Eastern New Mexico football came away with points on their opening two drives and never looked back, cruising to a 24-7 victory over UT-Permian Basin for their third consecutive win of the season.
The Hounds opened up their night on offense with a 14 play, 40-yard drive that was capped off with a 47-yard field goal by Tyler Vargas to open up a 3-0 lead and maintained the advantage for the rest of the ball game. Presented by Peter L. Thompson Dentistry, Saturday night’s game marked the third win in a row for the Hounds and showcased an ever-improving Eastern New Mexico defense that limited the Falcons to just 90 yards on the ground and forced two turnovers throughout the contest.
Sophomore Noah Sweitzer provided another standout effort on defense for Eastern after being named the Lone Star Conference Defensive Player of the Week for his performance in last week’s 28-0 shutout against West Texas A&M. The Rio Rancho, N.M. native led the team with 12.5 tackles, 1.5 which were for a loss, and had his second straight game with a forced fumble and recovery.
The Hounds made a fourth-down stand at their own 38-yard line following the Vargas field goal and put the first touchdown on the board with 16 seconds remaining in the opening quarter on a 10-yard rush from Wyatt Strand that saw the Hound quarterback break multiple tackles on his way to his seventh rushing touchdown of the season. After each team alternated scoreless possessions early in the second quarter, UTPB narrowed the advantage to 10-7 with just over two minutes remaining in the half with a one-yard touchdown rush.
Strand and the Hounds put together a flawless two-minute drill on the following possession and extended their lead to 17-7 with 12 seconds left in the half thanks to a 12-yard passing touchdown from Strand to tailback Johnny Smith. Smith’s sixth receiving touchdown of the year capped off an 11 play, 70-yard scoring drive that took just 1:47 off the clock.
Strand attempted a season-high 17 pass attempts, completing eight passes for a total of 79 yards and a score. He added 75 yards on the ground on 18 attempts to finish second on the team behind junior Paul Terry, who put together a second straight week with 100 yards or more on the ground with 126 yards on 22 carries.
Terry put the only points on the board for either team in the second half on a nine-yard touchdown rush at the 7:29 mark of the third quarter. The Hounds limited UTPB to just 2-of-9 conversions on third down attempts throughout the second half and combined a Ricky Barfield interception with the aforementioned Sweitzer fumble recovery for two second-half turnovers to stall any chance at a Falcon comeback.
Eastern totaled 306 yards of total offense on 71 plays, 227 of which came on the ground. The Hounds converted 50 percent (7-of-14) of their attempts on third down for the game and also picked up their only fourth-down attempt as well.
Senior Russell Montoya led the team with 23 receiving yards on two catches in a game in which six different Hounds recorded receptions. Sophomore Dante Urrea had eight tackles on the night while Charles Countee added seven stops to the defensive effort and three pass breakups.
Eastern New Mexico will look to continue their winning streak next Saturday on the road against Angelo State at 1 p.m. before returning home for the final game of the season on Nov. 10 against Western Oregon at 1 p.m.
