Aggies kick losing streak with last-second field goal

The Utah State football team has been looking for a win and finally earned it Saturday evening in one of the Mountain West Conference’s toughest venues.

Tanner Cragun booted a 40-yard field goal as time ran out to lift the Aggies to a 27-25 win over the Wyoming Cowboys in front of a near-capacity crowd at War Memorial Stadium Laramie.

Cragun said he didn’t watch ball in flight. He knew it had the distance after he successfully made four field goals from 50 or more yards in pregame-practice due to the thin air at Laramie’s 7,000-foot elevation.

The win ended a six-game losing streak and moved USU out of the league cellar. While the Aggies are still a longshot to reach a bowl game, they improved their record to 2-6 overall and 1-3 in league in a year filled with drama, including the news this week that star receiver Jalen Royals is out for the season with a foot injury.

Wyoming has problems of its own and fell to 1-7 and 1-3.

“The elevation here makes such a big difference,” said USU’s first-year coach Nate Dreiling. “Months ago we would have screwed that up, but our players found a way to keep competing. Through that adversity, we finally smacked them back in the mouth and got the win.”

Cragun, a Texas product who signed with the University of Utah and later transferred to Logan, said the “walk off” field goal was the first of his career.

“I had people in the stands trying to talk to me but I felt confident in my team and trusted the snap,” he said. “On the sidelines, you always think you’re going to get a chance. I just tried to control my breathing and got ready for ‘go time.’”

“We were due for a win and it definitely feels good,” said quarterback Spencer Petras, who passed for 194 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. “Just a great feeling.”

The Aggies led for much of the game. They scored 10 points in one minute late in the second quarter, thanks primarily to an interception by Jordan Vincent and then a 36-yard double pass from Grant Page to Rahsul Faison to take a 17-10 lead at halftime.

Wyoming, however, stymied USU’s offense for much of the second half and moved ahead 25-24 with 1:57 left on a short (31-yard) field goal by John Hoyland.

USU took over and moved 54 yards in 12 plays. The big play came when the Aggies faced a 4th-and-3 at their own 32 yard line. Dreiling inserted another Utah transfer, Bryson Barnes, at quarterback and he kept USU’s hopes alive with a 6-yard run.

The Aggies moved the ball with a combination of runs and passes. Petras returned and completed a couple of important passes to Kyrese White and Otto Tia to eventually move the ball to Wyoming’s 26-yard line, and Cragun became the hero with his pressure-filled kick.