A gloomy home finale
The Aggies overcome an early 10-point deficit but fall to UL-Monroe
LAS CRUCES — Don’t tell the New Mexico State Aggies that punting is not a critical part of football.
Not after the punt team effectively cost the Aggies 17 points in a 30-17 loss to Louisiana-Monroe at Aggie Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
A long punt return set up one Warhawks touchdown, a short NMSU punt set up a go-ahead field goal just before halftime, and a blocked punt recovered for a touchdown accounted for the only secondhalf touchdown.
The Aggies played one of their best defensive games of the season, got 229 rushing yards from freshman Larry Rose III and yet lost their ninth straight game after opening the season 2-0. NMSU dropped to 2-9 and 1-6 in the Sun Belt Conference in front of an announced turnout of 6,011 in the Aggies’ home finale.
NMSU coach Doug Martin was quick to credit his defense, which limited the Warhawks (4-7, 3-4) to 70 rushing yards and kept them out of the end zone time and again. He had less praise for his offense, which was ineffective in the passing game and lost a fumble near the ULM goal line in the third quarter that turned the game’s momentum.
“The defense was the bright spot,” Martin said. “Those guys have gotten better every week and kept us in the game, even though we didn’t give them any help at all.
“There’s no excuse for not scoring points in the second half, and some of the things that happened with the punt team were ridiculous.”
New Mexico State was down to its third-string punter after walk-on Kelly Kingseed was injured trying to cover a first-half punt return. Starter Stephen Witkowski has been out several weeks with a ham- string injury.
Sophomore Alex Louthan handled the punting the rest of Saturday’s game, but it didn’t work out well.
NMSU trailed 3-0 when ULM’s Rashon Ceaser returned Kingseed’s second and final punt of the day 51 yards to the Aggie 5-yard line. Centarius Donald scored two plays later to make the score 10-0.
The Aggies rallied behind Rose, who broke a 37-yard TD run on the first play of the second quarter. After forcing a quick ULM punt, NMSU capped a long drive with Maxwell Johnson’s 32-yard field goal to tie it 10-10.
The Warhawks answered with their only lengthy touchdown drive of the day, taking a 17-10 lead on Pete Thompson’s 3-yard TD pass to Ceaser. Thompson finished 35-for-50 passing for 350 yards, most of the completions going to Kenzee Jackson on short tosses to the flat. Jackson had 13 catches for 108 yards.
ULM was unable to complete anything long against the blitzing Aggies, who battered Thompson and stuffed the run game throughout.
“We just manned up and sent the blitz,” said cornerback Winston Rose, who had a team-high eight tackles and grabbed his fifth interception of the season. “I definitely felt we played one of our best defensive games of the season.”
Larry Rose III also had a monster game that included a 64-yard touchdown run that made the score 17-17 with 2:47 left in the first half. He rushed for 114 yards in the second quarter alone and his 229-yard day (on 35 carries) was the seventh best in program history.
Rose III was not available for comment after the game, undoubtedly frustrated that his big day came in a losing effort.
ULM’s Justin Manton kicked a 22-yard field goal on the final play of the first half after a short punt gave the Warhawks the ball at midfield with 32 seconds left.
Even more pivotal was an NMSU fumble on second-and-goal from the ULM 1-yard line. Trailing 20-17, the Aggies had driven from their 26 to the goal line and had a chance to take their first lead.
“It was supposed to be a quarterback sneak,” Martin said, “and I’m not sure if (quarterback Tyler Rogers) ever got the snap. That can’t happen. Good teams make that play at that point in the game.”
Minutes later, Alex Johnson blocked a Louthan punt, and Mitch Lane recovered it in the end zone to make it 27-17 after three quarters.