WESTERN ATHLETIC ROUNDUP : Trick Play Leaves San Diego St. Dazed

San Diego State’s bid to play in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego all but ended on the Wyoming plains Saturday.

Receiver Ryan Yarborough pulled up on a reverse and threw a 35-yard touchdown pass to Eric Edmond, highlighting Wyoming’s 17-6 upset of San Diego State in a Western Athletic Conference game before 19,140 at Laramie, Wyo.

The third-quarter razzle-dazzle left San Diego State in a daze that the Aztecs could not overcome and enabled Wyoming (5-5, 3-3) to knock the Aztecs out of a share of the league lead.

“It is a play we have worked on,” Cowboy Coach Joe Tiller said. “At halftime we talked about it, and said that if we get past midfield we were going to let it go. It was great execution. Ryan is such a fine athlete. . . . If you asked him, he’d tell you he could throw it and catch it on the same play.”

The trickery came late in the third quarter after San Diego State (4-3-1, 4-2) had pulled to within four, 10-6, on Andy Trakas’ 38-yard field goal.

After a 25-yard pass to Dwight Driver and a three-yard run by Ryan Christopherson, Wyoming quarterback Joe Hughes handed off to Christopherson, who in turn gave the ball to Yarborough. But instead of continuing the reverse around the right side of the line, Yarborough pulled up and threw the ball to a wide open Eric Edmond for the score.

“We had a breakdown,” said Aztec Coach Al Luginbill. “They did a great job of disguising the play. They executed it perfectly, but it didn’t necessarily kill us. There was a lot of time left in the game.”

However, the Aztecs did not do much with that remaining time. After punting at the end of their first series of the fourth quarter, the Aztecs committed a string of penalties on their next possession and moved backward 30 yards.

In a game played before a sparse crowd of 19,140, Wyoming became only the fourth team to keep San Diego State’s Marshall Faulk out of the end zone.

Faulk, the nation’s leading rusher, gained 127 yards in 33 carries but his longest run was only 19 yards. And it came with 34 seconds to play.

Faulk, however, became San Diego State’s all-time rusher with a two-year total of 2,738, passing Norm Nygaard, who had 2,619 from 1952 through ’54.

Brigham Young 35, New Mexico 0--Jamal Willis rushed for 149 yards and three touchdowns in 16 carries to lead the Cougars at Provo, Utah. Willis scored on runs of 19, 24 and 71 yards as BYU (6-4, 4-2) rolled to a 28-0 halftime lead.

The Cougars’ other touchdowns came on a 47-yard pass play from Ryan Hancock to Terence Saluone and a 13-yard Hancock-to-Otis Sterling pass.

Hancock passed for 256 yards before being replaced early in the final quarter by Tom Young, the younger brother Steve Young, the San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback.

New Mexico dropped to 2-7, 1-5.

Fresno State 41, Utah 15--Michael Ross passed to Malcolm Seabron on an end-around for a 92-yard play that gave the Bulldogs’ their first touchdown, and the Utes never recovered in a WAC game at Fresno.

Lorenzo Neal and Anthony Daigle each ran for two touchdowns for Fresno State (6-4, 4-2), and quarterback Frank Dolce ran for two touchdowns for Utah (5-4, 3-3).

Tulsa 48, Texas El Paso 39--Gus Frerotte passed for two touchdowns and ran for another to lead the Golden Hurricane in a nonconference game against the Miners of the WAC at Tulsa, Okla.

Frerotte, who lost his starting job midway through the season, completed 17 of 29 passes for 288 yards as Tulsa (4-6) scored its most points since a 55-20 victory over Wichita State in 1984.

UTEP (1-8) led, 31-24, in the third quarter before Frerotte’s 71-yard touchdown pass play to Gary Brown tied the score. Shawn Gray threw an interception, and the Miners’ fumbled the ball away in the fourth quarter to allow the Golden Hurricane to pull away.