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Porterie helps New Mexico to first bowl win in 46 years

Dec 23, 2007 - 3:46 AM ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (Ticker) -- Donovan Porterie and New Mexico feasted on some home cooking and the Nevada defense to pick up their first bowl win in 46 years.

Porterie threw two touchdown passes and John Sullivan kicked a three field goals as the Lobos cruised to a 23-0 victory over the Wolfpack in the New Mexico Bowl on Saturday.

New Mexico (9-4), which won its last postseason game in the Aviation Bowl in 1961, held Nevada (6-7) to just 210 total yards and 4-of-14 on third down conversions.

The Lobos had no such troubles of their own, racking up 548 total yards of offense. Porterie led the way by completing 20-of-36 for 354 yards with two scores and one interception to help New Mexico snap a five-game winless streak in bowl games.

"We were getting a little tired of people telling us we were going to lose this game," New Mexico linebacker Michael Tuohy said. "So all those media people that said we were going to lose, what's up now?"

"First of all, I am very proud of our football team," New Mexico coach Rocky Long said. "They are focused as they have been all year long for a football game and I think that is why they played as well as they did. They wanted to win real bad. We were focused for today's game and I want to thank the crowd that showed up."

New Mexico, which forced Nevada to punt 11 times, became the first team to shut out the Wolfpack since 1980 - ending the longest streak in the nation at 329 games.

"We didn't do a good job with any consistency on the run game or the pass game," Nevada coach Chris Ault said. "Colin Kaepernick didn't have a chance to get into any type of rhythm. ... We just shot ourselves in the foot. And it's a combination of their defense playing very well and our offense not playing well."

Porterie and Sullivan provided enough offense for the Lobos to get by without leading rusher Rodney Ferguson, who was declared academically ineligible. Ferguson ran for 1,177 yards and 13 touchdowns in the regular season.

Backup Paul Baker picked up the slack by rushing for 166 yards on 22 carries.

"It started off the first couple of carries, five yards, 10 yards, the offensive line go the holes open and you saw what happened, man," Baker said. "I did the best I could out there."

Porterie wasted no time putting the Lobos on top as he connected with Marcus Smith on the third play of the game for a 66-yard score down the right sideline.

After the teams traded punts, New Mexico extended its lead to 14-0 with 4:17 left in the first as Porterie hit Travis Brown for a 39-yard touchdown. Brown finished the game with seven catches for 120 yards.

Sullivan kicked a pair of field goals - one from 53 yards and another from 45 - in the second quarter to stretch the lead to 20-0 with 2:57 left in the half.

About the only thing that went wrong for New Mexico was that Sullivan had a pair of field goals blocked. But he nailed his third of the game with 4:18 left to provide the final margin.

Meanwhile, Nevada was stifled all day by the Lobos' defense. Thus, its terrific rushing attack never had a chance to get going. Luke Lippincott, who ran for 1,380 yards and 15 touchdowns this season, was held to just 40 yards on 10 carries.

Kaepernick completed 13-of-31 for 137 yards for Nevada, which played in a school-record third straight bowl game.