Fresh and familiar faces combined to help No. 18 BYU preserve its home unbeaten streak in what turned out to be a nail-biter of a finish and a shootout.

Safety Andrew Rich came up with the deciding play, intercepting a desperation toss to the end zone by UNLV quarterback Omar Clayton as time expired. The interception sewed up a 42-35 victory for the Cougars in front of a sold out LaVell Edwards stadium.

"There were about four of us back there that could have made the play," the sophomore from Ogden said. "I just felt fortunate enough to be there in the right spot. It landed in my hands."

Rich is one of the new faces on BYU who has stepped up as part of a much-maligned secondary.

BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall had high praise for the junior college transfer walk-on who eschewed other scholarship offers to play at BYU.

"[He's] one of the toughest young men I've ever been around," the head coach said. "He is a fierce, fierce competitor."

Another of the fresh faces was freshman linebacker Matt Putnam, who made what Mendenhall called the most crucial play of the game before Rich's interception.

After BYU scored to go ahead by seven, UNLV started possession with 1:46 remaining on the game clock. Clayton and UNLV moved to ball down field quickly, finding the Cougar red zone with seconds left on the clock. UNLV had not been stopped in the red zone all season, including on five previous chances Saturday.

On second-and-10 from the BYU 13-yard line, Clayton dropped back to pass only to find pressure from his blindside. Putnam crashed through the line and dragged the UNLV quarterback down for a loss of 12.

"We had a lot of confidence in Matt," Mendenhall said afterwards. "[He's] starting to emerge as a key player in terms of getting pressure when we need it."

The sack forced Clayton's desperation throw into a crowd with only seven seconds remaining. At other times of the day, the sophomore quarterback was efficient in leading an offense that was rarely stopped by BYU. Clayton finished 26-of-40 for 321 yards and one touchdown.

His BYU counterpart Max Hall was back to his old self, completing 24-of-31, good for 245 yards and four touchdowns.

The game featured each offense, at times looking more like a pinball game as each defense struggled to make stops. The defenses fought to capture momentum in a slippery game.

With his team down one and 6:49 to play, Hall told the offense it was just like practice. The Cougars needed only to execute their game plan to tack the go-ahead score on the scoreboard.

Wide receiver Austin Collie called the situation "fun."

"That's why we play college football," Collile added.

Hall calmly led the team 74 yards with a methodical drive, finding tight end Dennis Pitta from six yards out to put the Cougars up by five, before converting a two-point conversion.

The junior from Mesa, Ariz., seemed to take the TCU loss to heart, leading his team with a complete effort, scrambling for a career-long 31-yard run and making a pancake block on a long Fui Vakapuna scamper.

Vakapuna reintroduced himself to Cougar faithful, picking up 71 yards on nine carries in addition to his first receiving touchdown since 2006.

The senior accepted a reduced role early in the year, totaling only 87 yards on 23 carries before Saturday.

Vakapuna credited his offensive line after the game.

"They just exploded, the holes were right there," he said. "You could fit an elephant through that. I was just happy to see grass."

The Glendale native thought Saturday's game would be key.

"This game was going to show what we were," he said. "What character coming from a tough loss and coming back home and seeing what we can do."

The BYU offense seems to be back in working order, spreading the ball around, with five players accounting for the five touchdowns.

"When we're able to distribute the ball more widely than we've been doing, we're more effective," Medenhall said. "We're getting closer to what we need to do offensively to have the kind of output and production that we need."

Defensively BYU may not have been broken, but the resilient unit was often bent beyond recognition in giving up a season-high point total. Saturday against an explosive Rebel offense, the defense was just good enough to make the right plays at the right times.



Copyright Brigham Young University 27 Oct 2008