Vandals Come To Life In Second Half

Idaho played to the level of the competition again. Unfortunately for the Vandals, that wasn’t Nebraska on the other sideline.

Nevada, Southwest Texas, Wyoming, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo … it doesn’t seem to matter: Idaho’s going to play everybody close this season.

Favored by 22 points, Idaho escaped with a 34-19 football win over New Mexico State (1-9) on Saturday by scoring 31 of the game’s last 38 points. A tiny Kibbie Dome crowd of 9,494 - smallest in two years - watched 14 seniors, including defensive standouts Ryan Phillips, Barry Mitchell and Jason Shelt, leave as winners in their final home game. Barely.

Idaho (5-4 overall, 2-1 Big West), which kept its hopes alive for a conference co-championship, trailed 13-3 in the second quarter and 13-6 at half. UI president Robert Hoover was so uneasy, he left the president’s box and sat in a sparsely occupied section near the 10-yard line for part of the opening half..

“I’d by lying if I didn’t say I was nervous” at half, UI coach Chris Tormey said. “It was almost like two different halves out there.”

Idaho got the better half.

The Vandals tied to score at 13 with 5:24 left in the third when Robert Scott won a jousting match with cornerback Erich Johnson and caught a 4-yard touchdown pass. A flag flew after the reception.

“He was holding on to me pretty good and I was trying to get his hands off,” Scott said. “I thought they were going to call pass interference on me.”

The Aggies came back when receiver Duane Gregory, who had 13 catches, took a reverse handoff and wasn’t touched on a 61-yard run. But the Aggies’ lead remained 19-13 when UI’s Phillips blocked the point-after kick.

New Mexico State also missed a first-half PAT and two field goals. Still, the Aggies played with passion, admirable considering they had been thundered in half of their games this season.

“This is a very, very young team. It’s the best-attitude, hardest-working group I’ve had as a coach,” said New Mexico State coach Jim Hess, whose job status is somewhat tenuous. “I’ve been at it 37, 38 years … I don’t know if I’ll get another game to coach after (the Boise State game), but I’d sure like to.”

Idaho bypassed the Aggies with a slew of big plays in the final 18 minutes. Quarterback Ryan Fien hit David Griffin on 36- and 31-yard passes, the latter a scoring play to put Idaho on top 20-19.

Phillips blocked a 39-yard field goal attempt and the Vandals immediately drove 95 yards. Fien connected with Robert Scott for 34 yards and Joel Thomas rumbled the last 14 yards for a 27-19 lead with 9:38 left.

Fien passed for 386 yards, a handful of catches coming when receivers peeled back to snag underthrown balls. Fien already has the fourth highest single-season yardage (3,329) in school history. At his current pace of 369 yards per game he would pass first-place John Friesz’s 4,041.

Mitchell’s sack stopped an Aggies’ drive at Idaho’s 42. The Vandals countered with a 43-yard connection to Scott to set up Thomas’s 17-yard TD run for the clinching score with 3:31 remaining.

“A couple times I got away with throwing off my back foot and a couple times I didn’t,” said Fien, who was sacked four times in the first half.

Idaho’s defense surrendered a pair of long runs - Gregory’s 61-yarder and Denvis Manns’ 59-yard sprint on an option pitch in the second quarter. Unheralded quarterback Chad Salisbury completed 21 of 34 passes for 261 yards, but the Vandals managed to minimize the points damage.

Shelt, disturbed by the defense allowing the two long runs, also was miffed by the small crowd.

“It’s something we as players don’t understand,” he said. “We came here in 1992 and I think we’ve lost two home games. They’re missing out.”

Idaho missed out on scoring chances much of the game. Field position was heavily in UI’s favor, but it couldn’t take advantage until the second half. That’s when the offensive line gave Fien more time and opened up gaps for Thomas’ bullish runs.

“They looked like a different team than we’d seen (on videotape),” said Tormey, whose club visits North Texas next Saturday and Boise State the following weekend. “When we were down, no one got shook up. We kept our composure.”

And achieved a hard-earned 18th straight Dome victory.

Idaho 34, New Mexico St. 19

NMSU 0 13 6 0 19

Idaho 3 3 14 14 - 34

Idaho-FG T. Scott 35 NMSManns 2 run (Hopkins kick) NMSManns 59 run (Hopkins kick failed) Idaho-FG T. Scott 23 Idaho-R. Scott 5 pass from Fien (T. Scott kick) NMSGregory 61 run (Hopkins, kick blocked) Idaho-Griffin 31 pass from Fien (T. Scott kick) Idaho-J. Thomas 14 run (T. Scott kick) Idaho-J. Thomas 17 run (T. Scott kick) A-9,494.

NMS Idaho First downs 15 26 Rushes-yards 38-173 44-145 Passing 261 386 Comp-Att-Int 21-34-0 24-44-1 Return Yards 109 61 Punts-Avg. 7-39.0 4-35.3 Fumbles-Lost 0-0 1-1 Penalties-Yards 8-93 2-20 Time of Possession 30:22 28:56

Individual statistics

RUSHINGNMS, Manns 27-85, Gregory 2-67, Murray 1-2, Salisbury 4-(-19). Idaho, J. Thomas 24-119, Pace 1-3, R. Scott 1-2, Fien 10-(-23).

PASSINGNMS, Salisbury 34-21-0-261. Idaho, Fien 43-24-1-386, R. Scott, 1-0-0-0.

RECEIVINGNMS, Gregory 13-146, Manns 3-33, Patterson 2-46, Guinn 2-24, Shaw 1-12. Idaho, Wilson 7-102, R. Scott 6-117, Griffin 6-103, Thomas 2-43, Gilroy 2-12, Price 1-9.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo