Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 32

HUSKER EXTRA Sunday, September 14, 2008 TV fl rs A quarter-by-quarter look at Nebraska's 38-U vQu win against New Mexico State on Saturday. via First quarter Second quarter Third quarter Fourth quarter Lincoln Journal Star NMS Statistic NU NMS Statistic NU 5, First downs 7 4 First downs 10 30 Rushing yards 75 19 Rushing yards 97 .50 Passing yards 58 64 Passing yards 62 18 Total plays 18 18 Total plays 19 12:36 Time of possession 2:24 6:53 Time of possession 8:07 NM20 Avg. field position 'nU26 NM20 Avg. Held position NU42 24 Third-down conversions 2-3 3-5 ThlrtMown conversions 1-2 NMS Statistic NU NMS Statistic NU 7 First downs 5 3 First downs 6 24 Rushing yards 87 41 Rushing yards 71 54 Passing yards .58 57 Passing yards 45 20 Total plays 13 15 Total plays 18 8:32 Time of possession 6:28 6:05 Time of possession 8:55 NM20 Avg. field position NU32 NM47 Avg.

field position NU42 02 ThlrtWown conversions 1-2, 14 Third-down conversions 1-3, 0-1 FourOvdown conversions 0-1 What happened Nebraska lost the shutout when New Mexico State's Marvin Betts turned a fumble 48 yards to the NU 3-yard line and Marquell Colston scored on the next play. But the Husker defense kept the Aggies out of the end zone on the game's final series. 00 Fourth-down conversions 00 What happened A 58-yard run by Marlon Lucky set up Nebraska's first score of the second half. Lucky made a nifty cutback on the play to pick up big yards. The sensational play of the quarter came from Mike McNeill, when he scored on a 35-yard touchdown pass in which he juked a defender then somersaulted Into the end zone.

00 Fourth-down conversions 0-1 What happened Armando Murillo picked off a deep pass and returned it 57 yards. One play later brought trickery, a 20-yard pass from Lucky to Ganz for a touchdown. Ganz got more later on a 33-yard TD run off the option. On the downside, Pierre Allen left the field and Nebraska did miss scoring on a late drive, stopped on an option on a fourth-and-goal from the 3. OO Fourth-down conversions 00 What happened Zach Potter's big left mitt blocked a 2Ctyard fielogoal attempt on the opening drive.

On the other end, Alex Henery missed the first kick of his career, pushing a 35-yarder wide-right. But the Huskers come back later on a six-play, 58-yard touchdown drive. The key play was Joe Ganz's 22-yard pass to Mike McNeill. Marlon Lucky finished it off from 8 yards. Key stat 35 The length of the field goal Henery missed in the first period.

It was Henery's first career miss. After the first Key stat 74 The number of yards Marlon Lucky had on NU's 76yard scoring drive. After the third Team statistics HEIDI HOFFMANLincoln Journal Star Nebraska's Phillip Dillard (52) and Lance Thorell (right) to stop New Mexico State's Brandon Perez after a gain in the first quarter of Saturday's game at Memorial Stadium. The Aggies managed just 30 yards rushing on attempts in the period, while NU had 75 yards on the 01 0 01 7 LvJ 7 14 1 14 3 KV "(V Key stat 44 The number of Huskers who saw action Saturday. After the fourth How they scored FIRST QUARTER 00:13 NEBRASKA 7.

NEW MEXICO STATE 0 Marlon Lucky 8 run (Alex Henery kick) 58 yards, sxpays SECOND QUARTER 12:52 NEBRASKA 14. NEW MEXICO STATE 0 Joe Ganz 20 pass from Lucky (Henery kick) 20 yards, one play 7:11 NEBRASKA 21. NEW MEXICO STATE 0 Ganz 33 run (Henery kick) THIRD QUARTER 12:01 NEBRASKA 28. NEW MEXICO STATE 0 Lucky 1 run (Henery kick) 76 yards, six plays 5:01 NEBRASKA 35. NEW MEXICO STATE 0 Mike McNeill 35 pass from Ganz (Henery kick) 62 yards, four plays FOURTH QUARTER 12:31 NEBRASKA 35, NEW MEXICO STATE 7 Marquell Colston 3 run (Kyle Hughes kick) 3 yards, one play NEBRASKA 38.

NEW MEXICO STATE 7 Henery 19 field goal 52 yards, nine plays Aggie individuals Aggie individuals fr vi NMSU Statistic NU 19 First downs 28 32-114 Rushes-yds. 44-330 225 Passing yds. 223 19-39-2 Passing 18-240 339 Total offense 553 714.8 Plays-avg. Purrts-avg. 1-0 Punt returns-avg.

1-5 Klckoff returns-avg. 2-145 OO Sacks by-yds. tost 3-23 30 Fumbles-tost 2-1 2 Total turnovers 1 7-17 Third-down conv. 5-10 0-1 Fourth-down conv. 0-2 7-50 Penaltles-yds.

741 28:54 Time of poss. 31:06 4 x. 1 fix Husker individuals Husker individuals Key stat 33 The length of Ganz's touchdown run, the longest of his carer. After the second tern. "I trust everything these coaches tell us to do," he said.

"In all these packages they put us in the right position. If you read your keys and do wnat you're supposed to do, you'll make a play every time." He'll have to adjust to being sore again, Thorell said. And there was one other little difference from playing those high school games. "(The) crowd's a little bigger, too," he said. "It was awesome to be out there and play." McNeill's big catch Tight end Mike McNeill had a 35-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter that drew a reaction from the crowd.

McNeill flipped into the end zone at the end of the play to score. "The (defender) dove, and I made a little move," McNeill said. "I came back to my high school days of wide receiver action. "I didn't even realize how I landed. It was a little crazy." McNeill had two receptions for 57 yards.

He also had a 3-yard TD catch in wtA-J'fcM 7' 1 I il it i II USUI frn- 1 1 combine 1-yard seven ground. ERIDGREGORYLincoln Journal Star Nebraska redJshirt freshman Lance Thorell (23) brings down New Mexico State receiver Wes Neiman after a 5-yard gain to the Husker 2-yard line in the first quarter of Saturday's game. Thorell, seeing his first extensive action, had eight tackles. Loomis High grad Thorell sees extensive action against Aggies Passing Yds. TD Int.

Sck Passing Yds. TD Int. Sck Joe Ganz 13-17 158 1 0 0 Chase Holbrook 15-30 142 0 2 3 Patrick Witt 34 40 0 0 0 J.J. McDermott 48 83 0 0 0 Marlon Lucky 1-1 20 1 0 0 Wes Neiman 0-1 0 0-00 Zac Lee 1-2 5 0 0 0 Rushing Art. Yds.

TD Rushing Att. Yds. TD Marquell Colston 8 45 1 Marlon Lucky 15 103 2 Ronald Opetaia 7 39 0 Quentin Castille 10 75 0 Wes Neiman 3 30 0 Joe Ganz 5 69 1 TonnyGlynn 3 6 0 Marcus Mendoza 3 33 0 Brandon Perez 3 5 0 Roy Helu Jr. 7 32 0 J.J. McDermott 2 4 0 Nate Swift 1 16 0 Donavan Roberts 1 2 0 Todd Peterson 12 0 Chase Holbrook 5 -17 0 Patrick Witt ,2 0 0 Receiving Rec.

Yds. TD Receiving Rec. Yds. TD Chris Williams 4 42 0 Todd Peterson 4 34 0 Wes Neiman 4 36 0 Hunter Teafatiller 3 27 0 A.J.Harris 4 27 0 Marlon Lucky 3 21 0 Julius Fleming 2 60 0 Mike McNeill 2 57 1 Marcus Anderson 2 32 0 Quentin Castille 1 23 0 Doug McDaniel 1 21 0 Joe Ganz 1 20 1 Marquell Colston 15 0 Roy Helu Jr. 1 16 0 Kenneth Buckley 12 0 NilesPaul 1 10 0 Nate Swift 1 10 0 Defense UT AT Tot Sk-yds PB Wes Cammack 1 5 0 Derrick Richardson 7 10 17 Jason Scott 5 5 10 Defense UT AT Tot.

Sk-yds PB Davon House 6 2 8 Eric Hagg 9 1 10 1 Brennen Baiamonte 2 5 7 Lance Thorell 3 5 8 Ross Conner 2 3 5 Armando Murillo 4 2 6 1 Michael Zant 3 14 Prince Amukamara 3 3 6 1 La'Auli Fbnoti 13 4 Phillip Dillard 14 5 Nick Paden ,21 3 NdamukongSuh 3 1 .4 2-15 Marvin Betts 2 1 3 1 Cody Glenn 2 2 4 Alphonso Powell 0 3 3 Zach Potter 2 1 3 1-8 1 Oren Long 0 3 3 Pierre Allen 12 3 Rhyan Anderson 112 MattO'Hanlon .1 1 2 2 y. Vincent Butler 11 2 Blake Lawrence 0 2 2 Jamar Cotton 0 2 2 Austin Cassidy 10 1 Mark Waters 10 1 Roy Helu Jr. ,10 1 A.J. Harris 10 1 Terrence Moore 10 1 Kyle Nelson 10 1 Wes Cammack 10 1 Kawika Shook 10 1 Larry Asante 10 1 1 Marquell Colston 10 1 Jared Crick 10 1 Mike Grady Oil Shukree Barfield 1 0 1 Fumble recovery: Betts 148 William Yancy 0 1 1 1 1 Quentin Castille Oil Returns PR-vcls. KR-yds.

INT yds Ben Martin Oil Chris Williams K) 1-20 Clayton Sievers 0 1 1 Julius Fleming 4-76 Matt Holt Oil Marcus Anderson 1-33 Colton Koehler .01 1 Punte No. Yds. Avg. Blk Returns PR yds. KR-yds.

INT-vds Kyle Hughes 5 184 36 8 0 Nate Swift 1-5 NilesPaul 2-29 Place4tlcklr XP-Att. FG-Att. Lrg Armando Murillo 1-57 Kyle Hughes i-i ri MattO'Hanion 1-21 Missed field goals: Hughes 20 the season opener. Injury update Defensive end Pierre Allen, in his first career start, left the game with an apparent foot injury in the second quarter. Senior Clayton Sievers and true freshman Cameron Meredith both saw considerable time with Allen out.

"Pierre is fine," Carl Pelini said. "He could have gone in the second half, but I figured everything was going OK. Clayton was playing well, Zach Potter was playing well. I wanted (Allen) to be fresh two weeks form now," Henery no longer perfect Nebraska place-kicker Alex Henery Eushed a35-yarder wide-right late in the rst quarter, the first miss of his Husker career. Before that attempt, he was 12-for-12 on field goals and hadn't missed on 55 PAT attempts.

Henery later made a 19-yard field goal and was 5-for-5 on PATs. Briefly Nebraska held New Mexico State scoreless in the first half, marking the first time in 23 games Nebraska has shut out an opponent in the first half. The Huskers' six takeaways this season are just five shy of their total of 1 1 last season. Nebraska's game captains were Marlon Lucky (offense), Hunter Teafatiller (offense), Potter (defense) and T.J. O'Leary (special teams).

BY BRENT C. WAGNER Lincoln Journal Star Yeah, this was a long way from playing eight-man football for Loomis High School. And that's partly why Lance Thorell finds it funny that he was primarily used during Saturday's game against New Mexico State when the Aggies were in formations that included tour wide receivers and one running back. "You have to have five guys on the line in eight-man," Thorell joked. "This was a pretty big change." The redshirt freshman seemingly came out of nowhere to see significant action in Nebraska's 38-7 victory.

Thorell finished with eight tackles, second on the team behind Eric Hagg's 10. With comerback Anthony West out with an injury, Thorell learned Monday he'd be shifted from working exclusively at cornerback to needing to learn the dime package, which puts him closer to the line of scrimmage. Thorell was chosen because of his ability to play physical against the run and also cover receivers. Now, Thorell is glad he made the shift, and hopes maybe he's found his spot on the team. If coach Bo Pelini's postgame comments were any indication, it sounds as though the coaches will find spots forThorell.

"He played an outstanding football game," Pelini said. "We asked him to learn a lot He needed to play well, and he stepped up." As for those eight tackles, including one on the Aggies' first drive, Thorell says he was only making plays within the sys- Punts No. Yds. Avg. Blk Dan Trtohener 39 39.0 0 XP-Att.

Ung Alex Henery 5-5 1-2 Mlwwd Held goals: Henery 35. -X! i Zsch Pctter NU defensive end Just when It looked as If the Aggies were going to got tttelr first-ever points in three grimes vs, NU, Potter blocked i a short field goal. The Aggies drove 77 yards on the opening possfission end never recover from coming up empty. Curt McKeavsr Joe Ganz NU quarterback Ganz joins Heisman Trophy winners Johnny Rodgers and Eric Crouch as the only players In NU history to score passing, receiving and mshing in the same game. Credit the senior for leading the offense to a crisp performance.

Brian Rosenthal Armando t.1i:n?,o NU comerback Murlllo's first interception martP a b.g He picked off Chase Holbrook's pass In the second quarter and returned it 57 yards, setting up NU'ssrcond ID. He was strong in coverage against a team with speedy wideouts. Steven M. Sijipie Lydon Murlha NU offensive lineman Olwlously reaoy to play af- ter sitting out the first two games, Murth played with the kind of mean streak that NU's Wine needed. Along with Matt Slauson, the Huskers chewed up tug yards running to the right behind Brian Christopherson t1.