Aggies hold on to win home opener, 36-22, over Texas A&M-Commerce
29-7 lead melts away before a late interception seals the deal
UC Davis built a 22-0 lead, then almost gave it all back before David Meyer returned an interception for a touchdown to seal a 36-22 win over Texas A&M-Commerce Saturday night at UC Davis Health Stadium.
The win in UCD's home opener evens the Aggies at 1-1 in the early season, while Commerce drops to 0-2.
"I know it's a dirty win, but I'll take a dirty win over a clean loss anytime," said a relieved Aggie head coach Tim Plough in a post-game press conference surrounded by his young sons Jackson, 8, Camden, 6, and Bodie, 3.
"We have a lot of things to clean up, especially when we're in the red zone. We had to settle for field goals instead of touchdowns, and when you let a good team like that stick around, things are going to get a little scary."
Scary indeed.
The Aggies built a 15-0 lead at the half on the strength of three Hunter Ridley field goals of 28, 26 and 29 yards, plus an eight-yard scoring strike from Miles Hastings to Chaz Davis.
UCD then opened the second half with a 54-yard scoring toss from Hastings to Samuel Gbatu and it appeared a rout was in progress similar to the 48-10 beating the Aggies administered to A&M-Commerce in the season opener last year in Texas.
The Lions had other plans.
After Commerce cut the deficit to 22-7, the Aggies responded with a 14-yard TD pass from Hastings to Winston Williams for a 29-7 advantage with 9:02 left in the fourth quarter.
That seemed to the crowd of 8,743 like game, set and match, but the Lions refused to yield, scoring twice in less than three minutes to trim UCD's advantage to 29-22 with 5:03 remaining.
After forcing an Aggie punt, the Lions took over at their own 29 with 1:54 to play.
Converting a fourth down and taking advantage of a 15-yard pass interference penalty, A&M reached the Aggie 48 before Meyer stepped in front of a Ron Peace pass and returned it 52 yards for a score that finally put the Lions away.
"David Meyer is a fantastic football player," Plough said emphatically about the junior transfer from Cal Poly.
"I have to give them a lot of credit for coming back. We knew they were a good team from the beginning, so it's great to get a win in front of our home fans. We're trying to make this a great home field advantage. We don't want it to be hospitable, we want to make this a nightmare."
Lan Larison led the Aggies on the ground with 123 yards and one touchdown, while Hastings passed for 320 yards and three scores.
C.J. Hutton had a standout night for the Aggies with six receptions for 84 yards, with several grabs of the circus variety.
Peace hit 29 of 56 passes for a remarkable 457 yards and three scores, with most of the yards coming in the second half.
The Aggies travel to Southern Utah Saturday for another non-conference battle, before coming back for a two-game home stand against Utah Tech on Sept. 21 and Sept. 28 against Idaho in the Big Sky season opener.
Reach Bob Dunning at bobdunning@thewaryone.com
Thanks for recap of game since I couldn’t get in Ketchum ID on radio and ESPN didn’t cover
Barry
Great win Aggies. Stay hungry and keep up the good fight.