UMass spoils New Mexico State football season opener

LAS CRUCES – With excitement surrounding New Mexico State football at an all-time high, Massachusetts spoiled the party in a Week 0 matchup on ESPN.

UMass broke a 24-game road losing streak with a 41-30 victory over the Aggies in front of 15,356 fans at Aggie Memorial Stadium on Saturday.

The Aggies never led the game with three turnovers that led to UMass touchdowns.

Aggies head coach Jerry Kill gave credit to UMass head coach Don Brown, but said he doesn't think the Aggies will continue to struggle early in the season like they did last year.

"Tonight was certainly disappointing," Kill said. I don't think we played up to our abilities. Sometimes you have to play the first game to see where you are at. We certainly identified where we are at and where we need to go, but we aren't going to let this carry on like we did for about five games last year."

Aggies quarterback Diego Pavia led a comeback effort to beat UMass on the road last season; however, Pavia's fourth quarter interception on Saturday was returned 57 yards to the house by Isaiah Rutherford to open a 34-17 lead with 6:40 to play that sent many of the fans headed to the exits.

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"The first half, we came out sloppy on offense," Pavia said. "I take responsibility for that. The offense wasn't there — too many turnovers in the game. When you have too many turnovers, it's hard to win football games.

"The corner did a really good job (on the pick-6). He carried him for about 15 yards. It was a costly mistake made by me. We have to go back to the drawing board and just get better."

The Aggies host FCS opponent Western Illinois on Saturday at 7 p.m.

"The emphasis is making it one game, it's over with and not even a conference game," Aggies defensive back Andre Seldon said. "It's not the end of the world that we lost. We have yet to play a conference game so we are going to get better each week."

Neither offense could score in the first half and defensive stops were rare in the second half as the teams combined for 51 points in the final two frames.

UMass took a 20-10 lead into the fourth quarter before the Aggies' passing game showed signs of life.

Pavia was 3 for 5 for 14 yards with an interception in the first half, but a 42-yard strike down the left sideline to Trent Hudson kept the Aggies within one possession with 13:27 to play. Pavia finished the game 15 for 26 passing for 248 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions.

Pavia had touchdown passes of 42 and 40 yards in the fourth quarter — the latter to Jordin Parker to make it 34-24 with 4:35 to play, but it was as close as the Aggies got.

Unlike last season, UMass also had a playmaker at quarterback. Clemson transfer Taisun Phommachanh (10 for 17, 192 yards passing, 92 rushing yards) answered with a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, highlighted by a back-breaking 26-yard run on fourth and seven to the Aggies 5. Karon Lynch-Adams scored from 10 yards out two plays later for a 27-17 lead with 7:47 to play.

NM State outgained UMass 458-389.

UMass broke a 10-10 halftime tie with a field goal to cap an 11-play drive on their first possession of the second half. UMass took six minutes off the clock on the drive.

UMass doubled the Aggies up on their next possession, traveling 80 yards in three plays for a 20-10 lead with 14:28 to play. Phommachanh stepped up and hit Christian Wells over the middle on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Wells bounced off a couple of NM State defenders and broke into the open field for a 68-yard catch and run to the Aggies 11. Phommachanh capped the drive on the next play with an 11-yard touchdown run.

UMass rushed for 197 yards and the Aggies had 210 yards on the ground.

The Aggies tried to answer with Pavia driving the Aggies to the UMass 17, but Ethan Albertson missed from 34 yards out to send the game into the fourth with UMass leading 13-10.

The Aggies outgained UMass 154-145 in the first half, with 80 of the Aggies yards coming on Monte Watkins’ 80-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. NM State’s offense averaged 2.96 yards per play on the other 25 plays in the first half.

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The game opened up in the late stages of the second quarter with the Aggies driving 56 yards in nine plays to set up a 36-yard Ethan Albertson field goal to tie the game at halftime.

New Mexico State punted on three of their first four possessions; however, much like he has throughout his first two seasons on limited touches, Monte Watkins put his fingerprints on the game.

On his first touch of the game, Watkins took an Eli Stowers handoff on a read option 80 yards down the left sideline to tie the game at 7-7 with 8:34 left in the first half.

Jason Groves can be reached at 575-541-5459 or jgroves@lcsun-news.com. Follow him on Twitter @jpgroves.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: UMass spoils New Mexico State football season opener