Box Score Silver City, N.M.—Bus-lagged and beat up after two grueling DI road games to open the season, the Aggies had higher hopes for their first Lone Star Conference matchup in Saturday's game three against Western New Mexico. While evenly-matched on paper, the competition proved much more one-sided as the Mustangs earned their first win of the season over Panhandle State 44-21.
Although the two teams finished Saturday's contest seemingly similar in most team stats, a quarter-by-quarter breakdown would bring glaring differences to light. With less than three minutes of possession time in the first quarter, the Aggies were held to twelve yards of total offense in the first fifteen minutes of the game. WNMU ate off over six minutes in their opening drive that went 14 plays and 70 yards to the OPSU 4-yard line; all but one yard of that series was rushing. The Aggie defense maintained on 4th-and-goal, prompting a field goal attempt by the Mustangs which was blocked by Panhandle's Lejarius Anthony, and recovered by
Marcus McCants at the ten-yard line; McCants ran the distance of the field and put the Aggies on the board first (7-0) with a 90-yard touchdown off a blocked field goal recovery.
The ensuing kickoff from
Sterling Claphan (65 yards) was returned by WNMU 82 yards from their own end zone to the OPSU 18.
D'Darrin Primes came through with a sack for a loss of nine yards on a 2nd-and-7 play; but a seven-yard complete pass by the Mustangs on third down put them well within range for another field goal attempt, this time successful.
Shane Truelove and the Aggie offense took the field for the first time in the game with 6:20 left in the first quarter. Starting deep in their own territory at the OPSU 18, a short pass and two hand-offs to running back
Rod Moore pushed the Aggies twelve yards in the right direction. However, the work was negated by a spot foul that brought them back to the 12-yard line, forcing the first punt of the ballgame by
Jacob Test. Test's punt went 38 yards to centerfield, starting the Mustangs third drive at the 50-yard line. WNMU aired things out in the final five minutes of the opening quarter, taking four passes 50 yards straight to the Aggie end zone for the score. At 9-7 the Mustangs opted for a two-point conversion attempt which failed, and after a three-and-out effort by the Aggie offense, the quarter ended with Western New Mexico in the lead by two.
An action-packed second quarter added a combined 35 points to the scoreboard; unfortunately, only seven of those points were claimed by the Aggies. WNMU scored twice in the first five minutes of the period, taking a 23-7 lead over Panhandle. The first came by way of a 75-yard pass completion on a 2nd-and-20 play from the WNMU 25-yard line. That was followed-up by a nice 32-yard kickoff return by freshman
Miguel Hudson to put the Aggies near midfield at the 13-minute mark. Three consecutive rushes totaled 12 yards for Panhandle, but a ten-yard penalty pushed them back for 1st-and-20 from their original drive start. Senior
Andrew Hernandez took off 13 yards with a complete pass from Truelove on the next play. A dropped pass in heavy coverage led to a 3rd-and-7 situation for the Aggies and, as Truelove dropped back, the Mustang defense put on the pressure creating a sack and a QB fumble which they recovered on their own 45-yard line.
Once again WNMU took to the air, opening with a 34-yard completion deep in Aggie territory; the Mustangs ran it in for a 14-yard touchdown on the very next play. With over ten minutes still left in the half, the Aggies came back with a quick scoring-drive of their own that went 75 yards in four plays. Truelove connected on two long passes to
Brandon Trotter (27 yards) and Eddie Thomas (43 yards, TD), making the game more manageable at 23-14. In an effort to maintain the momentum, Panhandle went for an onside kick attempt, but busted coverage shifted the edge back to the Mustangs who recovered the ball on the OPSU 35. Three complete passes later and the Aggies' deficit dropped to 16 points as another Mustang TD moved the score to 30-14 midway through the second quarter. A seven-yard completion to Hernandez set up four run plays that went for 21 yards and put the Aggies on WNMU's side of the field. Truelove then went two-of-three passing for nine yards, leaving Panhandle just one yard shy of the first down at the Mustang 38. After a team timeout, the Aggies went for it with a quarterback keeper that went for no gain and resulted in a forced fumble. The Mustangs came up with the ball and, an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Panhandle left the Mustangs in good field position for the next drive; that drive lasted 16 seconds as the opening pass was received for a touchdown, taking a final blow at the Aggies before halftime.
Although Truelove and the Aggie Offense battled through the final four minutes of the half, gaining three first downs and 52 yards on five plays and a WNMU penalty, an untimely infraction by Panhandle set them back 15 yards from within scoring distance. The Aggies were forced to punt and the Mustangs ticked away the remaining minute to end the first half with a 23-point lead (37-14). First-half stats had Panhandle with 194 yards of total offense; the Aggies had 15 rushes for 55 yards and 138 yards in passing on 9-of-17 attempts. Western New Mexico totaled 365 yards in the first half with 260 of those yards off the pass; they added 199 yards passing in the second quarter alone. The Mustangs were also efficient going 7-of-9 in passing for three TDs in only five minutes of possession time in the second quarter. The Aggies passed for 137 yards and one touchdown in the second with Truelove connecting on 8-of-14 attempts over a collective 9:51 of possession.
Halftime adjustments seemed to fall in favor of the Aggies, while the Mustangs may have let their guards down on the heels of a 28-point rally in the second quarter. A nice opening drive by Panhandle brought two first downs on short passes and positive running plays; but the Aggies' progress was stopped dead as the Mustangs increased pressure with a QB hurry on 2nd-and-9, forcing a third down pass by Truelove which was intercepted at the WNMU 45. Panhandle's defense did a good job locking down the rush on the next drive as the Mustangs were held to minus-one yard and forced to punt from near midfield. The recovered punt was fumbled and recovered by Panhandle State, and a defensive penalty by the Aggies squelched what little yardage was gained on the return. Truelove took over on the OPSU 8 and led a 92-yard drive downfield for an imperative Aggie touchdown at the 7:40 mark.
The Mustangs broke out with a 16-yard run to start the next series and gained another first down on two complete passes to push inside the Aggie 35.
Royce Asi provided coverage for an incomplete pass on the second down play, and
Olen Brown led the play out of bounds on a three-yard rush bringing up 3rd-and-7 for the Mustangs. Panhandle's
Darryn Cain brought a loss of two yards with a tackle at the OPSU 32-yard line and WNMU went for it on 4th-and-9 with a running play that was stopped short at the 30 by a tackle from
Neptune Joseph. The Aggies put together another impressive drive closing out the final 3:46 of the third quarter, and maintaining possession at the WNMU 11 going into the fourth down by a score of 37-21. An incomplete pass on 1st-and-goal to start the final quarter of play still left hope in the hearts of the Aggies.
Rod Moore grounded out six yards to put Panhandle within two short yards of a single-digit deficit with plenty of time remaining. The Mustangs put the brakes on Truelove's attempted rush for no gain and, after a WNMU timeout, the Aggies' last effort fell short of the end zone with an incomplete pass.
Panhandle's defense mustered another stop as
Sequoia Smith denied the Mustangs a one-yard rush on third down which would have moved the chains for a conversion, but instead sent the punt unit out on 4th-and-1 at the WNMU 33. The Aggies also found themselves just one yard short at the OPSU 29-yard line; they opted for the fourth down attempt that failed with an incomplete pass. Western New Mexico began their next drive inside Aggie territory and were held to a 4th-and-3 situation at the OPSU 22, where this time they found success with a four-yard completion for a first down. With back-to-back rushes, the Mustangs crossed the goal line for the sixth and final time of the game, edging a 44-21 lead over the Aggies with under six minutes on the clock. Truelove took his second sack of the game and another three-and-out stop by the WNMU defense brought Test in to punt the ball away. The Aggie D held off the Mustangs in their final drive bringing redshirt freshman
D.J. Scott in at quarterback for the Aggies. Scott completed 5-of-9 passes for 52 yards and rushed for 17 yards in the last series of the game. The clock ticked down with the Aggies on the WNMU 27-yard line after a first down play.
The Aggies' head coach
Russell Gaskamp was disappointed in the overall performance stating, "We did not play well today in any of our three phases; I am the head coach so I take the blame. We got our butts kicked in the first half; WNMU came out ready to play and we sleep-walked through the first quarter. The only positive I can take from the game is that we can't play any worse."
Overall the Aggies totaled 438 yards of total offense to the Mustangs' 461 yards. Panhandle averaged 4.9 yards rushing with 186 yards on 38 attempts; the Aggies notched their first rushing touchdown of the season. WNMU averaged 4.7 in rushing yards for two TDs totaling 178 yards on the ground, also on 38 carries. In passing Panhandle finished with 252 yards and went 20-of-40 with one TD and one interception in the game; the Mustangs scored four times on the pass and went 18-of-26 for 283 yards passing. Truelove totaled 231 total yards earning 200 off the pass where he completed 15-of-31. The Aggies were pleased to have
Rod Moore back from a mild injury; the running back averaged 7.1 yards per carry totaling 106 rushing yards on 15 carries. Tight end J.B. Frontz brought led the receivers in catches with four receptions for 38 yards, while Eddie Thomas led the group in yards with 81 on three completions.
Defensively the Aggies were led by
Darryn Cain who ended with 8.5 tackles on the game; Cain was followed by
Olen Brown and
Neptune Joseph who had 7.0 and 6.5 tackles respectively. The Aggie defense totaled five pass breakups led by
Marcus McCants who was responsible for two.
D'Darrin Primes was credited with the team's only sack in the game. Western New Mexico had two sacks, three forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, nine pass breakups and one interception on the day.
Gaskamp commented on the offensive performance, "We lost the turnover battle by three, and they made many more big plays than us. All that being said, we had a chance to make it a one-score game early in the 4th quarter and didn't convert inside the 10-yard line." He added, "Our offense has to be better on 3rd and 4th down to score and keep our defense off the field. I am incredibly disappointed with how our offense has played this year so far; the LSC is a high-scoring league and our offense hasn't performed yet like it is capable of doing." The coach concluded, "It's my job to get our team to perform at a higher level, and we will go back to work this week to get better."
The Aggies now hold a 1-2 record and will continue Lone Star Conference play this week with their fourth road trip of the season; the team will travel to Wichita Falls, Texas to take on a top-ten ranked Division II opponent, Midwestern State (2-0). Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 24 and live stats and video links will be available. Panhandle State Football will play their home-opener the following week against an equally tough Texas A&M-Commerce team, who also sits at the top of the national charts. The Aggies first home game is set for Saturday, Oct. 1 at 1 p.m. and fans are encouraged to come early to enjoy the new Tailgate Zone prior to the game.
