AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. - Air Force quarterback Shaun Carney made several good decisions in crunch time Saturday night to help the Falcons overcome a special-teams debacle and hold on for a 28-23 victory over New Mexico.
The Falcons won despite nearly blowing a 21-0 halftime lead and having two punts blocked for touchdowns.
The second Lobos TD cut Air Force's lead to 28-23 with 41/2 minutes left, but Carney ran Air Force's option to perfection for two first downs that ran out the clock.
The clinching first down came on Carney's handoff to Adam Cole, who took it straight up the middle and barely got the tip of the ball past the marker.
Carney was even better earlier in the fourth quarter, when the game looked to be slipping away.
After Air Force got its first first down of the second half courtesy of a roughing-the-punter penalty, Carney threw back-to-back completions, 33 yards to Greg Kirkwood and 30 yards to Alec Messerall, to set up the touchdown that made it 28-16.
Carney finished 4-of-9 for 95 yards. The freshman went in as the sixth-rated passer in the nation and in this game showed a knack for making big throws.
The New Mexico defense, awful in the first half, stopped Air Force three and out on five straight possessions to open the third quarter. Meanwhile, Air Force punter Donny Heaton had shanks of 16, 19 and 18 yards, which gave the Lobos field position to cut it to 21-10.
His fourth punt of the quarter was blocked by Cody Kase and recovered in the end zone by Tyson Ditmore. A two-point conversion failed, but the lead was five and the Falcons were having trouble simply getting the ball back to the line of scrimmage when they ran their trademark triple option.
In the fourth, Joe Selander scooped the second blocked punt and ran 46 yards to cut it to 28-23. It was New Mexico's fourth touchdown off a blocked punt in its past 12 games.
MARSHALL 16, OHIO 13: Ian O'Connor made three field goals, outkicking Brooks Rossman, whose miss on a 32-yarder with 25 seconds left allowed the visiting Thundering Herd to hold on. Rob Stover recovered quarterback Stan Hill's fumble with 2:02 left, giving the Bobcats the ball on the Marshall 17. Three plays later Rossman missed his first attempt of the day.
E. MICH. 31, BALL ST. 24: Anthony Sherrell's 26-yard touchdown run with a little over two minutes left lifted the visiting Eagles in a seesaw game that had 946 yards in total offense. Eastern Michigan quarterback Matt Bohnet was 30-of-46 for 390 yards and two touchdowns.
AKRON 44, BUFFALO 21: Brett Biggs rushed for 165 yards and three touchdowns and Charlie Frye threw for two scores to lead the host Zips. With Akron behind 14-7 early in the second quarter, Domenik Hixon returned a kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown.
TOLEDO 59, W. MICH. 33: Bruce Gradkowski threw three touchdowns to Lance Moore and Trinity Dawson rushed for 158 yards and two scores to lead the visiting Rockets. Toledo scored touchdowns on six straight first-half possessions to win its fourth straight.
MIAMI (OHIO) 47, KENT ST. 27: Josh Betts threw for 277 yards and two touchdowns and the host RedHawks scored on six straight second-half possessions.
BOWLING GREEN 38, CENT. MICH. 14: Omar Jacobs threw for 387 yards and four touchdowns on 31-of-42 passing to lead the visiting Falcons. Jacobs threw three scores to Steve Sanders, who finished with 107 yards on six catches for Bowling Green.
WYOMING 20, SAN DIEGO ST. 10: Jovon Bouknight and Dustin Pleasant caught touchdowns, and the host Cowboys forced three turnovers and held an opponent scoreless in the second half for a second straight game.
RICE 44, SMU 10: Ed Bailey had 158 of the Owls' 496 rushing yards and scored four touchdowns as host Rice bounced back from a 70-63 loss at San Jose State.
