Broncos claim JC national title

Grant, top junior college rusher, scores touchdown and gains 192 yards in 31-13 win

Anthony Grant rushed for 192 yards and a touchdown while quarterback Diego Pavia passed for 121 yards and two scores as the New Mexico Military Institute football team won the National Junior College Athletic Association championship Friday night with a 31-13 victory over top seed Iowa Western in Little Rock, Ark.

The Broncos, the No. 2 seed in what was the inaugural NJCAA Division I playoffs, never trailed. They built a 14-0 lead after one quarter on touchdown runs of 23 yards by Grant and 34 by Pavia. It was 24-0 at halftime after Pavia closed out the first half with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Terrance Moore in the final minute of the second quarter.

It marked the first national title of any kind for a New Mexico-based college football program. Located in Roswell, NMMI completed a 12-1 season by winning each of its last six games by double figures. The team’s roster has 20 players from New Mexico high schools, including defensive back Brandon Padilla from Las Vegas.

NMMI’s night started with a fumble, two false starts and a punt, but that punt ended with an Iowa Western fumble that set up a two-play, 23-yard drive capped by Grant’s touchdown run.

Pavia then engineered an 85-yard scoring drive on NMMI’s next possession. He completed five straight passes and had two runs covering 44 yards, the last of which was a 34-yard keeper into the end zone to make it 14-0 with 6:10 left in the first quarter.

The Broncos then blocked an Iowa Western field goal attempt and made one of their own to make it a three-score margin. NMMI was never threatened from that point forward as the Reivers scored a pair of cosmetic touchdowns to close out the scoring in the fourth quarter.

Grant finished as the nation’s top JUCO rusher. The sophomore from Buford, Ga., averaged 144 yards a game and finished with 1,730 yards with 18 touchdowns. In 20 career games with the Broncos, he averaged 127.5 yards per game.