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Hounds pull out last-minute 50-47 victory

SILVER CITY — It’s been a long time since Western New Mexico has tasted victory against Eastern New Mexico University in football. That nearly changed on Saturday night.

In a wild finish reminiscent of some of Sunday’s NFL games, ENMU scored twice in the final minute to wrest a 50-47 Lone Star Conference victory over the Mustangs in a matchup which in recent years has been dubbed the “Green Chili Bowl.”

The teams combined for more than 700 yards of offense and 11 touchdown passes. But after Western took a 47-37 lead with less than 3 1/2 minutes left, ENMU senior wide-out Zachary Fields caught a 4-yard touchdown pass from freshman quarterback Nate Valencia with 58 seconds left, capping a 10-play, 70-yard drive that cut the margin to three.

ENMU junior Martavius Dill then recovered an onside kick, and two plays later senior wide-out Justin Manyweather caught his second TD pass of the night from Valencia, a 19-yarder with 28 seconds to go. The Hounds (3-3, 1-2 LSC) then forced Western’s fifth turnover of the game on the ensuing series to lock it up.

ENMU posted a season-high 466 total yards and improved to 43-15-2 all-time against the Mustangs. The Hounds have won 16 consecutive games in the series, last losing 37-7 in 1993 at Silver City.

ENMU returns to action on Saturday with a 6 p.m. matchup against LSC rival West Texas A&M at Greyhound Stadium in the annual Wagon Wheel game.

The Mustangs (1-5, 0-4) were coming off a 62-3 thrashing at Angelo State the week before, but appeared to be in control with a 40-23 lead early in the third stanza.

“You never want to be in that situation, but I was extremely proud of the kids for fighting through it,” first-year Hounds coach Tye Hiatt said Monday. “You never know when the ball will bounce your way.”

It was the second time in three weeks that the Hounds erased a 17-point deficit. They took a late lead at LSC-leading Midwestern State on Sept. 25, only to lose that one in overtime 31-24.

“The Midwestern game still haunts us, but I think our kids learned from that,” Hiatt said. “There wasn’t any panic (at WNMU); the kids did a great job of battling to the finish.

“I really think in this conference it’s whoever prepares the best that week that will have a chance to come out on top, (but) we were really very fortunate to win this game.”

On Monday, Manyweather was named the LSC’s offensive player of the week after setting school records with 16 catches for 234 yards, and Valencia finished 28-of-40 though the air for 339 yards. Fields had a pair of touchdown catches while Melrose freshman tight end Devon Bailey caught the other scoring toss, a 6-yarder which gave ENMU a 14-7 lead early in the second canto.

“I can’t say enough about Justin, about his leadership,” Hiatt said. “We were trying to find any way we could to get him the football.”

Western had six touchdown passes, five by redshirt freshman QB Devin Larsen, who went 23-of-40 for 294 yards but was also picked off twice. Senior running back Bryce Coleman, sophomore tight end Jacob Wallace and junior wide receiver David Telles each caught two scoring passes for the Mustangs, while junior linebacker Kaleb Gutierrez returned a fumble 25 yards to the end zone.

Meantime, WT (2-1, 3-3) is coming off a 31-15 spanking of Angelo State on Saturday.

Players to watch for the Buffs include junior quarterback Nick Gerber, senior tight end and Portales High grad Jeremie Karngbaye and freshman linebacker J.T. Cavender. Gerber is a transfer from Texas Tech, while Hiatt also noted that Buffaloes junior defensive back Tobias Harris is a talented kick returner.

Hiatt acknowledged the Buffs have been a bit up-and-down this season.

“They have, but they’ve been a little more consistent the last couple of weeks,” he said. “One thing that stands out about them is how hard they play. They execute (well) in all three phases of the game.”