Wyoming Wall Works, Wallwork Does the Rest

A second here and a second there made for a long afternoon for Fresno State Saturday at Laramie, Wyo.

With Wyoming’s line giving him time to throw, Josh Wallwork connected on four touchdown passes as the No. 23 Cowboys beat the Bulldogs, 42-21, in a Western Athletic Conference game.

Len Sexton scored three touchdowns as Wyoming, 8-0 overall and 5-0 in the WAC, extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 11 games.

“Wallwork had five and six seconds to throw the ball,” Fresno State Coach Jim Sweeney said. “I thought we had them in trouble. But they moved the ball extremely well. And we couldn’t get a pass rush on them to save our lives.”

The game began as another WAC shootout, with Wyoming and Fresno State (2-4, 2-2) lighting up the scoreboard with 49 first-half points.

Wallwork threw for three touchdowns in the first half, two going to Sexton, a running back on a team stacked with talented receivers. Wallwork finished 25 of 39 for 308 yards.

Fresno State found Wyoming’s defense so porous that it gained 303 yards and didn’t have to punt once in the first half. But that changed in the second half when Wyoming limited the Bulldogs to only 83 yards.

Fresno State quarterback Jim Arellanes completed 23 of 31 passes for 306 yards--but had only four completions and 41 yards in the second half. Arellanes also threw one interception that led to a Cowboy score.

Arellanes and the Bulldogs could have had a better day, but receivers dropped a half dozen passes, many at crucial times.

“When we caught it, we looked real good,” Sweeney said. “But we gave the ball repeatedly to Wyoming when we had chances to convert on third down.”

Sweeney credited Wyoming’s offensive line for part of Wallwork’s success.

“Wallwork had five and six seconds to throw the ball,” said Sweeney. “I thought we had them in trouble. But they moved the ball extremely well. And we couldn’t get a pass rush on them to save our lives.”

Wyoming also got help from Sexton in a lot of different ways. He ran for 42 yards, caught six passes for 65 yards and threw a 13-yard halfback pass to keep a Wyoming drive alive. The Cowboys eventually scored on that drive.

No. 24 Utah 21, Texas Christian 7--Chris Fuamatu-Ma’afala, a 275-pound sophomore, rushed for 182 yards, scoring two breakaway touchdowns in the second half, to lead the Utes (6-1, 4-0) to a WAC victory over TCU (2-4, 1-2) at Salt Lake City.

Fuamatu-Ma’afala burst over right tackle and out-ran the TCU defense for a 70-yard touchdown with 4:37 left in the third quarter. And then Fuamatu-Ma’afala ran through the right side of the line and rambled 52 yards for a score with 2:08 remaining in the game.

The Utah offense otherwise had a lackluster game, but the defense had eight sacks in the cold and rainy game.

TCU’s All-American kicker Michael Reeder missed three field goals from 40, 44 and 52 yards off the wet grass.

Colorado State 36, San Jose State 13--Moses Moreno passed for a career-high 359 yards and two touchdowns and ran for a score, leading the Rams (4-4, 3-1) to a WAC victory over the Spartans (1-7, 1-4) at Fort Collins, Colo.

Moreno, who completed 19 of 23 passes, hooked up with Jeremy Calhoun for a 60-yard touchdown pass play on the Rams’ first play from scrimmage. Morena had a 23-yard touchdown pass to Darrell Ballard in the fourth quarter.

Rice 35, Southern Methodist 17--Quarterback Chad Nelson ran for a career-best 197 yards and two touchdowns as the Owls (3-3, 2-1) piled up 440 yards on the ground to overpower SMU (2-5, 1-3) in a WAC game at Houston.