Cowboys get wish with fallen Starr

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LARAMIE, Wyo. — Starr Fuimaono showed Saturday how valuable he is to the UNLV football team. Unfortunately, he did so from the sideline.

With the sophomore linebacker out with a dislocated right shoulder, a Wyoming offense that had been barely a threat to pick up a first down turned nearly unstoppable.

After Fuimaono left midway through the third quarter, the Cowboys launched three long touchdown drives, the last capped by Karsten Sween’s 3-yard scoring pass to tight end Wade Betschart with 5:42 left that sent Wyoming to a 29-24 victory over the Rebels at War Memorial Stadium.

“If there are one or two guys we can’t lose right now, it’s Beau (Bell) and Starr,” UNLV co-defensive coordinator Vic Shealy said. “It’s a core of everything we do right now.”

The Rebels (2-7, 1-4 Mountain West Conference) have lost five in a row heading into a bye.

UNLV took a 17-9 lead over Wyoming (5-3, 2-2) when Bell returned an interception 11 yards for a touchdown with 9:39 left in the third quarter.

“I felt we had the game won,” Bell said.

The Rebels certainly seemed in control, especially because the Cowboys had scored only one touchdown over the past 11 quarters.

Take away a 75-yard run on Wyoming’s first play, and it had only 94 yards and six first downs at the time Bell scored.

But Fuimaono got hurt on the first play of Wyoming’s next drive, sending UNLV scrambling.

The Rebels tried Michael Johnson at outside linebacker, they put cornerback Quinton Pointer at Fuimaono’s spot, they played five defensive backs. Nothing worked.

“I felt that the game changed,” UNLV coach Mike Sanford said. “Starr’s a really good football player, and some of our packages as far as different people we put in there are different without him. We were trying to find guys to go in and do what Starr does, and that’s hard to do.”

With Fuimaono out — possibly for the rest of the season — the Cowboys immediately put together a 72-yard, 11-play drive capped by Sween’s 21-yard pass to David Leonard. They trailed 17-15 after a 2-point conversion run failed.

Wyoming went 78 yards in 13 plays to take a 23-17 lead on Devin Moore’s 1-yard touchdown run and a successful 2-point try with 13:35 to play.

Quarterback Omar Clayton, a freshman walk-on making his second start after beginning the season fifth on the depth chart, put the Rebels back in front 24-23 on a 1-yard keeper with 8:32 left.

But Wyoming went 63 yards in 10 plays for the eventual winning score.

“I think we had a good control of the game before I got injured,” Fuimaono said. “But we need more people to step up when starters go down.”

Shealy knew the injury provided Wyoming its opening.

“We had them pegged today,” Shealy said.

Fuimaono’s injury is “not an excuse because we’ve got to still play, but we’re not deep enough right now,” Shealy added.

The defense’s sudden inability to stop Wyoming put added pressure on Clayton, in his first road start, and the UNLV offense.

Clayton’s main receiver, Ryan Wolfe, tried to play but couldn’t stay in the game because of a sprained ankle. Casey Flair picked up the slack by catching 10 passes for 121 yards and a touchdown.

Clayton was sacked six times but completed 21 of 39 passes for 223 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions.

Clayton had two chances to rally the Rebels after the Cowboys’ go-ahead touchdown with 5:42 to play, but UNLV was stopped twice on fourth down at the Wyoming 43-yard line.

“I definitely had faith we were going to be able to score,” Clayton said. “When you doubt yourself, usually you don’t get things done.”

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2914.