Continued from Part 1.
Halftime
Ron complained about the length of the first half, but a
lot happened. Before the half, Emerson
was dancing on the sidelines to a country-rock tune on the PA. I’ve never seen her do that before. Maybe it wasn’t her. This girl definitely had some moves.
The Band started performing while I dashed to the bathroom
and back. I couldn’t hear the halftime
report on the radio over the noise. I
was curious about the Michigan/Ohio
State game that I was missing. I
asked Ron to check the score on his phone.
Michigan surprisingly won 42-27. They were also playing in the snow and the
teams nearly had an altercation in the tunnel during halftime. I hadn’t bothered to start watching the game
while at home, since I knew I wasn’t going finish it. Okay, this Aggie game better be good to make
up for me missing out on The Game.
A really pretty young woman very politely moved aside
while I was getting back to my seat.
When she sat down nearby, I immediately recognized the attractive young
woman she was with. It was Lindsay Blakey from the Volleyball team. Taking another look at the other girl, I
think it was probably Kaitin Espiritu,
also from the team. I was going to say
something encouraging about the team if they came by in our direction, but it
didn’t happen. I’d question them being
in the good seats instead of in the Student section, but then again, we
shouldn’t have been there either. They
may have actually had a reason, but we’ll cover that later.
The Aggie Pride
Band did a fine job. They did an
Irish number and had a redhead tap dancing on a board wired for sound. A little kid in front of us started trying to
tap dance along with the girl. The Band
did a Latin number complete with a dancing couple. They finished with a melody of military
service anthems. (Space Force is
apparently still lacking a song.)
Third
Quarter
UMass received to open the second half. They opened up with a 75-yard bomb to Rico Arnold. Suddenly, it was 27-20 Aggies. The Aggies came back with Jonah Johnson hitting Jared Wyatt for 20 yards. However, two holding penalties in a row
backed them up inside the 20 for a first down and 30. No problem.
Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda got
15 on a pass and Jonah scrambled for 20.
The series ended with a 25-yard run by Juwaun Price for a touchdown.
34-20 Aggies.
The Cheerleaders
held up Pistol Pete on a board as he
did pushups. He did a bunch. I don’t know what the formula is for
that. (I thought the Cheerleaders were
supposed to do the pushups?) UMass went
three and out on their next possession.
I could see Coach Martin
celebrating on the sidelines. (I think I
noticed that his wife was on the sideline for the whole game. That’s standing by your man.) On the video board during the break, Kiss Cam
went around the stadium and caught a few couples unaware.
The Aggies moved past midfield on their next
possession. There was a clutch catch on
a long third down by Terrell Warner. Wyatt picked up a 20-yard reception. The drive stalled on the UMass 42. The Aggies nearly went for it again on fourth
down. They tried to draw the Minutemen
offsides, but ended up taking a delay of game penalty before punting.
UMass started near their own goal line. Aggie DB, DJ McCullough, nearly got a pick six, but it slipped through his
hands. That disappointment was made
worse on the next play when Ellis
Merriweather rumbled down field for 79 yards and a touchdown. He was a freight train on that run. 34-27 Aggies.
Fourth
Quarter
The Aggies moved the ball past midfield again on their
next possession. Price got flipped over
in midair on a tackle. He stayed in and
got a catch for a first down on the next play.
A halfback option play failed and the drive stalled. The Aggies set up for a long field goal and then
had a false start penalty that backed the try to the 50. Kicker Ethan
Albertson still drilled it. It felt
like that kick really fired up the team.
37-27 Aggies.
The Aggie defense came up with another three and out on
the Minutemen. Back on offense, Wyatt
caught a 30-yard pass. There was a
15-yard face mask tacked on to the end of it to get them into UMass territory. From inside the five, Jonah found Thomas Whitford in the back corner of
the end zone. It was a beautiful throw
and catch. 44-27 Aggies.
The thin crowd had thinned out a bit at halftime. It was now a full-on desertion. I guess that’s sort of a compliment that the
fans felt the team had this one well in hand.
Their back to the wall on their next series, UMass faced a fourth and 11
on their own 20 and went for it.
Quarterback Garrett Dzuro ran
for it and made it.
The Aggies blitzed on another play and left a receiver
downfield wide open. However, pressure
on Dzuro forced a bad throw. After the
play, there appeared to be a minor altercation.
I only saw the end of it when a Minuteman fell backward on the ground
after a shove by an Aggie. Honestly, it
looked like a flop, but the trainers came out for the player on the
ground. There was an Unsportsmanlike
Conduct penalty assessed on the play, but surprisingly it was on the UMass
coach. He’d come out to complain about
the lack of a foul and must have used the wrong words to do so.
With time winding down at the end, Dzuro ran on a third and
16 for a first down. I noticed a couple
of kids in the crowd during this long series.
A little boy had twin diamond studs in his ears. It was little disturbing frankly. His dad didn’t seem to have anything in his
ears. A little girl had on the shiniest
blue sequined top ever. Ron thought she
must have been part of some kid dance team.
It was not an outfit to be inconspicuous in. Back to the field, the Minutemen had another
fourth down deep in Aggie territory, but finally somebody didn’t convert on a
fourth down. The Aggies took over and
ran out the clock. 44-27 Aggies final.
Ron and I picked the right game to show up for. Ron was almost unhappy that he didn’t have
anything to complain about. I’ll toss
out a couple of gameballs. Jonah Johnson threw for over 400 yards
with two touchdowns. Juwaun Price rushed for four
touchdowns. There were no turnovers by
either side and only a couple of personal fouls, so it was a really clean
game. I’ll also toss a gameball to the Minutemen. UMass played hard for the whole game. I think that quick strike by the Aggies right
before the half, along with the defensive stop afterward, was the key point of
the game.
Thanks to Coach
Martin for giving Las Cruces that bowl game win in 2017. Really.
You brought the town together with some pride there. Athletic
Director Mario Moccia said he wouldn’t discuss Martin’s contract until
after the game, which was why he fired him on field right after (just kidding,
just barely). Realistically, we all knew
he was out. If NMSU could have afforded to buy out his contract and fired him, they
would have already done it. The
university couldn’t even afford to fix the air conditioning in the locker room
and the players were having to change in a tent outside. Watching the news that night, Martin was released
right after the game. The next day,
they’d already gotten another coach lined up.
I’m glad Coach Martin at least left with a win.
The team went over and saluted the Band and sang the fight
song after the game. The Volleyball
girls went down to the field. Lindsay
seemed to be cozy with punter, Josh
Carlson. No wonder the girls really
cheered whenever there was a kicking play.
She was as tall as he was. Maybe
they were sitting with his folks in the good seats. I’d recently heard an interview with Carlson. He was pretty much the player of the game
against Alabama. He was damn glad and happy to be playing at
this level of college football (and dating a pretty volleyball player).
(Interesting kicking game tidbit from the radio broadcast
about the kicker, Ethan Albertson. They pointed out how big he is. Ron had even noticed. Apparently Ethan’s mom didn’t want him to
play football and only let him if he was the kicker.)
Lastly, we have the play of the game, which occurred as
Ron and I were walking out of the stadium.
The opposing team has to walk across the concourse to get the locker
room after the game. A couple of
Minutemen players were walking together and a little kid in Aggie gear ran up
to them and said, “Hi.” One of the guys
stopped and took his gloves off and gave them to the kid. Ron and I both congratulated the player as we
walked by. I wished I’d thought to get
his number to name him, but in lieu of that, we’ll just think nice thoughts
about the UMass team on their way home.
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