CANYON, Texas – The West Texas A&M Buffaloes responded from last week's defeat in a big way on Saturday night as they handed the Western New Mexico Mustangs a 42-14 Lone Star Conference defeat at Buffalo Stadium in Canyon, Texas.
 
Nick Gerber finished the night going 14-of-23 thru the air with 355 yards and three touchdowns to become the first Buff to surpass the 300-yard mark since October of 2016. Tyrie Tipton and Noah Bogardus combined for six catches and 183 yards receiving while Brandon Blair scored a pair of touchdowns in the win. WT finished the game with 479 yards of total offense on 54 plays to average 8.9 per play.
 
Defensively, the Buffs were led by JT Cavender with 12 total tackles (10 solo) followed by Eric Collins with 10 tackles (eight solo) to go along with one sack and 2.5 tackles for loss. The Mustangs finished with 422 yards of total offense with 369 of those coming thru the air.
 
The Mustangs turned the ball over to the Buffs on their first possession of the game as a mishandled snap on a WNMU punt gave WT the ball inside of the Mustang red zone. The Buffs took advantage of the short field as Gerber found Caleb Ollison from six yards out for the early lead.
 
The Buffs added to their lead right before the end of the first quarter as Blair bounced off of a Mustang defender on his way to the endzone from 22 yards out to extend the lead to 14-0. WT used the long ball to add to their lead as Gerber found Bogardus in stride for an 82-yard pass, the longest scoring toss of Gerber's career, to make it 21-0.
 
Western New Mexico looked to get on the board after the long WT score as an 87-yard kickoff return led to a 27-yard field goal attempt but the second wide-left miss of the night kept the score at 21-0. The WT defense continued to play well as Collins and Satchel Escalante stuffed the Mustangs on a fourth-and-two to give the Buffs the ball back, WT couldn't take advantage as they fell short on four-and-two heading into the endzone with an incomplete pass to head into the break with a 21-0 lead.
 
The Mustangs got on the board at the start of the fourth quarter on a wild play that saw a fumble by the Mustangs in the backfield that was recovered by James Hoban and taken all the way to the two yard line, Bryce Coleman would find the endzone on the next play to cut the lead to 21-7.
 
The Buffs responded on their next possession as they marched down the field with a Marcus Lindsay 22-yard touchdown rush to extend the lead to 28-7 with just over 11 minutes left. The WT defense came up with another big stop on WNMU's next drive as Victor Smith registered back-to-back sacks to give the ball back to the Buffs. WT turned that into points as Gerber found Blair again, this time on a 32-yard screen pass to make it 35-7.
 
WNMU got on the board for the second time with a Kory Coleman 16-yard TD pass from Devin Larsen. WT added to their lead later in the fourth quarter as Lindsay found the endzone for the second time in the quarter, this time from six yards out to extend the lead to 42-14 with 1:41 left. 
 
The Buffs return to Buffalo Stadium next Saturday night as they host the #7 Orediggers of Colorado School of Mines with kickoff set for 7 p.m. in Canyon.