Boxscore

The Bulldogs captured their first win in their first Western Athletic Conference game of the season with a 34-14 pounding of the New Mexico State Aggies before a crowd of 17,318 at Joe Aillet Stadium Saturday night.

Tech (0-2, 1-0 WAC) dominated the Aggies (0-5, 0-1 WAC) throughout the majority of the game as the Bulldogs built a 34-0 lead and nearly shutout New Mexico State.

?I honestly have never been more afraid before a game,? said Tech head coach Jack Bicknell. ?I watched New Mexico State move the ball up and down the field against California last week, and I was like, ?holy smokes.? This was a nice win for us. It was a total team effort.?

Tech had pitched the shutout until Jeremy Williams scored on a 9-yard scamper to put the Aggies on the board with only one minute, five seconds to play.

?To me it was basically a shutout,? Bicknell said. ?Our first team defense didn?t allow them to score. It was just a great job by our defensive unit.?

The Bulldogs? defense wrote the story, and senior cornerback Tramon Williams set the tone early when he intercepted New Mexico State?s quarterback Joey Vincent on the first drive of the game.

Then, Tech marched 10 plays and 73 yards, and sophomore running back Mark Dillard recorded his first career touchdown with 4:35 left in the first quarter.

The Bulldogs went up 7-0 and reached their first lead of the season, which soon sweltered to 14-0, when Tech?s swarming defense forced a Vincent fumble recovered by Josh Muse.

Matt Kubik and the Bulldog offense went back to work and put together another scoring drive, culminated by sophomore running back Freddie Franklin?s first career touchdown run from eight yards out.

Sophomore kicker Danny Horwedel connected on a career-long 45-yard field goal with 5:02 left in the first half, before Kubik completed a three-yard pass to Anthony Harrison, which was the second of his career, and the Bulldogs went up 24-0 at halftime.

In the second half, the story remained the same, as Tech safety Alton Bryant picked off Vincent and Kubik connected with Harrison again with 8:28 remaining in the third quarter.

On the ensuing drive, Tech defensive lineman Moqut Ruffins forced another fumble from Vincent, which was recovered by Robert Burrell.

Horwedel then tied his career high of two field goals made in a game with a kick from 35 yards out to put the Bulldogs up 34-0, and Tech went to 1-0 in WAC play.

The Bulldogs continue WAC competition with their second home match of the season against the Hawaii Warriors next week at 6 p.m. in Joe Aillet Stadium.