Eastern New Mexico football went on the road and collected their first victory of the season in dominant fashion over Texas A&M-Kingsville by a final score of 31-14.
The Hounds victory in Kingsville is just the second time in program history that Eastern New Mexico football has defeated the Javelinas on their home turf. Eastern outscored the Javelinas 17-to-7 in the second half of play and limited Kingsville to just 229 total yards on 65 plays for the game.
Runningback Johnny Smith had 197 yards of total offense and posted two receiving touchdowns on the evening to lead the way on offense. Smith recorded 97 yards on just seven carries for an average of 13.9 yards per carry and also caught all three passes for the Hounds for 100 yards and two scores.
Eastern New Mexico jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead after capitalizing on a De’John Burns interception on the Javelinas third drive of the game. Burns returned that interception inside the Javelina 10 yard line and set up junior Paul Terry for a nine yard rush into the endzone on the first play of the ensuing possession for Eastern.
The Hounds defense put on an impressive display of football for the second week in a row and forced three turnovers throughout the match-up.
Kingsville responded to the 14-0 deficit with an 11 play, 73-yard touchdown drive of their own to narrow the deficit to 14-7. Eastern stalled out on their following possession, but forced the Javelinas into one of seven punts of the contest on the ensuing drive.
A fumble by Eastern New Mexico inside their own five yard line with 3:41 remaining in the first half of play set up Kingsville with a 1st-and-Goal inside the five yard line. The defense once again stepped up for Eastern New Mexico and forced a fumble off of a sack by Xavier Jackson that was eventually recovered by the Eastern New Mexico defense to avoid surrendering points despite the ideal field position for Kingsville.
Neither team managed to put any additional points on the board the remainder of the half, keeping the score at 14-7 in favor of Eastern heading into the locker room. The Hounds limited the Javelinas to just 112 total yards in the first half while racking up 174 total rushing yards offensively.
After Eastern fumbled the opening kickoff of the second half, Kingsville quickly tied the game up at 14-14 with an eight play, 39-yard drive following the costly turnover. Quarterback Wyatt Strand and the Hound offense responded just two minutes later with a 28-yard touchdown pass over the middle of the field from Strand to Smith to regain the lead.
That Strand to Smith connection worked once again just over a minute later, this time from 66 yards out to pad a 28-14 advantage in favor of Eastern New Mexico. After the 29-yard touchdown drive to open the second half of action, the Hounds allowed just 55 yards in the Javelinas final five possessions of the game.
Kicker Tyler Vargas provided the exclamation point on the dominant Hounds performance with a 29 yard field make with 4:26 remaining in the game to bring the score to it’s eventual final of 31-14.
Sophomore Dante Urrea led the way defensively for the Hounds with 12 total tackles on the night. Senior Brad Hardin also had a solid night for the defensive unit, totaling 11 tackles.
Eastern New Mexico rattled off 391 rushing yards as a ream while surrendering just 71 yards on the ground defensively. Strand finished the night with 73 yards on 13 carries and the opening touchdown of the game while Cambry Gilbert and Tayshaun Gary finished with 62 and 54 yards respectively.
The Hounds opening win of the season moves them to 1-1 in Lone Star Conference play and sets up a crucial home match up next weekend against top-10 nationally ranked opponent Midwestern State for the annual Hall of Honors game inside Greyhound Stadium.
