Hounds set for home finale

Staff writer

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Following last week’s 41-28 Lone Star Conference setback at Texas A&M-Kingsville, the Eastern New Mexico University football team looks to get back to its winning ways today when the Greyhounds entertain new LSC member Oklahoma Panhandle State in their 3 p.m. home finale at Greyhound Stadium.

link Staff photo: Matthew Asher

ENMU placekicker Bailey Hale kicks a 48-yard field goal during Thursday’s practice at Greyhound Stadium. Last week at Texas A&M-Kingsville, Hale made field goals of 20 and 38 yards in the Greyhounds’ 41-28 loss to the Javelinas.

It will be Senior Day and ENMU (5-4, 4-3 LSC) plans to recognize its 16 seniors prior to kickoff. In addition to guaranteeing a winning season, coach Josh Lynn wants his seniors to end their home careers on a high note.

“It’s the last game our seniors will have here, so we want to send them off as winners,” he said. “We’ve had great practices, so we’re ready for this one.”

This is a matchup of contrasting offensive styles as Eastern pits its conference-leading triple-option attack (322.7 ypg) against OPSU’s air-raid-esque passing game, which also leads the conference at 299.1 ypg.

On the flip side of the ball, OPSU (2-7, 1-6) is seventh in the against the run, allowing 177 yards, while ENMU is seventh against the pass (255.6 ypg).

OPSU quarterback Shane Truelove leads the conference with 2,480 passing yards. He 14 touchdown tosses and eight interceptions so far.

“He’s a good player and it’s a great passing offense,” Lynn said . “When you lead the Lone Star Conference in passing, that’s saying something in such a pass-happy league.

“We’ve got to go in and get pressure on him. We’ve got to give him multiple looks and try to confuse him.”

Truelove wouldn’t be such a prodigious passer without some good receivers. Andrew Hernandez and Devyn Williams rank seventh and 10th in the LSC, respectively, in receiving yards with the duo combining for 79 receptions, 1,031 yards and six touchdowns.

“Both are good players,” Lynn said. “With them and Truelove, it’s a great combination. You can see why they lead the conference in passing.”

The interesting note is that while ENMU is seventh at preventing the pass, OPSU is ninth, giving up 301.7 yards. Of course, with ENMU’s option-offense, Lynn still plans on giving the Aggies a healthy dose of the run game to control tempo, with quarterback Wyatt Strand throwing in selected spots.

“We’ll go in and see what we can do running the option,” Lynn said. “Give the ball to (Kamal) Cass and see what their scheme is. They have a new defensive coordinator (Erick Daniels) and we haven’t seen before. The game plan is to run the ball and take the opportunities to pass when we get it.”

Cass is third in the conference with 812 rushing yards even though he missed one game due to injury and spent two more weeks with limited touches. Still, he is second in the LSC with 101.5 yards a game and has rushed for nine touchdowns, also second in the conference.

Strand is third in the conference with eight rushing TDs to go along with his 488 rushing yards.

At Kingsville, the Greyhounds had a chance to tie the game late in the fourth quarter, but a turnover ended their chances for a comeback.

Lynn said his team needs to do a better job this week.

“The plan is to play all four quarters,” he said. “I think it slipped in the third quarter for us last week, meaning we had to press later in the game. The focus is to play solid for four quarters.”