The Wyoming Cowboys scored 21 unanswered points in the final 10 minutes to rally past San Jose State by a score of 35-28 on Saturday evening inside War Memorial Stadium in Laramie. The Cowboys scored a pair of touchdowns with under three minutes left to improve to 3-3 overall and 1-1 in conference play.

“It was a great fight from our team for 60 minutes,” UW head coach Jay Sawvel said. “It was pretty ugly for 47 of it, and then pretty beautiful for 13 of it. The credit goes to the players. We got to the sideline after that second touchdown, and it felt like if we were going to win the game, it’s going to be like, 51-49. We just stayed in the fight. This is a players’ win. It’s a players’ game. There are a lot of things in football that are similar to life. If you just stay in the fight, things will work out. We stayed in the fight, and all of a sudden there’s an interception for a touchdown and then the whole game changed. All we had to do was figure out a way to get it back to a one-score game and for a long time we had to figure out a way to not let it get to a three-score game.”

Quarterback Kaden Anderson threw for 304 yards and found wide receiver Charlie Coenen from 45-yards to tie the contest with 2:44 remaining. He would then find running back Tote Harris on a 52-yard play to set up the winning 28-yard touchdown run from running back Terron Kellman. The cowboy defense would get a stop to close the game and seal the comeback win.

Wyoming outgained the high-powered San Jose State offense 411 to 383. Wyoming passed for 304 yards and rushed for 107 yards. SJSU was held to only 43 yards on the ground.

Anderson was 23-of-39 for the game with a pair of scores and found 11 receivers in the contest. Harris added nine rushes for 47 yards and added a pair of catches for 58 yards. Tight end Evan Svoboda added a career-high four catches with four other Cowboys adding three catches.

The Wyoming defensive finished the contest with a season-high nine tackles for loss and have 17 in the last two games. Desman Hearns led the team with a career-high eight tackles and a pass breakup on third down to force a punt that led to the winning drive. Linebacker Evan Eller added seven tackles along with fellow linebackers Brayden Johnson and Enock Sibomana along with defensive end Tyce Westland.

The Spartans got on the board first with a 43-yard reception from Walker Eget to Danny Scudero on the opening drive of the contest. Wyoming would punt on the opening drive after a pair of first downs. The Wyoming defense forced a three-and-out, but Deion DeBlanc would make a house call on a punt return for a touchdown for a 7-7 contest.

San Jose State wasted little time taking the lead back with a 72-yard reception from the same duo for a 14-7 lead only six minutes into the contest. The Spartans added another score from Scudero for a 21-7 lead in the early goings of the second quarter.

The Pokes would make it a 21-14 contest on a 35-yard touchdown pass from Anderson to wide receiver Michael Fitzgerald to cap a seven-play, 75-yard drive that lasted just over three and a half minutes. It was Fitzgerald’s first score in a Cowboy uniform. But the Spartans returned the kickoff inside the five yard-line and pushed the lead back to two scores at 28-14 seconds later.

The third quarter was scoreless with each team making miscues during the quarter. A muffed punt by the Pokes deep inside Wyoming territory was turned around with a strip sack by the Pokes. But neither team added a tally for a 28-14 going into the final frame.

The Cowboys made it a one score game on a 65-yard interception returned for an interception by Brayden Johnson on a passed tipped by Eller. Wyoming defense would continue to get stops to set up the tying and game winning score, as UW held SJSU scoreless in the second half on their way to the win.

The Spartans were led offensively by Scudero with 10 catches for 180 yards with four touchdowns. He is the first opponent to record four touchdown receptions in a game since Chris Gant of Hawai’i did so in 2012. Quarterback Walker Eget added 245 yards passing after leaving the game in the third quarter. He was 23-of-37 passing with four touchdown passes.

The Cowboys hit the road next week heading south to take on Air Force on Saturday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. in a contest on CBS Sports Network.