Cowboys Roll Northern Iowa in All Three Phases, 31-7

LARAMIE -- The Wyoming Cowboys used big plays on all three levels in a 31-7 win over Northern Iowa on Saturday afternoon inside War Memorial Stadium in front of just over 25,000 fans.

Wyoming moves to 2-0 overall on the season. Wyoming was fueled by a pair of interceptions, a blocked punt along with 13 chunk plays offensively with 10 coming on the ground.

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“Winning is hard,” UW head coach Jay Sawvel said. “You have a team (in Northern Iowa) that was going to come in and play a certain way where their goal was to control and milk as much clock as possible to essentially bleed the game out. There are things we have to clean up. There are things we can do a lot better. I like the fact that we had no real lulls. Defensively, we played well start to finish.

"Offensively, we were pretty efficient in a lot of situations in the game. We have a lot of things to clean up, but we are happy with the win.”

The Wyoming offense was paced by a trio of running backs that rushed for over 50 yards each. Terron Kellman recorded a career-high 87 yards on seven carries for 12.4 yards per rush. Samuel Harris added 61 yards with a score for a career-best in both. Sam Scott added 58 rushing yards with a score.

Tight end John Michael Gyllenborg recorded five catches for 65 yards with a score. Chris Durr Jr. added four catches for 54 yards with a touchdown. Kaden Anderson was 17-of-23 passing for 167 yards with a pair of touchdowns.

The Cowboy defense was led by a trio of players with six tackles. The group was linebackers Enock Sibomana along with Brayden Johnson and a career-best from cornerback Tyrese Boss. In the interior of the line, Ben Florentine added five tackles and a sack, as he has a sack in three-straight games dating back to last season.

Wyoming held Northern Iowa to only 170 yards of total offense for the fewest since allowing 147 yards to Northern Colorado in 2022. Wyoming has also allowed under 100 yards rushing in back-to-back games.

After both teams missed field goals on their first possession, the Cowboys drove 78 yards on five plays with Scott finding the end zone on an 18-yard rush. He recorded 41 of those yards on the drive with 35 on the ground.

The Panthers would tie the contest, but the Cowboy defense would help the offense get the ball back on a Florentine sack. Anderson would find Gyllenborg on a six-yard pass for a 14-7 lead. Wyoming would then block a punt late in the half coming from Jaden DaCosta and a late field goal from Erik Sandvik from a career-high 40 yards that gave the Pokes a 17-7 lead at the half.

The Cowboys went 10-plays and 76 yards to make it a 24-7 game in the third quarter. Anderson found Chris Durr Jr. from 21 yards for his second score of the season.

Harris would find the end zone in the fourth quarter to cap the win for the Pokes.
Wyoming remains home hosting top 25 opponent Utah next Saturday evening in War Memorial Stadium for a 6 p.m. start on CBS Sports Network.

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