The Lobos’ trip to paradise was anything but fun.
Until it was.
Scoring a pair of unanswered touchdowns in the second half, the University of New Mexico football team salvaged a nail-biting 21-10 win over Hawaii as Saturday turned into Sunday to take sole possession of first place in the Mountain West Conference ahead of next weekend’s much-anticipated visit from North Dakota State.
If nothing else, the Lobos also answered the question about how they’d react when adversity struck and things didn’t go their way. For the majority of Saturday’s game, things most definitely did not.
They had multiple turnovers, a mountain of penalties and struggled to move the ball on offense all night.
“Sometimes you gotta win games when you don’t play your absolute best,” Lobos coach Jason Eck said in a postgame videoconference call. “You know, that’s what championship teams do and we gotta fix things.”
Shut out in what was a disastrous first half, UNM (5-1, 2-0) used a trick play to kickstart its offense in the third quarter, then got an stunning forced fumble at the goal line to ignite a decisive 80-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter.
Trailing 10-7 with 14 minutes left, the Lobos got the break of a lifetime when Warriors quarterback Micah Alejado escaped the pocket and appeared home free for a 12-yard scoring run that would have opened a double-digit lead. As he approached the goal line on a full sprint, he had the ball knocked out of his hands at the last possible moment by Lobos defensive back Drew Speech.
It bounced into the end zone where UNM linebacker Mercury Swaim recovered it for a touchback.
The Lobos then drove 80 yards, converting on fourth down in Warriors territory to set up a game-winning 21-yard touchdown run by quarterback Toa Fa’avae with 6:57 left.
UNM still needed a defensive stop and got it to set up a backbreaking 49-yard touchdown run by Scottre Humphrey late in the quarter to seal it. Humphrey played Saturday’s game less than a week after the death of his father.
He said afterward that he spent two days away from the team but decided to play because his father wouldn’t have had it any other way.
“I was for sure going to play,” he said. “My dad was a football coach. He would have wanted me to play, you know what I’m saying. Yeah, he would have wanted me to play — there’s no doubt in my mind.”
Humphrey finished with 90 yards on 15 carries and the two scores.
Despite the myriad of issues the Lobos had — 16 penalties for 130 yards and an uncharacteristic three turnovers and just 84 yards passing — the defense was its usual solid self. Hawaii was held to 298 total yards and just 48 on the ground.
New Mexico’s self-inflicted errors were almost too much to overcome. The Lobos came into the game as a 15-point favorite, but they played like a team that was rusty coming off a bye and making a rare trip to a place where some people spend their dream vacations.
What’s more, valued third-string specialty quarterback James Laubstein was carted off with what looked like a potentially serious left leg injury in the second quarter. Eck said the prognosis isn’t good, that maybe Laubstein has played the final game of his college career.
As he was put in the back of a cart, he yelled words of encouragement to his teammates and then leaned over to his side to point to the hundreds of Lobos fans who made the trip.
“I’m proud of that kid, he’s a warrior,” Eck said. “He’s not feeling sorry for himself, he’s encouraging his teammates and trying to motivate those guys. He’s a winner, he’s going to be a winner at life and be successful at no matter what he does.”
Down 10-0 at the half, the Lobos used a trick play to help set up a touchdown on their first drive of the second half when a reverse on fourth down went to receiver Bailen George, who threw to a wide-open Fa’avae streaking down the sideline. Humphrey punched it in two plays later to make it 10-7.
The flags that littered the field early on kept falling in the third quarter, as did the mistakes. New Mexico’s penalty total rose to 15 within the first 10 minutes of the half while Fa’avae threw another interception to stall a drive deep in Warriors territory.
Hawaii had its own issues. The Warriors (1-6, 0-4) made four trips into New Mexico’s red zone and came away empty handed twice; once on the fumble, the other on a missed field goal. They also failed on 10 of 13 third-down tries.