ODESSA, Texas – The West Texas A&M Buffaloes dropped their Lone Star Conference opener on Saturday night as the UT Permian Basin Falcons ran their win streak to eight games with a 42-31 victory at Ratliff Stadium in Odessa.
 
Nick Gerber finished the night going 25-of-39 thru the air with 261 yards and two touchdowns and a pair of interceptions. Markell Stephens-Peppers grabbed four passes for a team-high 66 yards and a score while Khalil Harris found the end zone twice on the ground, finishing with 94 yards on 21 carries.
 
Defensively, JT Cavender and Xavier Rivera finished the night with six tackles each followed by Eric Collins with five including a pass breakup and a hurry. The Buffs allowed 408 yards of total offense with 281 of those coming thru the air as the Falcons finished the game with six touchdown passes and an average if 12.2 yards per catch.
 
The teams traded scores the first four possessions of the game as Harris found his way into the endzone from one yard out on WT's first drive followed by a Jeremie Karngbaye five-yard TD catch from Gerber to tie the game at 14-14. The Falcons would answer with a score of their own before Gage Urias finished off the first half with a 32-yard field goal to send the teams into the locker room with UTPB leading 21-17.
 
The Falcons scored 21 unanswered points to start the second half with three passing TD's of 44, 13 and 26 yards. WT responded at the end of the third quarter with a one-yard rush by Harris to make it 42-24. The Buffs finished off the scoring at the 2:13 mark in the fourth as Gerber found Stephens-Peppers for an eight yard TD.
 
The Buffs return to Buffalo Stadium next Saturday as they host the Western New Mexico Mustangs in LSC action with kickoff set for 7 p.m. in Canyon.