By BRAD KEITH
TheFlashToday.com
CANYON (September 24, 2016) — West Texas A&M (3-1, 2-0) scored 17 points off Tarleton State (1-2, 1-1) turnovers and held off the Texans in a wild fourth quarter, 37-25, in a Lone Star Conference battle in front of 10,347 at Kimbrough Memorial Stadium Saturday evening.
Tarleton cut a 31-12 deficit down to 31-25 with a 60-yard touchdown pass from Zed Woerner to Bubba Tandy a 2-yard touchdown run by Curtis McGregor that left 5:04 on the clock, but the Buffaloes put the game away on a 40-yard TD burst by Devon Paye, who rushed for 148 yards.
The TD by Tandy was the longest pass play of the season by Woerner and the Texans, and was followed up by a quick 3-and-out by the Tarleton defense, which thanks to incomplete passes on first and second down, allowed WTAMU to run just 1:04 off the clock and gave the ball back to the offense with still more than seven minutes to play.
But WT didn’t squander its next possession, when Paye’s long TD run – the longest rush play by either team – finished the scoring. The score was possible because WT converted a key third down from inside its own 20 with a pass from Brinkley that was juggled but pulled in by Ja’Quarius Daniels.
Tarleton drove into WTAMU territory one last time, but the clock expired before the Texans could score and attempt an onside kick.
Both quarterbacks had impressive nights with the exception of turnovers. Woerner was 26-38 for 368 yards and there scores, two of them to Tandy. Brinkley was 28-42 for 356 yards and three scores. Brinkley tossed interceptions to Dominique Martin and Cody Burtscher, and what should have been a third pick was dropped. Woerner was intercepted one time that shows up in the stats, and tossed another pick attempting a 2-point conversion.
Jeff Thomas was the favorite target of Woener, hauling in eight receptions for 132 yards. Tandy caught five passes for 125 yards and two scores, his sixth career 100-yard receiving game. The senior topped 2,000 career receiving yards and is 326 shy of becoming the sixth Tarleton receiver to reach 2,500. He is 683 yards away from the school record of 2,757 held by Clifton Rhodes III. With seven games remaining, Tandy needs 97.6 yards per game to match Rhodes.
WTAMU had 492 total yards and Tarleton 428. Both teams were successful on third-down conversions – WT was 11-19, Tarleton 8-14 – and both tallied 21 first downs.
Turnovers made the difference throughout the night, with Joseph Sadler fumbling twice for the Texans and WTAMU recovering both, including one loose ball that got batted around in the backfield, traveling about 30 yards along the turf before being scooped up and taken to the house by linebacker Carter James to make it 31-12 with 8:45 to play.
Tarleton trailed 14-0 early on after WTAMU scored on its first possession and Sadler fumbled on the second play from scrimmage for Tarleton. The Buffs were back in the end zone moments later, grabbing the two score lead with less than seven minutes gone off the clock.
The Texans got back in the game on an acrobatic 26-yard catch by Del’Michael High with 5:40 remaining in the opening half. Conner Hollabaugh hit a 29-yard WTAMU field goal with 45 seconds on the clock and it was 17-6 at halftime.
The Texans cut it to 17-12 on the first Woerner-to-Tandy score, a 14-yard strike on a quick slant with just less than four minutes left in the third. WTAMU pushed extended its advantage to 24-12 on a 45-yard pass from Brinkley to Riley Smith two minutes later.
Azzizzulah Fifita led Tarleton in tackles with nine while starting at middle linebacker in place of Ronnell Wilson, who was out with a concussion. EJ Speed and Burtscher each made eight stops for the Texans, who host first-year program Texas-Permian Basin at 7 p.m. Saturday. It’s the first road trip for UTPB, which opened its season with four consecutive home games including a loss to Western New Mexico Saturday night.
Tarleton had four sacks, pushing its season total to 18.5 through four games. The Texans generated just 18 sacks in all of last season.
WTAMU was led defensively L.A. Dawson with 10 tackles while Daelin Young had nine. The Buffs visit Eastern New Mexico next Saturday.
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