Boise State Blows Past Wyoming, 34-14 [VIDEOS]
Brett Rypien threw for 342 yards and two touchdowns as Boise State beat the Wyoming Cowboys 34-14 Saturday night in Laramie.
Boise State (3-1, 1-0) took control when they scored on four straight possessions in the middle of the game. Alexander Mattison scored on a 13-yard touchdown run on the game’s first drive for a 7-0 lead. After a punt and a missed field goal, Boise State hit its stride.
Rypien connected with AJ Richardson on a 21-yard TD pass for a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter. Khalil Skakir added a two-yard touchdown run on their next possession, which made it 21-0. Haden Hoggarth made it 24-0 right before halftime on a 30-yard field goal.
Wyoming (2-3, 0-1) scored on the first play of the second half. Nico Evans ran 75-yards for a touchdown and trimmed it to 24-7.
The Broncos answered back with another Hoggarth field goal. This one was from 33-yards out and capped a 16-play drive that took over five minutes off the clock. That made it 27-7 with 9:23 left in the third quarter.
After that, the Cowboys forced three straight punts by Boise State, but couldn’t capitalize and punted twice. After UW failed to convert on a fourth down at midfield, Rypien found John Hightower for a 41-yard TD pass just five plays later. It put Boise State up 34-7.
The Cowboys’ last score came on a 72-yard Tyler Vander Waal touchdown pass to James Price with 5:47 left for the final margin.
The Broncos defeated the Pokes for the 12th time in 13 meetings between the two programs. This was the Mountain West Conference opener for both schools.
The Boise State put up 506 yards of offense and dominated time-of-possession with over 40 minutes. They also went 11 for 20 on third-down conversions in the game.
Wyoming finished with 295 yards of total offense, but 147 of those yards came on the two big plays for scores. The Pokes had the ball on offense for less than 20 minutes in the game. They punted on four of their first five possessions. They had a fumble on a mishandled punt snap, and then time ran out on their sixth drive of the first half. No possession lasted longer than 3:15.
Evans ran for 141 yards and a touchdown. Vander Waal was 15 for 25 passing for 214 yards and the one TD but was also sacked five times. Alijah Halliburton and Logan Wilson led the defense with 11 tackles apiece. Andrew Wingard added 10.
The Cowboys head on the road for their next two games. First up is a trip to Hawai’i to face the Rainbow Warriors, who are off to a 5-1 start and are 2-0 in the MW. Kick-off is at 10 p.m., Mountain Time, on Oct. 6.