Story by
The Santa Fe New Mexican
Defense helps Aggies to rare road win vs. CUSA rival Sam Houston
- Story byThe Santa Fe New Mexican
- Defense helps Aggies to rare road win vs. CUSA rival Sam Houston
The New Mexican
The road has not been particularly kind to the New Mexico State football team over the years.
Not so much Wednesday night, though.
The Aggies overcame their two biggest issues — finding success away from the friendly confines of home and committing turnovers — to knock off Conference USA rival Sam Houston 30-24 in Huntsville, Texas. It was their first road win of the season, making them just 3-14 in away games since the end of the 2023 schedule.
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This one was far from easy. NMSU (3-4, 2-1) led by two touchdowns in the fourth quarter but needed a sustained offensive drive to burn off the final four minutes to seal it.
Aggies running back James Jones rushed for 178 yards and a touchdown while quarterback Adam Durante passed for 160 yards and a score. Jones had a bruising 2-yard run on fourth down with 25 seconds left to keep the Sam Houston offense off the field to end the game.
NMSU's familiar turnover issues caused problems. The Aggies turned it over twice and their 13 giveaways leads CUSA, but the damage was limited thanks to a solid defensive effort.
The Aggies played their best half of defense in the first two quarters, limiting the Bearkats (1-6, 0-3) to 24 total yards on their first five possessions. Four of those ended in punts while the other was an interception by NMSU's Josiah Charles at the Sam Houston 26. He returned it to the 1-yard line, where Jones punched it in on the next play to tie the game at 7-7.
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Sam Houston's first score came on a blocked punt less than three minutes into the game.
The Bearkats' sixth drive started at the NMSU 20 after an Aggies turnover, where Damante's screen pass to A.J. Williams was ruled to have gone backward and immediately fumbled. Sam Houston capitalized with a go-ahead field goal without gaining a yard on the next series.
Williams caught a 27-yard scoring pass from Damante with 24 seconds left in the half to stake them to a 14-10 lead at the break, but Sam Houston took the lead right back in the third quarter to set the stage for an NMSU rally.
Sam Houston, which had only one first down the entire first half, managed to move the ball more effectively the rest or the way. Quarterback Landyn Locke passed for 235 yards and a score, but the Bearkats rushed for only 11 yards all night.
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The Aggies finally began putting some distance between them and Sam Houston in the tail end of the third quarter. They scored on four of five drives between the second and third quarters to take a 30-17 lead as Jones and Damante got into a groove.
Jones was well over the century mark before the end of the third quarter while Damante made the most of every situation, including a trick play where he caught a backwards pass from T.J. Washington and then threaded a 20-yard pass to set up a Washington 7-yard touchdown run on the next play.
This was the third of NMSU's four straight mid-week games as part of CUSA's multimedia rights agreement with ESPN, which calls for a number of league teams to play on Wednesday or Thursday nights. The Aggies will be at home Wednesday against CUSA leader Jacksonville State.
