New Mexico State came away victorious

It took the offense of New Mexico State University to piece together a couple of quick touchdowns and its defense to hold off a late challenge by Bowling Green as the two clashed in Monday’s early afternoon annual Quick Lane College Football Bowl Game.

The two met up at the spacious Ford Field right outside of Detroit, Mich., and the Aggies left with a 24-19 win to finish their season at 7-6 and close out Bowling Green at 6-7.

It was the lone bowl game of the day, but there will be a quartet of contests on the Tuesday slate that leads off with the 10 a.m.kickoff matching Georgia Southern against Buffalo in the annual Camellia Bowl in Montgomery, Ala.

The closing game is scheduled for an 8 p.m.start sending Wisconsin versus Oklahoma State in the annual Both Guaranteed Bowl Game in Phoenix, Ariz.

In between, the 4:45 pairing sends Coastal Carolina against East Carolina in the annual  Birmingham Bowl Game played in Birmingham, Ala., and the one scheduled for 1:45 p.m. is the First Responder Bowl Game to be contested in Dallas, Tx., between Memphis and Utah State.

As for the two opponents that met up on the day after Christmas, NMSU got off to a dismal start by losing its first four outings, one at home and three on the road before romping over visiting Hawaii at Aggie Memorial Stadium in Las Cruces, 45-26. Then came a loss versus visiting Florida International followed by a 21-9 win over visiting state rival University of New Mexico.

But after the scheduled contest between the Aggies and San Jose State was postponed, New Mexico State won its next five of six.

Bowling Green had a sort of a roller-coaster campaign. It started off with by winning its third of five starts, and then came a wild 59-57 seven-overtime at home against Eastern Kentucky. Next came a turnaround 34-31 overtime success over visiting Marshall.

As is usually the case with the Aggies, junior quarterback Diego Pavia showed the way, at least with getting his side on the scoreboard first. Right on, he completed his first three passes and hit running back Star Thomas down the sideline for a 15-yard touchdown and red-hot kicker Seth Albertson made his first of three extra-point kicks that was later joined by his field goal

that upped the advantage from 21-0 to 24-0.

The second TD also began with Pavia going through the air. This time the drive started at NMUS’s 18-yard line and went 12 plays for 78 yards and concluded with Pavia scampering into the end zone from six yards out. Again Albertson covered and he’s known to be perfect on PATS and just wide on but one field goal attempt.

The rest of the scoring went to Bowling Green, the school from Western Kentucky. It first got on the board on a rousing 82-yard kickoff return, but failed on the attempted two-point conversion,  then cut into the gap on a mid-field pass play, and again missed on the two, and finished with a field goal and a safety.