ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – – Devon Dampier scored on a 1-yard run with 21 seconds left and New Mexico defeated No. 19 Washington State 38-35 on Saturday night for its first win over a ranked team since 2003, capping the slender squad of the Cougars defeated. Hope for the College Football Playoffs.

Dampier ran for 192 yards and three touchdowns on 27 carries and completed 11 of 25 passes for 174 yards and a touchdown. Eli Sanders added 108 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries for the Lobos (5-6).

“We don’t win without him,” Lobos coach Bronco Mendenhall said of Dampier. “And if your quarterback could run the ball so hard and so physically, with the trick that Eli Sanders and NaQuari (Rogers) would also run the ball. Gee, well, that’s what winning and really good football teams do, right? They run when they need to, and you stop running when they need to.

Dampier ran for 142 yards and both touchdowns in the second half. He moved New Mexico 75 yards on the winning drive after Washington State (8-2) took a 35-31 lead with 3:12 left on John Mateer’s 37-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Williams.

Mateer was 25 of 36 for 375 yards and four touchdowns. Williams had nine receptions for 181 yards and three touchdowns.

“We’ll be determined by what we do next,” Cougars coach Jake Dickert said. “Me, as a head coach, our seniors, our leaders, all our guys, you have two options, and then you can go out there and fight each other, or you can fight what happened to you and come back ready to work.”

New Mexico took a 31-28 lead with 4:40 left in the game on Luke Drzewiecki’s 21-yard field goal.

Trailing 28-14 at halftime, the Lobos tied the game in the third quarter on Dampier’s 33-yard touchdown run and Sander’s 26-yard scoring dash.

Takeaways

Washington State: After going up and down the field in the first half, scoring four touchdowns and amassing 357 yards of total offense and allowing just one punt, the Lobos forced the Cougars to punt on the first three possessions of the second half. Mateer was 3 of 9 for 16 yards in the third quarter

“I thought they were more aggressive defensively in the second half,” Dickert said. “You know, I thought they stuck with a few different personnel deals. They are doing well schematically in attack.”

New Mexico: The Lobos remained in position to become bowl eligible in Mendenhal’s first season.

Survey implications

The Cougars will fall after the loss.

Next

Washington State: Next Saturday at Oregon State.

New Mexico: in Hawaii on November 30

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