For the fourth time this season — and the third time in Conference USA play in 2023 — Louisiana Tech lost a one-score ball game, falling 27-24 to New Mexico State Tuesday night at Joe Aillet Stadium.
It was a game that the Bulldogs dominated in the opening two quarters, but led just 16-10 at halftime. It was a game that Tech played well enough to win, but lost.
It was yet another game that came down to the final possession — a possession that ended on an incomplete fourth down and one pass inside Aggies territory with less than a minute to play.
“Well, we’re just going to stick together and keep fighting,” said Tech head coach Sonny Cumbie postgame. “Our guys have done that all season. They’ve done that. They fought. They played really hard. We just came up a play short, you know? I think our team is really close.
“I believe in our players, and I told them that they need to carry themselves tomorrow in class with their head up and their chest out and carry themselves with a lot of pride, a lot of confidence in who they are and what they represent. And I think they have to continue to do that.”
The Bulldogs built a 16-3 lead midway through the second quarter on a pair of Hank Bachmeier 1-yard runs and a 42-yard Jacob Barnes field goal. However, a blocked extra point after the first TD and a missed 47-yard Barnes field goal to close the second quarter left points on the field in the opening 30 minutes.
A late NMSU score in the second quarter closed the gap to 16-10 at the half despite Tech outgaining the Aggies by almost 200 yards in the opening 30 minutes.
“It’s easy to do (hold your head high) when you’re in the front,” said Cumbie. “It’s easy to do it when things are going your way. And I think the biggest thing that you learn from this is you learn how you handle things when things don’t go our way and things haven’t gone our way a lot.
“We’re not going to take our ball and go home. We’re going to continue to fight. We’re going to continue to show up and work and put a plan together. And we expect them to to do it with everything they got, just like they did this week and a half. We just came up short.”
The Aggies scored two TDs to open the third quarter to take a 24-16 lead. The first capped a 15-play, 75-yard drive that took almost nine minutes of the clock to start the quarter. The second came after the Aggies recovered a Bachmeier fumble on the Bulldogs 7-yard line on Tech’s ensuing possession.
“I think in the third quarter they did a good job keeping us on the field,” said Cumbie. “They did a good job of converting on third downs and driving down the field. In the first half, I think we dictated the tempo. I think we were on attack mode. And I think in the second half, starting a third quarter, they did that.”
Tech responded with a 55-yard drive that resulted in a 3-yard TD pass from Bachmeier to John Locke, the tight ends first career score. A two-point conversion to Smoke Harris tied the score at 24-24 entering the fourth quarter.
NMSU took the lead on a 31-yard field goal with just over five minutes to play before the Bulldogs offense mounted a drive. However, on second-down-and-five on the Aggies 25-yard line with under three minutes to play, Bachmeier was sacked again — one of four on the night — and NMSU recovered the fumble.
“We were able to come down in the fourth quarter and give ourselves a chance,” said Cumbie. “We had the ball and then the hit and the fumble, those things got on us quick. You’d like for us to be able to get down there, keep the ball and score at the end to win the football game.”
Tech had one final chance following a three-and-out by NMSU. The Bulldogs moved past midfield, but following a completion to Harris that came up a yard short of the first down, the fourth down pass was incomplete sealing the Bulldogs fate.
“But credit our defense with two and a half minutes to go in the game, they get another stop and then we have another opportunity with the short punt,” said Cumbie. “We just don’t make the plays at the end.”
