MOSCOW - A last shot. A last chance for conference glory, and one gleaming chance for a joyous goodbye. For these, the University of Idaho football team badly needed a victory in its game against New Mexico State Saturday afternoon.
The Vandals surely needed this, and they played like it. But New Mexico State took another option and ran over the Vandals in a 35-31 season-ending heartbreaker.
"The whole mindset for this week was go out and play for the seniors," graduating receiver Chris Belser said. "And I thought everybody did that."
Namely, the seniors.
With their collective last collegiate breath, numerous Vandal seniors played some of their best games.
Belser set career highs with 11 catches and 132 yards - including two touchdowns. Blair Lewis ran for 163 yards on 20 carries - almost eight yards per rush - and two touchdowns. Jordan Kramer collected 17 tackles, and senior tackle Tali Atoe had nine. Linebacker James Staley smashed his career high for tackles with eight.
But for all this greatness, the option. The Aggies took the option to the Vandals in the second half. Really, they optioned the Vandal season to death.
"(The difference was) not being able to hold the edge on the option," coach Tom Cable said. "The defensive ends weren't able to hold them off and the tight ends just did a tremendous job of blocking."
Freshman option quarterback P. J. Dombroski ran (and ran) for 109 yards on 20 carries. He optioned for positive yards even when the Vandal defense was expecting it.
Maybe Dombrowski wouldn't have even needed a halfback to pitch to - he gained more than two-thirds of the Aggies' rushing yards and scored three of their four touchdowns. Behind him, the Aggies pieced together the 21-7 run that secured the victory.
Dombroski's 21-yard touchdown with 2:16 in the third quarter brought the Aggies to within 28-31. Roughly a quarter later, he put Idaho away with another one - this time for 11 yards, this time to put the Vandals down 35-31 with 3:28 left.
UI freshman quarterback Michael Harrington gave the Vandal season a little life, even if only for a minute. Starting at the Vandal 12 with only one timeout, he completed three passes - including a fourth down 15-yarder to senior Josh Jelmberg - to lead the offense into New Mexico State territory. A Harrington interception to safety Siddeeq Shabeez with 1:45 left ended the season.
"I had him wide open and I just got hit," Harrington said, "and it sailed on me."
The late pick obscured what had otherwise been an encouraging day. In sharing time with sophomore Adam Mallette, Harrington completed 20 of 35 passes for two touchdowns and, alas, two interceptions.
"Michael came in and just got busy moving the team all over the field," Cable said. "Made a couple of tough decisions, but I can live with those because he can watch them on film. He probably won't make them again."
