Wyoming 34, Nevada 30

Saturday, Oct. 11, 1997 | 9:08 a.m.

"Wow," Dimel said after Wendell Montgomery caught a 41-yard touchdown pass from Jay Stoner with 12 seconds to play.

It was the fourth lead change in the final 7:07 and the second in the final 47 seconds. And Nevada, which had taken the lead on a 1-yard run by Chris Lemon, then got 76 of the 80 yards it needed for the touchdown that would have won the game.

Wolf Pack quarterback John Dutton had passed 16 yards to Greg Russell and 38 yards to Trevor Insley to get the ball to the Wyoming 26. The clock ran out after Insley's catch, but the officials ruled the play had been dead before the clock hit :00, giving Dutton one more shot at the end zone.

He threw a Hail Mary pass to Insley, who caught it at the 4 but stumbled as he tried to reach the end zone.

"I wasn't sure where I was," Insley said. "I don't know if the ball was in the end zone or not. I tried to keep my feet, but I couldn't. I don't know what to say. We played our hearts out."

The Wolf Pack is 1-5 and has lost four straight - its worst start since 1964. But Nevada, from the Big West Conference, earned the respect of Wyoming (5-2) of the Western Athletic Conference.

"We're probably the best team they'll play this season," Dimel said. "We hardly ever stopped them. Our hats are off to them. Both teams played well enough to win."

Indeed, the Nevada sideline was awash in jubilation after Lemon's 5-yard run gave Nevada the lead with 47 seconds left.

"We were celebrating," said Lemon who rushed for 110 yards to complement Dutton's 377-yard passing performance. "We had confidence in our 'D' to get it done. I don't know ... 40 seconds left. We really thought it was over."

Stoner, a redshirt freshman who passed for 312 yards in his first college start, didn't think it was over. His 25-yard pass to Brahms Derenoncourt got the ball to the Nevada 25 with 27 seconds to play. After an incompletion, Stoner saw a blitz and changed his play call at the line of scrimmage.

"They were in one-on-one coverage (because of the blitz) and they were overplaying the post route," Dimel said. "So Jay checked off to the corner route."

Montgomery outfought Nevada cornerback Greg Oliver for the ball at the 8, then ducked under him and ran untouched into the end zone.

"Jay played absolutely fantastic," Dimel said of Stoner, who threw for three touchdowns and wasn't intercepted.