Box ScoreSeason StatsBLACKWATER DRAW, N.M. – A 21-0 first quarter score by Eastern New Mexico propelled the Greyhounds to a 31-21 victory Saturday evening in the annual Wagon Wheel Game with West Texas A&M. With the loss, the Buffs ended the regular season with a 5-4 record and a 4-3 mark in Lone Star Conference play, while ENMU improved to 5-4 and 3-4 in conference play.
The Buffs will be the No. 6-seed in the upcoming Lone Star Conference playoff and will host No. 7-seed McMurry next Saturday at a time to be determined at Kimbrough Memorial Stadium. Check back with
www.gobuffsgo.com for time and ticket information for next week's game. Eastern New Mexico earned the No. 5-seed and will host No. 8 Texas A&M-Kingsville. The winners and losers of each game will play the following week.
"We spotted ENMU 21 points in the first quarter and you can't spot a good team like that points," WT head coach
Mike Nesbitt said. "I felt like we settled down on defense and played better after the first quarter, but we made some mental mistakes which cost us. We will regroup and get back to work preparing for McMurry next week."
The Buffs were led by 114 rushing yards from junior
Geremy Alridge-Mitchell as he had two touchdowns on the ground on 15 carries. It was his seventh-straight game of rushing over 100 yards and fifth consecutive game of two touchdowns on the ground.
Junior wide receiver
Word Hudson had a team-high nine catches for 59 yards, while junior
Xavier Amey has four catches for 38 yards and a touchdown. Quarterback
Preston Rabb and the Buffalo offense struggled much of the night, but he went 21 of 33 for 173 yards a touchdown and an interception.
Defensively, the Buffs were led by four players in double figure tackles led by redshirt freshman
Carter James with 12 total tackles and eight solo stops. Redshirt freshman
Hunter Streuling had 11 tackles with 10 solo stops. WT tallied six tackles for loss for 13 yards, a forced fumble and a fumble return.
ENMU, the conference's leading rushing team, tallied 306 yards on the ground led by 161 yards on 33 carries by E'lon Spight and one touchdown. Spight leads the league in rushing individually. Quarterback Jeremy Buurma had 81 yards on the ground and two scores.
The game began with a WT kickoff and the ball was recovered by junior
Dimitri Donald for the Buffs at the ENMU 23 as the Greyhounds failed to recover the opening kick. On the first play from scrimmage, the ball went over Rabb's head for a big loss leading to a punt. ENMU marched right down the field for a 10-play, 85-yard drive all on the ground and a 7-0 lead.
Following a WT punt, ENMU went up 14-0 with a quick scoring drive and a fumble by the Buffs led to the 21-0 lead for the Greyhounds at the end of the first quarter.
The Buff "D" began to stop the option attack from ENMU in the second quarter, but the offense struggled as the Buffs had just 35 yards of offense at halftime down 21-0.
The Buffs took the opening kick and moved to the 50-yard line. From there, Alridge-Mitchell busted open a 50-yard run for a touchdown and a 21-7 score. ENMU's D'Maujeric Tucker returned the kick 41 yards as sophomore kicker Conner Hollabaugh made the touchdown saving tackle.
Buurma threw a touchdown pass to Jacob Johnson for an 11-yard touchdown to put the Greyhounds back up 21 at 28-7. The Greyhounds added a field goal following a WT interception for a 31-7 score at the end of the third quarter.
WT cut the deficit to 31-14 with 10:52 left in the game with Alridge-Mitchell's second score of the game and then cut it to 31-21 with 4:48 left as Amey scored on a 24-yard pass from Rabb. Unfortunately, the onside kick went out-of-bounds as ENMU ran out the rest of the clock for the win.
