Greyhound football looks to topple Texans

STAFF WRITER

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Coming off last week’s 34-3 Lone Star Conference road win over Texas-Permian Basin, the Eastern New Mexico University football team looks to extend its winning streak to four as the Greyhounds host LSC foe Tarleton State at 3 p.m. today in its Homecoming game at Greyhound Stadium.

While Tarleton State (3-3. 3-1 LSC) is a .500 team, ENMU coach Josh Lynn said this figures to be anything but an easy game.

“They’re a good football team,” he said. “(Texans coach) Todd Whitten has done a great job. They’re very athletic, and we need to have a good game in order to beat them.

“They took two losses early, one to Southwest Baptist, the same team that beat us. If you look at this game for both teams, it’s a pretty crucial game because of how it weighs in with the conference records. ”

Eastern New Mexico (4-2, 4-1) will ride its usual game plan — control the game by controlling the clock. ENMU currently is the best in the LSC, averaging more than 37 minutes a game, while Tarleton ranks seventh with almost 28 minutes.

“Our intention is simple,” Lynn said. “Get three or four yards per carry each down. We like to control the clock and control the ball.”

ENMU junior running back Kamal Cass leads the LSC with 640 rushing yards and seven touchdowns. However, the Clovis High grad didn’t play last week against UTPB due to injury and he’s still questionable for this game.

In addition to Cass, defensive back Mister Marshall-Cotton is recovering after an on-campus assault last week, and his status is unknown.

“It’s positive with Cass,” Lynn said. “It’s still day-to-day, but we don’t know for sure. Mister Marshall-Cotton is still under our concussion protocol.

“It’s day-to-day with him as well. He gets checked every afternoon, but it’s all up to our trainers and what they see with the protocol.”

The potential loss of Marshall-Cotton could be felt due to Tarleton’s trio of talented wide receivers in Bubba Tandy, Del’Michael High and Jeff Thomas. Meantime, quarterback Zeb Woerner has thrown for 1,362 yards and 16 touchdowns, with just three interceptions.

“If you look that the top-10 receivers in the conference, they have three guys on that list,” Lynn said. “They’re all lights-out. They are three of the best receivers in the conference.”

Tandy leads the team with 451 receiving yards and five touchdowns, while High is seventh with 425 yards and six TDs. Thomas has 361 yards and two scores.

Last week, UTPB forced ENMU to abandon its running attack to an extent by stacking the line with extra defenders. Hounds quarterback Wyatt Strand was able to adjust, throwing for more than 200 yards, and it’s something Lynn hopes continues this week.

“Moving forward, our goal is to get our play-action going,” he said. “That needs to be clicking. If we do that, we’ll be fine.”