In a rematch of last year’s conference championship game, the Liberty Flames made the trip down to Las Cruces to take on the new look Aggies in a late night clash. Parker Awad remained as the Aggies starting quarterback despite his struggles in the passing game last week, but the Aggies were still able to score quickly in the game.
The game began by stopping Liberty at midfield before using the short field to get in field goal range and finishing with a 29-yard field goal from Abraham Montaño. After a quick defensive stop to get the ball back, the Aggie offense struck again as Parker Awad completed his longest pass of the night with a 63-yard touchdown to Monte Watkins who racked up half the yards after the catch to go up 10-0.
Liberty struck back late in the quarter with a drive downfield but due to the strength of the Aggies red-zone defense, they were unable to get into the end zone.
Liberty settled for a 39-yard Colin Karhu field goal to make it a seven-point game as the Aggies next drive made it to midfield, which bled into the second quarter.
Riding a strong run game with a triple threat of Seth McGowan, Mike Washington, and Parker Awad, the offensive trio got inside their own 10-yard line before extending the lead with Awad and McGowan connecting for a five-yard touchdown to go up 17-3.
The Flames were able to take advantage of the Aggies bend-don’t-break defense as QB Kaidon Salter continued to rack up passing yards as Liberty settled for two more field goals on back-to-back possessions. After being unable to score for the rest of the quarter, the game went into halftime with NMSU ahead 17-9.
Coming out of halftime, both defenses took control of the game with neither team being able to score as both the Aggies and Flames took turns with drives that gained little yardage and died outside scoring range. As both defenses had their time to shine, the only scoring opportunity came from a missed 43-yard field goal attempt from Liberty’s Colin Karhu. The quarter ended on an Aggie possession as another drive stalled midfield.
Both offenses were resurrected in the fourth quarter as the scoring continued after taking a break in the third. It began with a Liberty drive punting the ball back to the Aggies. However, the momentum took a big shift in advantage of the Flames when a strip sack of Awad led to a fumble return for a touchdown from Liberty linebacker CJ Bazile Jr. A failed two-point conversion left the Aggies in a slim 17-15 lead.
On their next drive, the offensive Aggie struck again with a quick touchdown drive to pad their lead, 24-15. This is when momentum started to swing in favor of the Flames. Liberty’s offensive duo of Kaidon Salter and Quinton Cooley slowly began dissecting a fatigued Aggie defense before Cooley struck a massive blow with a 27-yard touchdown to narrow the gap to two points.
By this point, the Aggies had lost their momentum and their only hope of running out the clock died at midfield with a punt that gave the ball back to the Flames. A feeling of dread spread amongst fans. Liberty struck the knockout punch with another touchdown from Quinton Cooley, this time for 44 yards as a two-point conversion completely killed the energy in the stadium as the crowd fell into silence.
The last chance of the game for the Aggies was a failed fourth down conversion that gave them their first loss of the season and showed the Aggies late game passing struggles resurface that kept the defense on the field too long and killed the momentum leading to the blown lead. The next opportunity for the Aggies at home to avenge the loss won’t be until the UNM Lobos come to Las Cruces for the Battle of I-25.
So far, the main strengths of this Aggie team has been their red zone defense that limits the damage by keeping opponents out of the end zone paired with a strong running game led by Mike Washington and Seth McGowan.
The Aggies are headed on a road trip to take on Fresno State in California on Saturday Sept. 14 at 8:30 p.m. Fans can catch the game on truTV.
