An in-depth look at ENMU football team's recent win

PORTALES — In a battle of the Lone Star Conference' top rushing attack and second-ranked run defense on Saturday night, the offense prevailed.

The Eastern New Mexico University Greyhounds' running game once again proved to be unstoppable, even against a strong run defense like Texas A&M-Kingsville's.

The Hounds (7-1, 6-1 LSC) ultimately rushed for 482 yards - nearly 400 more than the Javelinas (3-6, 2-5) had previously allowed per game. ENMU jumped out to a 37-6 lead through three quarters, and ultimately hung-on in the fourth quarter for the 51-34 win.

"It was good. I thought all of our running backs ran hard, and blocked well for each other," ENMU coach Kelley Lee said, smiling. "And (they also) made plays and broke tackles. Our offensive line — we had some problems on our backside of our blocking, but our playside blocked very well. (When we took care) of the backside and got to the playside at the point of attack, there were some nice holes."

Eastern's fifth-consecutive victory got off to a quick start on both sides of the football. Offensively, ENMU stormed out of the gate and needed just three plays to go 61 yards for a score on its opening drive.

Defensively, the Greyhounds had held the Javelinas to negative (-2) total yards offense through their first 11 offensive plays. In fact, at one point in the middle of the third quarter, the Hounds had outgained Kingsville on the ground, 340-2.

For senior running back Kamal Cass — a Clovis High graduate who rushed for 187 yards and four scores on his way to being named the Lone Star Conference's Offensive Player of the Week — the Greyhounds' bye week helped him and his teammates immensely. "It helped our bodies out a lot," he said.

"Especially when (Kingsville) gives up a lot of looks on defense — stunts and stuff like that. That bye week helped us out a lot. I think with that bye week, we got to practice a lot more on the stunts, so we were expecting a lot of it."

OFFENSE

Who says the Javelinas have the LSC's second-ranked run defense? Eastern's ground game sliced and diced its way to a 482-yard and seven-touchdown performance on Saturday night. Cass led the way with those 187 yards and four scores, while Tayshaun Gary (108 yards and a touchdown), Johnny Smith (93 yards) and D'Maujeric Tucker (64 yards, TD) all had strong outings as well.

Ultimately, the Hounds averaged 7.7 yards per carry on 63 attempts — far exceeding the 84.4 yards per game on 2.7 yards per carry that Kingsville had previously allowed through its first eight games.

Not surprisingly, the Hounds came out hot on their opening possession, as a pair of nice gains was capped-off by a 45-yard score from Gary. He took the pitch up the right side and went untouched into the endzone for the early score, on what wound up being just a three-play, 61-yard scoring drive that lasted all of 1:10.

However, despite what the final numbers show, ENMU's offense actually struggled over its next four drives, producing zero points and very little in the way of rushing yardage. The up-the-middle ground attack went nowhere, and even when the Greyhounds did get something going, they'd find a way to squander the opportunity.

Eastern's defense continued to play lights-out football throughout the first two-and-a-half quarters of play, but the offense needed a spark. A pair of punts on the Greyhounds' next two drives — following the touchdown — were then followed by a pair of lost Greyhound fumbles.

Quarterback Wyatt Strand rolled out and avoided a sack on third-and-10, just seconds into the second quarter, by scrambling 11 yards to extend the Greyhounds' fourth drive of the ballgame. However, two plays later, a heavy rush spun Strand around, and he was unable to hang on to the football.

That ultimately gave Kingsville a short field and its first points of the night, closing the deficit to 7-3. ENMU's next drive was doomed from the start, as Johnny Smith's long run was negated by a hold.

The next play saw Paul Terry run for 14 yards up the right side. However, the third play of the drive was a pitch into traffic, as a Kingsville defender jumped right in front of Terry and caused another fumble, leading to yet another Greyhound turnover.

Finally, however, the Eastern offense came back to life, following a Javelinas punt that pinned the Hounds at their own 4-yard line. No worries; Cass rushed for eight yards on the first play, and then two plays later, his run up the middle saw him head into a wall of defenders, before somehow bouncing to the left and racing to the end zone for the 88-yard score, extending the ENMU lead to 14-3.

"It was just a big hole. My line did a great job opening up a hole, and all I really had to do was run through," Cass said. "So I mean, shout out to those guys. When it's like that, all you gotta do is run."

In fact, according to Lee, the plan was to continue to stick with the same play-calling, as Kingsville's significantly undersized front seven was bound to wear down. For Lee, it was eventually going to play into the Greyhounds' hands, and that's exactly what happened the rest of the way.

Ahead 17-3 in the early stages of the third quarter, Cass notched his second touchdown — this time, from just one yard out. Smith took an end around on the previous play and gained 56 yards before coming up just shy of the goalline, before Cass finished off the drive.

Two possessions later, Eastern took over at the Kingsville 6-yard line, following an interception, and proceeded to punch it in two plays later with a Paul Terry 1-yarder. However, Cass lost a fumble at the Kingsville 24 on the next drive — the Hounds' third lost fumble of the night.

To Cass' credit, he soon made up for it with a 2-yard score, after another quick defensive turnaround. Despite building a huge lead, heading into the fourth quarter, the Greyhound defense surrendered four touchdowns in the final quarter, and allowed the Javelinas within 10 points on multiple occasions.

Eastern's offense would not let up, however. Two more short touchdown runs proved to be enough to put the game away, much to the delight of Lee. "I thought our offense responded good there in the fourth quarter with a little adversity," he said. "And (the Greyhounds) answered when (Kingsville) scored."

DEFENSE

For three quarters, the Hounds' defense was on its way to an easy victory, as it appeared to be their best defensive performance of the 2017 campaign. In fact, midway through the third quarter, Eastern had allowed just two rushing yards, and along the way, forced the Javelinas to make a quarterback change.

"We make it a point in practice to come out fast," Hounds safety Dante Urrea explained. "We know these guys have a long travel, and we try to use every little bit of advantage that we can get.

"We try to use it. So, jumping on them fast in the beginning was a big part of it. We just gotta find that consistency — that's what great teams hold is that consistency. Playing together and that communication."

Kingsville used a pro-spread offense, as it mixed shotgun snaps with under-center exchanges. Despite mixing around various formations against the Greyhound defense, including two-back, three-wide formations and four-wide, empty backfield looks, the Kingsville offense didn't experience much success through three quarters.

Kingsville punted on each of its first five drives, and gained just two yards on its first 11 plays along the way. In fact, the Javelinas' two first downs over its first six drives were due to a pair of pass interference calls on Eastern - one of which was highly questionable, to say the least.

The Javelinas were 0-for-9 on third downs to start the game, eventually benched their starting quarterback, along the way. Freshman Cade Dyal started the game, but by the early stages of the second quarter, 6-foot-6 junior Beau Reilly had to come in.

Just one problem, however. Reilly was constantly pressured throughout the second and third quarters, and like Dyal, Reilly had difficulties getting the Javelina offense to move in the right direction.

In the third quarter, Reilly was pressured near his own goalline, and was spun around by Leonal Baltazar. However, Reilly released the football to avoid the sack, and was picked off by Brad Hardin, whose short return to the A&M-Kingsville 6-yard line soon set up a short Greyhound score.

The next drive saw Reilly throw into double-coverage, deep down the field. Urrea, who led the way with six tackles in the first half, intercepted the tipped ball.

"My interception was great coverage by the corner," Urrea said. "It's just something that when you're flying to the ball, great things are gonna happen."

Lots of great things happened for the Hounds through the first three quarters. But, as previously mentioned, the fourth quarter was no walk in the park. Reilly finally found his rhythm, as he led four consecutive touchdown drives, pulling the Javelinas to within 10 points on two separate occasions.

In the end, the Javelina offense gained 260 of its 426 total yards in the fourth quarter. Reilly finished the night going 24-of-41 for 339 yards and two touchdowns, to go along with the two third-quarter picks.

Lee would later go on to say that he believed the defense may have let up in the final quarter. However, that still didn't deter the way he felt about the unit's play for most of the game.

"Dominating performance in the first half. Our rush defense is fantastic," Lee said. "(But) we definitely got some things to address with the secondary there late. Things were going so well for us, I think we let up a little bit. Give (Kingsville) credit, they kept playing, and (Reilly) started putting the ball on the money, and we had to fight it all the way out."

SPECIAL TEAMS

Saturday was arguably the Greyhounds' best special teams performance of 2017, thus far. Despite Kingsville trying five seperate onside kicks - including four in a row in the fourth quarter, Eastern managed to recover every one.

Hardin alone recovered two, while Tucker's recovery was nearly taken all the way for a touchdown. Punter Nicholas Little, meanwhile, averaged 41.5 yards on six punts, including three inside the 20 and a long of 46.

Kicker Bailey Hale made a field goal and six extra points, plus, had two touchbacks on kickoffs. Other than one kickoff going out of bounds, the always-reliable Hale had a spectacular night, and it was his kickoffs that made the difference.

After allowing a nice return in the early going, Lee decided to have Hale do shorter, pop-up-style kickoffs. On Hale's first attempt, the ball bounced in-between two defenders and was recovered by the Hounds. In fact, the next kickoff nearly had the same result, but a Javelinas special teamer was able to reach out and dive on it at the last possible second.

"Well, we made the adjustment because they have two really dangerous returners, and the first time (Jeff Carr) almost took it to the house on us," Lee said of Carr's 65-yard return in the first quarter. "So, we thought, 'Well, we can sky kick and pin it between the 25 and 30.'

"We felt good and it just happened to drop in there a little short and we were able to recover it. It wasn't really what we were shooting for, but it was an adjustment to what they did earlier, and it worked out."

What's next: The No. 21 Greyhounds, who entered the top 25 this past week for the first time since 2003, will have a quick turnaround. They will have to travel all the way to West Virginia to face West Liberty (3-6) on Thursday night.

While the Hilltoppers may be just 3-6, Lee knows this non-conference showdown will be a tough one, especially thanks to a short week of preparation. "Very good defensive team," Lee said of the Hilltoppers.

"Defensively, they've been stout all year, (but) the offense just wasn't keeping up. But lately, the last few games, the offense has come to life. That makes them a very dangerous team, because they're a very good defense."

As for the Hounds' bye week, leading into Texas A&M-Kingsville, it also allowed them to start looking ahead to West Liberty, whom the Greyhounds must beat to keep their playoff hopes alive.

"It helped us get all of our travel arrangements ready, and we spent the first day (back at practice) specifically working on West Liberty, because we knew it was gonna be a short week," Lee explained.

"So, we got one day in the bank on them, and we broke down all the film. We're ahead in the game with that, but we just don't have much prep time. We got a little banged up here (against Kingsville), so for a lot of guys, it will be a little bit mental for them — trying to get their bodies ready to play on a quick turnaround on Thursday."