal cut into CMU's big lead, 36-23. Then, Lewis connected with Darius Davis on a 16 yd. td. pass, cutting the Mavs lead to six points, 36-30. Zach Tapia then came on for a booming 50 yd. field goal that left CMU reeling, 36-33.

The Mavericks' once insurmountable lead was now a memory, Highlands got the ball back with appox. 6.5 minutes left to play. Emmanuel Lewis made good use of that time, as he drove NMHU down the field, 10 clocking consuming plays, 83 yds. capped off by a 3 yd. td. pass to Darius Davis. For the first time since leading 6-0, the Cowboys had the lead, 40-36. In football if you don't score the most points, you lose, Goodnight Now!

With the win, the Cowboys improved to 4-1 overall, 3-0 in the RMAC. Emmanuel Lewis completed 33-43 passes for 417 yds., 3 td's. Darius Davis had his third straight 100+ yard game, with 9 receptions for 120 yds., 2 td's. Wayne Jacobs ran the ball 20 times for 61 yds., while LaVelle Peterson had 7 carries, 33 yds., 2 td's. for Highlands.  The defense was consistent, giving up 465 yds. total offense, 251 rushing, 214 passing.

The Cowboy defense did however come up big in the fourth quarter when they limited CMU to one score early in the quarter and then slammed the door shut.   For CMU, running back Jake Cimolino was up to the challenge, rushing for an incredible 233 yds. and 2 td's. This inspite of Highlands loading up the defense line in an attempt to stop him. Great effort in a losing cause for Cimolino, a bruiser in the classic sense.

“Today was a great win for our team. We overcame some adversity early on and came out on top at the end,” said NMHU Head Coach Eric Young. The Cowboys will host the Mountaineers of Western State Colorado University for Homecoming 2012 today. Western St. located in Gunnison, Co. claims the highest collegiate facilities in the world. Mountaineer Bowl (elevation 7,769 ft.) and Paul Wright Gym (elevation 7,723 ft.)

Of course that only matters when they play at home, which in this case they're not. (judging by their record it doesn't matter much at home either) The Mountaineers are winless going into the game with NMHU (4-1, 3-0 RMAC) so they'll be looking for an upset. Western St. C. U. has been outscored 208-62 and all their losses with the exception of the loss to Black Hills State have been blow outs.