Turnovers and penalties cost Eastern its homecoming game

STAFF WRITER

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Costly turnovers and difficulty running its triple option cost Eastern New Mexico its homecoming game against Lone Star Conference foe Tarleton State, as the Texans rolled to a 26-16 victory Saturday afternoon.

The announced crowd of 2,658 were treated to a defensive battle in the first quarter. With the game still scoreless in the second quarter, Tarleton State (4-3, 4-1 LSC) quarterback Zed Woerner found Jeff Thomas for a 13-yard touchdown coming off a fourth-and-long play. The extra point by Sergio Sroka missed so the Texans led by just six points. Woerner finished with 343 passing yards and three touchdowns.

Staff photo: Matthew Asher

Linebacker Desmond Blue wraps up Tarleton State's Bubba Tandy. Tandy was limited to three catches for 33 yards but Tarleton State won by 10.

ENMU (4-3, 4-2) would take the lead on the ensuing drive when Chivasiay Gallagher scored on a two-yard rushing touchdown. Gallagher finished the game with 76 yards on 15 carries.

Eastern New Mexico had the edge in total yards with 538 while limiting Tarleton State to just 361. However, ENMU had five turnovers, three fumbles and two interceptions, that gave the Texans excellent field possession throughout the game as their average starting field position was their own 41-yard line.

“Any time anything good happened, we shot ourselves in the foot,” Eastern head coach Josh Lynn said. “It was those darn penalties too. We’re tripping over our feet. I’d like to give Tarleton (State) credit. They came in with an injured offensive line and mustered up some points. They did a great job of putting up points with their squad.”

Tarleton State had a simple game plan: Keep the ball away from ENMU’s offense. The Texans finished the game with 30:39 of possession time making it very difficult for ENMU as they average 37 minutes of possession time.

“Anytime you play an option team you’ve got to possess the ball,” Tarleton State coach Todd Whitten said. “Last week against Permian, (ENMU) had the ball for 40 minutes. (Letting a team do that) won’t win you games. I’m proud of our guys for battling. The turnovers were the difference. Anytime you go on the road to get a road win like this is great. I couldn’t be prouder.”

Eastern's secondary had its hands full trying to limit the trio of Thomas, Del'Michael High and Bubba Tandy. Thomas burned ENMU with 144 yards on nine catches and one score. High had eight receptions for 125 yards and two touchdowns. Tandy was limited to just three catches for 33 yards.

ENMU went into the half trailing 13-10 but everything started to unravel for the Hounds when ENMU started turning the ball over. Tarleton State made ENMU pay by scoring 10 points off the turnovers in the second half.

With ENMU trailing, quarterback Wyatt Strand was forced to air it out in the second half. Aaron Johnson benefited from the plays as he finished with seven catches for 195 yards, a new career best, and an 80-yard touchdown that was too little too late with six minutes left in the game down by 10 points.

“We were using him a little more than we wanted to,” Lynn said of Johnson’s day. “But again, it’s the penalties. The bottom line is we had something going and we’d commit a penalty. That’s on us.”

The good news for ENMU was after missing the previous game, running back Kamal Cass was able to play in the second half. He finished with six carries for 20 yards. Lynn said he wants to slowly ease Cass back into the lineup.

“We still have a lot of football left (in the season) so we’re being cautious with him,” Lynn said.

ENMU stays at home next week when it hosts Bacone with a 1 p.m. start.