Fresno State Keeps Pouring It On, 94-17

With 1 minute 58 seconds to play and an NCAA record for scoring against a major college opponent in view, Fresno State’s Sal Mejico ran up the middle for five yards on fourth down, being stopped on the New Mexico 10-yard line, five yards short of a first down.

So the Bulldogs beat New Mexico only 94-17 Saturday at Fresno.

Fresno State fell short of the record 100 points Houston scored in a 100-6 victory over Tulsa on Nov. 23, 1968.

Mark Barsotti passed for 266 yards and three touchdowns and ran for two more while playing only the first half for the Bulldogs (4-0), in their final season of play in the Big West Conference before joining New Mexico in the Western Athletic Conference.

Ten Fresno State players scored touchdowns, and Barsotti, Calvin Means and James Allison had two each.

The Bulldogs tied an NCAA record for scoring in a quarter, 49 points in the second to match Davidson’s total against Furman in the second quarter of a 1969 game and Houston’s fourth quarter of its victory over Tulsa in 1968.

The second-quarter record came after a Fresno State interception with 23 seconds to play and a Barsotti pass completion to the two-yard line. With three seconds to play in the half, Bulldog Coach Jim Sweeney called time out, leading, 59-7.

“My first response is that the responsibility for the score is ours, not his,” New Mexico Coach Mike Sheppard told reporters. “It’s an overused statement, but we have a chance to control the score, and he has a responsibility to try to score. We have a responsibility to try to prevent it.”

The Lobos didn’t, Anthony Daigle plunged over from the two and Derek Mahoney kicked the point-after to make it 66-7 and give Fresno State a share of the scoring record for a quarter. Mahoney finished with 13 extra point kicks, tying another NCAA mark.

From there, it was a race between the final gun and the record, the gun winning--barely.

“We were not sincerely out to get the record,” Sweeney said. “We were only trying to win the game decisively. We played as many people as we could, including using five fullbacks, in fact.”

The Bulldogs did not throw a pass in the second half but still put together drives of 51, 65, 52, 91, 43 and 68 yards, all on the ground.

“Today was the first time in my 4 1/2 years that our football team quit,” Sheppard said. “We flat-out quit.”

Fresno State took a 17-0 lead after one quarter against the 1-4 Lobos. Then came the second quarter and history.

Ron Rivers’ 78-yard touchdown run started it with 12:44 to play, and James Burton returned an interception 26 yards to make it 31-0 only 28 seconds later. The rout was on.