CANYON, Texas – West Texas A&M was unable to overcome three first half turnovers in their 34-20 setback to No. 24 Texas A&M-Commerce during the NCAA Division II Showcase on Saturday night at Buffalo Stadium in Canyon. The loss drops the Buffs to 6-3 overall and 3-3 in Lone Star Conference play.
Duke Carter IV was the leading rusher for the Buffs with 89 yards on 20 carries with Jordan Johnson contributing 48 yards and a touchdown on nine carries. Nick Gerber completed 14-of-30 passes for 131 with one touchdown and three interceptions while Chase Sojka recorded a team-high five receptions for 45 yards.
Frank Honang went over 100 tackles for the season with a game-high 14 tackles and a pass break up with Keimone Davis recording a career-high 11 tackles. Gerred Johnson, Dillon Mata and Jaylan Hill were all credited with a sack with Michael Onozie recording his second career forced fumble.
The Buffs opened the game with a 13-play, 75-yard drive that took over five minutes to take a 7-0 lead. Gerber did most of the damage with his arm connecting Juwan McCall for 18 yards on third-and-18 followed by a 25-yard pass to Sojka later in the drive. Logan Vallo would finish the drive off with three straight runs including a 2-yard run on first and goal to marking the fifth time this season WT scored on their opening drive of the game.
After 20 straight points from the Lions, WT recovered their offensive rhythm on their first drive of the second quarter. Carter IV picked up a first down with a 10-yard run on third-and-1 followed by runs of 11 and 7 yards from Vallo. Jarrod Compton rushed for six yards on two carries before Gerber find a wide-open PJ Leonce for a 28-yard touchdown. They would get into the red zone for the second time of the game on the following drive but a fourth down conversion from the TAMUC 5-yard line fell incomplete.
The Buff defense came up with their first turnover of the game with the Lions driving near the end of the first half with Onozie knocking the ball loose from Chance Cooper that was picked up and returned 14 yards by LaDarian Hudson.
Following consecutive punts from the Lions to open the second half, the Buffs would drive 85 yards on nine plays to tie the game at 20-all with 3:19 remaining in the third quarter. They did nearly all of the damage on the ground with Gerber running a game-high 23 yards on the second play of the game. A 15-yard face mask penalty on a 1-yard Carter IV run put the Buffs deeper in TAMUC territory. Three plays later, J. Johnson rumbled his way into the end zone from 19 yards.
WT would put together another impressive drive to open the fourth quarter getting into the red zone but came away empty handed. The Lions would retake the lead on the next possession with Miklo Smalls scoring from 11 yards out to cap off a 10-play, 82-yard drive. The visitors would add another touchdown with under four minutes remaining to hand WT their third loss of the season.
WT hit the road for the final time of regular season with a trip to Texas A&M-Kingsville on Saturday, Nov. 9. Live stats and video can be found on GoBuffsGo.com.
