UTSA's 10th greatest conference game
The top 10 countdown of greatest conference games in UTSA football history begins with the Roadrunners first ever conference game
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Previously in the series: Honorable Mention
Game Number 10: UTSA at New Mexico State, Sept. 29, 2012
In 2012 the Roadrunner football team played its first and only season in the Western Athletic Conference. UTSA's first conference game came on Sept. 29, 2012 when they traveled to Las Cruces, New Mexico to face the New Mexico State Aggies.
It was the Roadrunners 15th football game in program history. After going 4-6 in the inaugural season the Roadrunners opened the 2012 season by going 4-0 in their first four non-conference games.
New Mexico State entered the game having gone 1-3 through the first four non-conference games. Few would have guessed when it began that the Roadrunners first conference game would be a rousing success for UTSA.
The game was scoreless until the Aggies struck first on their second drive of the game. New Mexico State went up 7-0 with 4:34 left in the first quarter on an eight-yard touchdown pass.
UTSA got some good fortune on their next drive when New Mexico State muffed the Josh Ward punt and the Roadrunners recovered at the Aggies 48. On the first play of the fresh set of downs, UTSA quarterback Eric Soza connected with Evans Okotcha on a 48-yard touchdown pass. Kristian Stern added the extra point and UTSA tied the score at 7-7 with 2:09 left in the first quarter.
ROADRUNNERS PUT THE GAME AWAY
The Roadrunners took their first lead with a touchdown on their first drive of the second quarter. Soza provided the touchdown by scoring on a 33-yard run. Stern's extra point gave UTSA a 14-7 lead with 8:57 left in the second quarter.
New Mexico State had to punt on their next possession and UTSA's Kenny Harrison called for a fair catch at the Roadrunner 18 yard-line. Soza and the Roadrunner offense had no trouble covering the 82-yards between them and the endzone. On the first play of the drive Soza threw a pass to Kenny Bias that quickly covered those 82-yards and increased UTSA's lead to 21-7 with 6:33 left in the second quarter.
UTSA carried the 21-7 lead into the halftime break. The score remained 21-7 through the early part of the third quarter. The Roadrunner defense came away with an interception by Nic Johnston at the Aggies 21-yard line and returned it five yards to the 16. Just one play later the Roadrunners were up three touchdowns when Soza threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Cole Hicks. Stern made it 4-for-4 on extra points and UTSA led 28-7 with 4:39 left in the third quarter.
The Aggies scored their second touchdown with 11:33 left in the fourth quarter to cut the UTSA lead to 28-14. UTSA answered on their next drive with a nine-yard touchdown run by Okotcha. Stern added the extra point and with four minutes to play UTSA led New Mexico State 35-14. That ended up being the final score as UTSA started 1-0 in conference.
A RECORD THAT STOOD FOR FOUR YEARS
UTSA's 21-point margin of victory in the conference opener allowed the Roadrunners to improve to 5-0 in 2012. The Roadrunners 35 points in the conference opener stood as the school record for points in a conference game until two days after Thanksgiving in 2012 when the UTSA scored 38 in the inaugural game against Texas State.
In 2013 UTSA matched the 21-point margin of victory with a 52-31 win over UAB. It wasn't until 2016 that the Roadrunners won a game by a larger margin than 21 points. That year UTSA beat Southern Miss 55-32.
The 21-point margin of victory also stood as one of the top-five scoring margins by UTSA in a conference game until the 2021 season.
All of that was down the road in the future when the Roadrunners returned from Las Cruces with the win in September 2012. The 35-14 win over New Mexico showed the rest of the WAC that UTSA was not bad at football. The Roadrunners eventually went 3-3 in the WAC in 2012.
Since that win in Las Cruces the Roadrunners have won 39 conference games and lost 37. It all had to start somewhere and UTSA had quite a start to its conference life.
NEXT WEEK: The ninth greatest conference game in UTSA football history
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