Cowboys stumble in regular season finale

Posted 11/29/22

The Wyoming Cowboys could not overcome miscues in a 30-0 loss to Mountain West Division Champion Fresno State (8-4 overall, 7-1 MW) on Friday evening in Valley Children’s Stadium in Fresno, …

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Cowboys stumble in regular season finale

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The Wyoming Cowboys could not overcome miscues in a 30-0 loss to Mountain West Division Champion Fresno State (8-4 overall, 7-1 MW) on Friday evening in Valley Children’s Stadium in Fresno, California. Wyoming finishes the regular-season with a 7-5 overall record and a 5-3 record in the Mountain West Conference, finishing in second place in the Mountain West Mountain Division. The Cowboys were picked to finish fifth in the Mountain Division in the preseason media poll.

“It was a rough night for us, and I think Fresno State played well,” UW head coach Craig Bohl said. “Our guys fought hard, and our younger guys got some reps. We will learn from this. Fresno State has a great quarterback and defense. We couldn’t establish the running game tonight. Overall, our defense really scrapped tonight, and we will move forward from there. We will get ready for the bowl game and a special opportunity to play one more game this season.”

The Cowboys were missing several key players on Friday night due to recent injuries, including defensive tackle Jordan Bertagnole, wide receiver Alex Brown, fullback/tight end Parker Christensen, cornerback Jakorey Hawkins, running back D.Q. James, running back Dawaiian McNeely, wide receiver Will Pelissier and tight end Treyton Welch.

Wyoming recorded 191 yards of total offense passing for 104 yards and rushing for 87 yards. Wyoming held Fresno State to only 297 yards of offense over 100 yards below their season average and 100 yards below their average yards passing per game at 183 for the night.

The Cowboy defense was paced by Easton Gibbs with 12 tackles, as he went over 100 for the season becoming the 61st player in Wyoming history to record 100-plus tackles in a season. Oluwaseyi Omotosho recorded a career-high eight tackles including a sack.

The Wyoming offense was paced by quarterback Andrew Peasley passing for 104 yards on 12-of-29 passing. Running back Titus Swen rushed for 75 yards going over 1,000 for the season. He is the 12th Cowboy to rush for 1,000 yards as that has been done 16 times. Wide receiver Josh Cobbs grabbed four passes for 23 yards. John Michael Gyllenborg recorded a career high three catches for 21 yards.

Fresno State took the lead on the opening drive on a five-play, 66-yard drive ending in a 4-yard run from Jordan Mims. Quarterback Jake Haener connected on a pair of passes for 33 yards on the drive to set up the score for the Bulldogs in the opening two minutes of the game.

The Bulldogs took a 14-0 lead with 2:17 left in the first quarter on a Haener touchdown pass to Nikko Remigio from 6 yards out. The eight-play, 41-yard drive was set up by a partially blocked punt. Haener passed for 38-yards on the drive.

Fresno State got pressure once again and blocked another Clayton Stewart punt this time for a safety to take a 16-0 lead four minutes into the second quarter. Mims would add another touchdown following the free kick and take a 23-0 lead with 8:28 remaining in the opening frame. That would be the score going into halftime, as Wyoming was held to 73 yards of total offense.

Mims would score his third touchdown of the game from 2 yards out for a 30-0 contest with 7:55 remaining in the third quarter. The score was setup by an interception by Fresno State deep inside Wyoming territory,

The Cowboys drove into the RedZone in the fourth quarter but could not punch in a score as Fresno State took the contest.

Fresno State was led by Haener going 21-of-32 passing for 183 yards. Mims added three scores on the ground rushing for 52 yards on the night,

The Cowboys are bowl eligible and will find out their destination following the Mountain West Championship game next weekend.

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