Fresno State wins the Mountain West Championship, 19-16

Stephen Hicks Image
Monday, December 3, 2018
Fresno State wins the Mountain West Championship, 19-16
Chris Alvarez is live in Boise following the Mountain West Championship where Fresno State won 19-16.

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- On a snow covered field that turned #22 Boise State's blue field white, #25 Fresno State (11-2) topped the Broncos (10-3) 19-16 in the Mountain West Championship. It was the fourth meeting between the two teams in the last 371 days.

Arron Mosby (Sanger grad) was ejected for targeting on Boise State's opening series. The two teams would trade field position before Broncos senior quarterback Brett Rypien fumbled the ball and the Bulldogs recovered at the Broncos 20 yard line. On the ensuing Bulldogs drive Dinuba grad Marcus McMaryion found Michiah Quick (Central HS) for a 15 yard touchdown to open the scoring.

RELATED: Fresno State will play in the Las Vegas Bowl against Arizona State

The Broncos would answer on their ensuing drive. Rypien's throw on 3rd down from the 10 yard line went through the hands of Jaron Bryant and Sean Modster took advantage with a catch that tied the game at 7.

The second quarter saw the rain turn into snow flurries as snow began to stick on the blue field. Following another completion from McMaryion to Quick the former Grizzly fumbled setting up a turnover on downs at the 23.

Stephen Hicks shows the highlights from the Mountain West Championship. Fresno State topped the Broncos on the blue field, 19-16. More highlights on Action News Live at Eleven.

Freshman Asa Fuller hit a 44 yard field goal through the snow to give the Bulldogs a 10-7 lead at the break. Fuller would hit another from 38 yards to make it a 13-7 FS lead.

Alexander Mattison carried the ball 36 times for 181 yards but none was bigger than his 34 yard run to tie the game 13-13 with 8:01 to play in the game. FS senior from Toronto Matt Boateng blocked the extra point that would have given the Broncos the lead.

Chris Alvarez gets players' reactions to the big win against Boise State Broncos.

"It looked like we were going there tonight. We were ahead again and they came back like they do. We were resilient. Defense played really well. We made some mistakes. We had too many turnovers but our kids had a not be denied attitude tonight," said Coach Jeff Tedford.

Fresno State will play in a bowl game that will be announced Sunday morning. It is expected to be the Vegas Bowl, kickoff is on Dec. 15 at 12:30 p.m. on ABC.

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