Nov. 29, 2008

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LOGAN, Utah - Behind a tenacious defense and a season-high scoring offense led by five rushing touchdowns, Utah State blasted New Mexico State, 47-2, Saturday at Romney Stadium in the season and Western Athletic Conference final for both teams.

Utah State ends its season with a 3-9 overall and 3-5 WAC ledger, marking the first time since 2005 that the Aggies have three wins in a season. USU has won three WAC games in a season for the first time in the Aggies' four seasons in the league. It is also the first time since 2003 that USU has won three conference games and just the third time in the 2000's.

New Mexico State also ends its season with a 3-9 overall record but was 1-7 in WAC games.

USU is now 27-7 vs. NMSU all-time, winning the last two in a row, four of the last five and six of the last eight. The navy Aggies are now 12-3 vs. the maroon Aggies in Logan.

The home team scored 21 first quarter points and had a 28-zip halftime lead, and the 28 first half points were USU's most in a first half since Oct. 25, 2003 vs. Arkansas State.

The skunk was run out of the stadium on a defensive safety early in the fourth quarter, but the navy Aggies tacked on nine points after that, including a 56-yard field goal by junior PK Chris Ulinski.

Ulinksi's field goal is the second-longest in the WAC this season behind the 58-yarder by Kevin Goessling of Fresno State as time expired to beat USU, 30-28, on Oct. 25. It also is the fourth-longest field goal in the NCAA this season.

The 56-yarder is tied for the third-longest in USU school history, tying Micah Knorr's 56-yard boot against Northern Illinois in 1995. Dene Garner has the top two longest FG's in the school record books with a 59-yarder against the same NMSU Aggies as well as a 58-yarder against SJSU in 1985.

USU's 47 points is the most under head coach Brent Guy and the most since it scored since 49 points against Arkansas State in 2003.

In their final games as USU Aggies, seniors LB Jake Hutton and DT Ben Calderwood anchored the USU defense which held NMSU to negative seven yards rushing and 156 yards of total offense.

Hutton tied a game-high with 10 tackles while Calderwood only had three tackles, but they were all sacks for a total loss of 30 yards. Calderwood added a fumble recovery to boot.

Saturday was the first time USU has held an opponent to negative rushing yards since Sept. 19, 1998 at Colorado when it held the Buffaloes to negative two rushing yards. The negative seven rushing yards is the sixth-best rushing defense output in school history.

The Aggie offense had five different players score rushing TD's, led by freshman RB Ronald Scott's 64-yard scamper. It was a season-long rush for USU and the longest since a 69-yard run by Travis Davis vs. Middle Tennessee State on Nov. 1, 2003.

Scott ended with a game-high 73 yards rushing while sophomore QB Diondre Borel added 53 yards including a 6-yard TD run. Redshirt-freshman RB Robert Turbin added 50 yards and TD while freshman RB Marquis Butler tallied 43 yards and another score.

Borel was 14-of-24 passing for 118 yards while senior QB Sean Setzer was 4-of-5 for 51 yards including a 10-yard TD pass to junior WR Xavier Bowman.

Senior WR Otis Nelson led USU with 53 yards receiving on three catches, ending his Aggie career with at least one catch in 30 consecutive games, the third-longest active in the WAC, behind NMSU's A.J. Harris (45) and Chris Williams (31).

Utah State had 17 seniors play their final game in a USU Aggie uniform Saturday, and were recognized with a pre-game ceremony. That group includes DT Ben Calderwood, CB Marquise Charles, DT Gregg Clark, RB Derrick Cumbee, LB Daryl Fields, RB Chris Forbes, OT Mike Green, S/LB De'von Hall, OT Derek Hoke, S Roy Hurst, LB Jake Hutton, TE Rob Myers, WR Otis Nelson, QB Sean Setzer, S Caleb Taylor, CB Joshua Taylor and OC Ryan Tonnemacher.

-USU-