MIDLAND The football had just left his foot, climbing over the outstretched hands of the Western Colorado defense, when UTPB kicker Carson Roberts turned to his sideline and threw a vicious right, an elated scream erupting from inside his helmet.
Moments later, after his 35-yard field goal in the second overtime split the uprights, his teammates were rushing the field to celebrate with him.
Roberts’ kick capped a frenzied final few minutes of regulation and overtime that saw the Falcons rally for the 34-31 victory against the Mountaineers in a nonconference game Saturday at Astound Broadband Stadium.
UTPB improved to 1-1 on the season, while Western Colorado dropped to 0-2.
Quarterback Dylan Graham was 17-of-38 passing for 185 yards and two touchdowns, with one interception.
Running back Kory Harris finished with 78 yards on 21 carries, with one touchdown, a 5-yard scamper in overtime that forced the Mountaineers to score to extend the game.
They did, but couldn’t put any points on the board in the second extra period, setting up Roberts’ heroics.
“That felt amazing,” Graham said. “The team showed a lot of grit.
“That’s a good team over there and we showed that, no matter what, we have so much grit and we can play with anybody, no matter what the circumstance is. We’ll always fight back.”
Mountaineers quarterback Luke Nethercot was 18-of-34 passing for 160 yards and two touchdowns, with two interceptions.
He also rushed for one score.
Beside the outcome, another bright spot for the Falcons was the play of the defense after struggling in the season-opening loss to Southwest Baptist.
Against Western Colorado, the Falcons came out with much better energy and a determination to stop the run and make the Mountaineers one-dimensional and it worked.
After allowing nearly 300 yards rushing in Week 1, UTPB held Western Colorado to 23 yards rushing on the night and forced two fumbles.
The Falcons also had two interceptions on the night, one returned by Donta Stuart for a 2-yard touchdown just 2:31 into the third quarter.
That put UTPB ahead, 16-10, but Western Colorado proved it wasn’t ready to let the Falcons get comfortable.
Nethercot directed a five-play, 53-yard drive that culminated with a 20-yard touchdown pass to Sage Yazzie with 2:32 remaining in the third quarter.
After an interception on the ensuing UTPB drive, Nethercot capped a three-play, 35-yard drive with a 2-yard TD run for a 24-16 lead with 27 seconds remaining in the quarter.
That’s how things stood when the Falcons regained possession with 4:01 remaining in the game at their own 30 after Western Colorado missed a 47-yard field goal that would have put the game out of reach.
Graham started the drive with a 23-yard completion to Tim Wiggins to get into Mountaineers territory.
But a run by Harris went nowhere and then Graham was sacked on second down for a loss, bringing up and third-and-17.
Wide receiver Marcus Molina kept the drive alive by hauling in a 29-yard pass over the middle to move the ball to the Western Colorado 25.
The Mountaineers were called for holding on the next play to put the ball at the 15 and Graham proceeded to find wide receiver MJ link in the left corner of the end zone for the touchdown.
When tight end Brock Johnson ripped the two-point conversion for the hands of a defender, the game was tied, 24-24, with 2:23 to play in the game.
“I was nice to finally get MJ the ball in a spot he could make the catch,” Graham said. “And then Brock, when I let the pass go I was like ‘that’s going to be behind him.’
“But he went and got it and made a great play.”
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