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EL PASO, TEXAS – The UTEP defense held New Mexico to 71 yards and three first downs in the second half, keying the Miners' come-from-behind, 20-13 victory over the archrival Lobos on Saturday night in the Sun Bowl.
 
That was more than enough to seal the deal after the Miner offense erupted for two touchdowns in the first six minutes of the second half, turning a 13-3 deficit into a 17-13 lead.
 
The UTEP stop troops pitched a shutout the rest of the way, and Gavin Baechle gave the home team some much-needed insurance with a 44-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter for the final margin of victory.
 
The Miners are 3-1 for the second straight year and beat both their rivals (NM State and New Mexico) in the same season for the first time since 2014.  New Mexico dropped to 2-2.
 
"I can't be prouder of the effort, especially for what this football team did in the second half," UTEP coach Dana Dimel said.  "All of the momentum was completely on New Mexico's side … I thought we did a good job of making adjustments."
 
The heroes on defense were many, as Tyrice Knight (12) and Breon Hayward (10) both registered double-digit stops, and Praise Amaewhule registered seven of the team's 10 quarterback hurries.  Amaewhule had six of the Miners' nine quarterback pressures in the second half.
 
Fittingly, the game ended with the Miner defense snuffing out a fourth and long play by the New Mexico offense at the UTEP 33-yard line.
 
Meanwhile, Jacob Cowing had a career night for the UTEP offense with seven receptions for 174 yards, and Justin Garrett also went over the century mark with 105 yards on four catches.  Gavin Hardison completed 15-of-29 passes for 293 yards for the Miners. 
 
For the first time this season, UTEP fell behind to start a game as Lobo quarterback Terry Wilson scored on a 12-yard TD run midway through the first quarter.
 
Following a fourth-and-two stop by the UTEP defense with the Lobos inside the red zone, Hardison connected with Cowing on a 57-yard pass to move the Miners into Lobo territory.  Baechle connected on a 33-yard field goal to make the score 7-3 early in the second quarter.
 
The Lobos pushed their lead back to seven (10-3) on a 43-yard field goal by Andrew Shelley with 9:35 to go in the period.
 
Shelley added a 31-yard field goal right before halftime to extend UNM's lead to 13-3.
 
The first half was dominated by the Lobos with 217 yards to UTEP's 100.  The second half, however, was all UTEP.
 
"I just didn't think that we executed the way that we needed to offensively in the first half," Dimel said. "Defensively, I thought we played really good to give the offense a chance to really jump out and take a lead."
 
The Miners got right back in it to start the third quarter with a seven-play, 84-yard TD drive.  Hardison connected with Cowing (34 yards) and Garrett (37 yards) for big pass plays, and Deion Hankins finished it off with a four-yard scoring run to cut the deficit to three (13-10). 
 
Following a three-and-out by the Lobo offense, UTEP continued its offensive resurgence.  On just the third play from scrimmage, Hardison found a streaking Cowing for a 55-yard TD pass down the right sideline and just like that, the Miners had their first lead at 17-13.
 
The defense finished it off.
 
The Sun Bowl came alive in the second half as the 15,069 fans played a major role in the Miners posting a fourth consecutive home win.
 
The Miners will play their second consecutive home game next Saturday (Oct. 2) when they battle Old Dominion at 7 p.m. MT.  It marks UTEP's first Homecoming game since 2019 and its 2021 Conference USA opener.  Tickets are available by calling (915) 747-UTEP or by visiting www.utepminers.com/tickets.