It was much more suspenseful than they surely wanted, but the Utah State Aggies came from behind in the final minute to beat the UNLV Rebels on Saturday night to snap a two-game losing streak and move to 4-2 on the season.
Final
Utah State 28, UNLV 24
Following some fireworks early in the third quarter that saw UNLV take a 24-21 lead, neither team scored for the rest of the second half until Utah State put together a drive in the closing minutes that ended when Elelyon Noa found the end zone from 11 yards out to give the Aggies the lead with 35 seconds left, and the Rebels couldn’t rally.
3rd Quarter
UNLV 24, Utah State 21
After getting virtually nothing out of their run game in the first half, the Aggies got it going in a big way on the first possession of the second half. Calvin Tyler Jr. broke off a few big runs, and Utah State eventually scored on a pass from Logan Bonner to Deven Thompkins.
UNLV answered, however, as Charles Williams once again absolutely gashed the Aggie defense and found paydirt.
From there, neither team got anything going the rest of the quarter.
2nd Quarter
UNLV 17, Utah State 14
The Aggies came up short in the red zone in the early moments of the quarter, but broke through minutes later when Logan Bonner found Deven Thompkins wide open for a 37-yard touchdown reception.
1st Quarter
UNLV 17, Utah State 7
Points came early and often for both the Rebels and the Aggies. UNLV started the scoring with a 26-yard field goal by Daniel Gutierrez. Utah State answered seconds later with a 100-yard kickoff return for a score by return man extraordinaire Savon Scarver. Scarver tied the NCAA record with the return, the seventh of his career.
That was only the beginning, though. Seconds after Scarver’s score, UNLV’s Charles Williams rushed for a 75-yard touchdown to give the Rebels a 10-7 lead. Williams then scored again later in the quarter on a 1-yard touchdown run.
Pregame prep
Here are a few stories to get you ready for the game.