It was a night that had a storybook ending for the Wyoming Cowboys. The Pokes captured their fourth consecutive win over rival Colorado State, with a 17-7 home victory. Wyoming improved to 7-4 and completed an undefeated home season.

The Cowboy defense — which entered the game ranked No. 15 in the nation in scoring — held CSU to a season-low seven points while Wyoming’s offense accounted for 273 yards.

“It was a very emotional win,” said Wyoming head coach Craig Bohl. “I couldn’t be happier for our seniors to go out with another win. A lot of emotion in this game, a lot of big plays on both sides. It was back and forth, but our guys made plays when they had to.”

There were many individual story lines, as well: Senior captain Logan Wilson intercepted a pass on CSU’s final possession to end the Rams’ last offensive threat; senior place-kicker Cooper Rothe became Wyoming’s all-time scoring leader with 328 points, including a critical 48-yard field goal to give UW a 17-7 lead with 3:33 remaining; sophomore running back Xazavian Valladay recorded his first 1,000-yard rushing season, with 154 yards on the night and 1,023 for the season; senior strong safety Alijah Halliburton, who has led Wyoming in tackles all season, had a game-high 13 tackles to record a 100-tackle season for the first time; sophomore quarterback Tyler Vander Waal (56 yards passing) and freshman QB Levi Williams (49 yards rushing) didn’t commit a single turnover while leading the offense.

Attendance for the 111th edition of the Border War was 21,152. That improved Wyoming’s total attendance for the season to 138,042 — the second-highest attendance in school history for a six-game home schedule.

“I want to say thanks to all the fans and students who showed up,” Bohl said. “With that type of weather, they brought a lot of energy and our players certainly fed off of that.”

He  called the game a “big win” for the Cowboys.

“I think our guys really competed. There was a lot of hard-hitting,” he said. “It was a defensive game. We were able to run the football and guys made plays.”

Wyoming put the first points on the scoreboard when they put together an 11-play, 93-yard drive that took 5:30 off the clock. Key plays on the drive included a 13-yard pass from Vander Waal to Raghib Ismail Jr. for a first down that was followed by a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty by Ismail. True freshman quarterback Williams was inserted into the lineup on the drive for his first-ever appearance. He gained 5 yards on his first carry. Vander Waal came back in the game at QB on the very next play and threw a key block to free up Valladay for a 29-yard run to the CSU 32. An unsportsmanlike and targeting penalty on Colorado State helped moved the ball to the 7-yard line. The Cowboy’s longest drive of the season was capped by 1-yard TD run by Vander Waal.

Colorado State answered on its next possession, with a 13-play, 75-yard drive of its own, taking exactly seven minutes. Ram quarterback Patrick O’Brien capped the TD drive with a pass to Jackson to tie the game at 7-7. That is how the first half would end.

The second half began with both Wyoming and Colorado State going nowhere, with the UW defense stuffing CSU on a fourth and 1.

On the ensuing possession, the Pokes took only 10 plays to move 44 yards for its second touchdown of the game. Williams scored the first rushing touchdown of his career on a 1-yard TD run. Wyoming took a 14-7 lead into the fourth.

Colorado State’s lone scoring threat of the fourth quarter came on its first possession as the Rams drove down to the Wyoming 31-yard line. But CSU missed a 50-yard field goal attempt.

After later forcing CSU into another turnover on downs, the Pokes would proceed to drive 28 yards  to put Rothe in position for a 48-yard field goal attempt. The senior knocked the ball through the uprights to extend Wyoming’s lead to 17-7.

CSU’s final possession culminated in O’Brien being picked off by Cowboy linebacker Wilson. The Cowboy offense then ran out the clock to secure the victory.

Wyoming is back in action on Saturday, Nov. 30, when the Cowboys travel to Air Force for their regular-season finale. Kickoff is scheduled for noon.