Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Kingsville holds on to beat Hounds

Freedom New Mexico

KINGSVILLE, Texas — Redshirt freshman quarterback David Garza threw for 310 yards and five touchdowns and Texas A&M-Kingsville held on late for a 38-35 victory over Eastern New Mexico University on Saturday night in a Lone Star Conference South Division football game.

The Javelinas (2-7, 1-3 South) ended an 11-game division losing streak dating to a 26-14 win over the Greyhounds in October 2005. ENMU (4-5, 0-5) dropped its fifth in a row despite a return to action by senior quarterback Michael Benton, who rushed for 193 yards and four touchdowns after missing last week’s game against Tarleton State with a leg injury.

Garza, who also missed all but a few plays in the Javelinas’ 73-6 loss at Midwestern State last week, was sharp from the get-go in his return. He completed 22-of-31 passes in the game, throwing two TD strikes each to sophomore tight end Rony Perard and freshman tight end George Reyes and one to sophomore running back J.R. Hausey.

Benton had TD runs of 1, 28, 1 and 2 yards. He almost had a fifth score, but fumbled the ball at the Kingsville 4 and ENMU running back Tim Hammett recovered in the end zone with 55 seconds left for a touchdown, pulling the Hounds to 38-35.

Freshman Jordan Walker’s onside kick was then recovered by ENMU’s Michael Carrasco at the Hounds’ 44. After a five-yard penalty on ENMU for an illegal substitution, Kingsville sealed the win when defensive end Jimmy Lugo sacked freshman quarterback Carl Bouldin and forced a fumble which defensive tackle Chris Williams recovered at the ENMU 29.

Redshirt freshman Anthony Ramos, who started at QB last week in place of Benton, started again and completed 8-of-14 passes for 66 yards. ENMU took the opening kickoff and Benton entered the game on the first possession, capping a 12-play, 67-yard march with his first TD run.

After Garza directed the Javs to a tying score, Benton finished a seven-play, 71-yard march for ENMU with a 28-yard run with 2:18 left in the quarter.

The Hounds were poised to add to their lead when Benton fumbled into the end zone from the Kingsville 4 and the Javs’ Anthony Bates recovered for a touchback with 4:54 left in the half. Kingsville went 80 yards in eight plays, with Garza finding Reyes on a 14-yard scoring pass.

The Javs then stopped the Hounds on a fourth-down play inside the Kingsville 40 with 23 seconds left. Garza completed 2-of-3 passes to move the ball to the ENMU 43, and Kingsville got a timeout with two seconds left.

On the last play of the half, he hit Hausey with a pass over the middle and the running back was able to elude several defenders to score the go-ahead touchdown.

Lone Star Conference South

Texas A&M-Kingsville 38, ENMU 35

ENMU 14 0 7 14 — 35

A&M-Kingsville 7 14 7 10 — 38

Scoring summary

First quarter

ENM — Michael Benton 1-yard run (Jordan Walker kick), 9:50

AM-K — Rony Perard 29-yard pass from David Garza (Christian Brom kick), 6:37

ENM — Benton 28-yard run (Jo. Walker kick), 2:18

Second quarter

AM-K — George Reyes 14-yard pass from Garza (Brom kick), 2:01

AM-K — J.R. Hausey 43-yard pass from Garza (Brom kick), :00

Third quarter

ENM — Benton 1-yard run (Jo. Walker kick), 5:04

AM-K — George Reyes 43-yard pass from Garza (Brom kick), 3:33

Fourth quarter

ENM — Benton 2-yard run (Jo. Walker kick), 12:04

AM-K — Perard 26-yard pass from Garza (Brom kick), 9:38

AM-K — Brom 21-yard FG, 2:30

ENM — Tim Hammett recovered fumble in end zone (Jo. Walker kick), :55

A — 3,820.

Team statistics

ENM AM-K

First downs 24 21

Rushes-yards 58-330 33-108

Passing yards 66 310

Total yards 396 418

Comp-att-int 8-18-0 22-31-1

Punting 3-43.3 4-28.0

Fumbles-lost 6-3 1-1

Penalties-yards 11-85 6-56

Individual statistics

Rushing — Eastern New Mexico, Benton 29-193, Ron Feaster 9-53, Hammett 5-24, Anthony Ramos 6-21, Carl Bouldin 3-18, Jordan Myers 3-11, Kyle Harris 1-5, J.J. Jennings 1-3, Jason Walker 1-2. Texas A&M-Kingsville, Raymorris Miller 22-85, Hausey 3-24, Garza 5-1, Corey Robertson 1-0, team 2-minus 2.

Passing — Eastern New Mexico, Ramos 8-14-0-66, Bouldin 0-4-0-0. Texas A&M-Kingsville, Garza 22-31-310-1.

Receiving — Eastern New Mexico, Jessie Poku 4-42, Justin Campos 4-24. Texas A&M-Kingsville, Derrick Carter 5-42, Ryan Lincoln 4-51, Miller 3-32, Adrian Brooks 3-2, Reyes 2-57, Perard 2-55, Martin Carrion 2-28, Hausey 1-43.