McChesney, Wilson lead BYU to 56-24 win over UMass

AMHERST, Mass. – Led by freshman Jackson McChesney’s 228 rushing yards and four touchdown passes from quarterback Zach Wilson, the BYU football team topped UMass 56-24 Saturday afternoon at McGuirk Alumni Stadium.

True freshman Jackson McChesney led all rushers with a career-high 228 yards on 15 attempts and two touchdowns. McChesney’s 228 rushing yards is the sixth most in rushing yards in a game in BYU history and the most by a BYU freshman. The Cougars finished the game with 628 total offensive yards the second time this season after putting up 639 yards against Utah State. BYU tallied 320 rushing yards and 308 passing yards. 

In the first half, BYU (7-4) totaled 440 total yards and 49 points, with Wilson doing all his work in the first two quarters. The sophomore went 17 of 20 for 293 passing yards and four touchdowns with three rushing attempts for 20 yards. Joe Critchlow became BYU’s signal caller for the second half going 4 of 7 for 15 passing yards.

Talon Shumway made an impact for the receivers with four catches for 92 yards and one touchdown. Six different BYU players scored touchdowns in the game with McChesney, Lopini Katoa and Aleva Hifo scoring rushing touchdowns while Shumway, Tyler Allgeier, Katoa and Gunner Romney tallied receiving touchdowns.

On the defensive side, JJ Nwigwe recorded his first career interception while Dayan Ghanwoloku set the BYU record since 2000 with his seventh career fumble recovery.

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First Half Summary

Allgeier got the Cougars on the board first with a 57-yard catch and run making it all the way into the end zone to put BYU up 7-0 with nine minutes left in the first quarter.

Two big catches from Shumway, followed by a 20-yard reception for Matt Bushman got BYU in the red zone. Katoa quickly got into the end zone from three yards out for his first touchdown of the game putting BYU ahead 14-0 with just over 14 minutes to go in the second quarter.

After UMass went three-and-out, Wilson threw a ball deep down field 48 yards to Talon Shumway in the end zone on the first play of the drive to go up 21-0 with 12:27 left on the clock until halftime. The Cougars added another touchdown on the next drive as Katoa caught a screen pass and took it 14 yards in the end zone making the score 28-0.

On the next drive, after a 15-yard catch from Micah Simon, McChesney got into the end zone taking the ball 44 yards and gave BYU another score to make it 35-0 with 7:10 left on the clock.

An interception by Nwigwe put the BYU offense on the 22 yard line, and Romney caught an 18-yard pass in the end zone to make it 42-0. The Cougar tacked on one more touchdown going into half time as Hifo ran five yards pushing the score to 49-0.

First Half Review

• Tyler Allgeier scored his first career touchdown early in the game. With multiple running backs hurt going into the game, Allgeier, made the switch from linebacker to running back for the UMass game. He initially played running back earlier in the season before moving to linebacker.
• Talon Shumway made a career long catch of 48-yards for a touchdown early in the second quarter.
• Five straight drives for the Cougars ended in touchdowns with three of them resulting in two plays or less.
• JJ Nwigwe grabbed his first career interception and returned it one yard. Two plays later BYU scored a touchdown.
• Koy Harris tallied his first career forced fumble and Dayan Ghanwoloku picked up his seventh career fumble recovery to break a three-way tie for the most fumble recoveries at BYU since 2000.

Second Half Summary

UMass came out looking to score in the second half. After a muffed BYU fair-catch, the Minutemen recovered the ball and quickly got in the end zone for their first score of the day to make it 49-7. UMass added a field goal on its next drive to make the score 49-10 with 7:13 left in the third quarter. Before the quarter ended, BYU tacked on another 12-yard McChesney rushing touchdown to push the score to 56-10.

The Minutemen answered back with a touchdown of their own putting up another seven points, but still trailed BYU 56-17 with over eight minutes to go in the game. Before the game could end UMass scored one last touchdown before BYU finished the final drive of the game taking a knee making the final score 56-24.  

Second Half Review

• Jackson McChesney tallied BYU’s longest run of the year at 62 yards. 
• Isaac Rex recorded his first career reception for 23 yards in the fourth quarter.

BYU will close out its regular season on Nov. 30 against San Diego State at San Diego County Credit Union Stadium in San Diego, California. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. PST on CBS Sports. The game can be heard on BYU Radio XM 143/89.1 FM HDR, BYU Sports Network and KSL 1160 AM/102.7 FM.