Rebound continues for Hounds

PORTALES — The Eastern New Mexico football team is lately the kind opponents don’t like to play, the streaking kind, the winning kind.

Saturday at Greyhound Stadium, Eastern took its third straight by pulling away from UT Permian Basin for a 24-7 victory. Once a 1-5 team, the Greyhounds are now 4-5, 4-3 in the Lone Star Conference.

What a difference a month makes.

“We played some really tough teams early, and I think we’ve stayed together,” ENMU head coach Kelley Lee said. “And it’s made us a better football team playing against that good competition. And now we’re reaping the benefit of it.”

“It’s awesome,” Eastern quarterback Wyatt Strand said. “We had a slow start to the season and it feels great to get back on track.”

The game

Permian Basin was making a night of it. The Falcons were down just 10-7 very late in the second quarter. And, they were due to get the ball after halftime.

The Greyhounds had one last shot at it in the first half, but took over at their own 30-yard line with 1:59 remaining before the break.

Worse yet, the drive began on an inauspicious note for Eastern, when UTPB linebacker Chris Hoad tackled Strand for a two-yard loss. And on second-and-12 from the 28, a Strand pass was batted down.

So with even less time to go in the half, ENMU needed to cover 72 yards. And had to start doing so facing third-and-12.

But then came a 13-yard Paul Terry run for a first down at the Eastern 41. The drive had been kick-started, and the Hounds kept driving further after that. But with less than a minute remaining in the half, they were still in their own territory, at the 47.

They drove to UTPB’s 47, but more time elapsed. Consecutive Strand completions made it first and 10 at the 23, and then after an incomplete pass, he connected with Tayshaun Gary for 11 yards.

The Hounds used a timeout. They were at the 12, but only 17.9 seconds remained.

On the play immediately following the timeout, Strand rolled left and threw across his body to hit Johnny Smith in the back of end zone.

The Greyhounds had done it. They had made it a two-score game with just 12.9 ticks left before halftime. Tyler Vargas supplied the icing by kicking the extra point, and the Eastern lead was 17-7.

“The style of offense we run, people think we have long methodical drives,” Strand said. “So when we got the ball back with a minute 59 seconds left, it felt good to go down and score quickly, just because a lot of teams don’t think we can do that.

“It was critical,” Strand continued, “because they were going to get the ball in the second half. We needed a score there.”

Permian Basin’s drive to open the third quarter fizzled on a fourth-down play at the Falcons’ 41, when Eastern defensive back Charles Countee successfully defended a pass to Kyle McBride.

Eastern’s offense trotted back out and went to work. The new series began with a 12-yard keeper by Strand and ended with a nine-yard touchdown run by Paul Terry at the 7:29 mark of the third quarter.

An impressive sequence for ENMU that turned a 10-7 game into 24-7.

“Yeah, I think the two key drives were the two-minute drill right before the half where we got the score to go in up 10, and then the first time we got the ball in the second half — the long methodical drive to make it 24 (points).

“The three possessions — our last (in the second quarter), getting the stop and then getting the ball back — that made it a different game, because now they were going to have to try to do some different things offensively.”

Eastern had opened the scoring with a 40-yard Vargas field goal with 6:56 left in the first quarter.

The Hounds scored again before the quarter was over, this time finding the end zone with 16.6 seconds to go. On third-and-goal from the UTPB 10, Strand kept the ball and initially appeared doomed. But he spotted an opening, weaved right and away from Falcon defenders, then swooped left, then headed forward and barreled his way into the end zone.

“That was a crazy gain,” Strand said. “The offensive line gave me a good hole to go through and we had some downfield blocking. They made it easy for me.”

UTPB’s lone scoring drive occurred late in the second quarter and seemed to have ended without any scoring at all when Eastern defensive back Dante Urrea recovered a fumble in the end zone. But the runner was ruled down before the fumble, and on Permian Basin’s next play, Cameron Mathis rushed a yard for the score with 2:08 left in the half.

Battering Rams?

The Greyhounds go back on the road this weekend, bound for San Angelo, Texas, to play their LSC finale against Angelo State. Kickoff time is slated for 1 p.m. Saturday.

Eastern will be trying to reach the .500 mark for the first time this season while also trying to finish with a winning conference record. Angelo State, though, won’t just hand the Greyhounds their fourth straight victory. The Rams are on a two-game winning streak of their own, and are 5-4 overall.

“A very good offensive football team; it’ll be a challenge,” Lee said. “Defensively, they’ve got a good front and we like to run the ball, so that’ll be a challenge, too. But I think we match up well and we’re excited about it.”