STEPHENVILLE, Texas – The Texas A&M-Kingsville football program had a tie game going with No. 9 Tarleton on Saturday at Memorial Stadium midway through the second quarter, but couldn't recover from 35-straight unanswered points en route to a 59-21 loss in Lone Star Conference play.

"For as talented a defense that Tarleton has, our offense played very well," said head coach Daren Wilkinson. "Looking at the first half stats, we had the ball for 22 minutes while they had it for eight, so we did what we wanted to do on offense which was to keep the ball out of their hands.

"You look at the stats and, rightfully so, it doesn't look good, but there are some good things that came out of there. I liked the way our offense played in a lot of the situations, but we can't be turning the ball over, and defensively we have to get back to where our cornerbacks are able to make plays in the secondary."

The Javelinas (2-6, 0-5 LSC) got a three-touchdown performance from junior transfer Koy Detmer Jr. (Somerset, Texas) but couldn't overcome career days from Ben Holmes and Xavier Turner as the Texans (7-0, 6-0 LSC) came away with the decision.

TSU struck first early in the opening quarter when Holmes found J.F. Thomas for 79 yards on the second play of the drive. Both sides settled into a back-and-forth battle of field position before the Hogs evened the count in the second frame.

Detmer Jr. snuck the ball in from one yard out to cap off a 15-play, 80-yard drive for the Javelinas with 11:37 remaining in the half. Detmer Jr. found redshirt-junior Aaron Dilworth (Corpus Christi, Texas) on a sliding catch for 19 yards to set up the goal line antics for the 7-7 score.

The score was short lived, however, when Savon Rollison converted a 55-yard touchdown pass from Holmes on the next play from scrimmage to put the Hogs in a 14-7 deficit.

TAMUK had the response on the next drive when Detmer Jr. put away his second score of the game after he found junior Tyler Wilson (Bay City, Texas) for 14 yards at the 6:35 mark of the quarter to show 14-14 on the scoreboard.

TSU was quick to come back and retake the lead with 21 unanswered points to close out the opening half. Holmes found Baxter Kirven for 20 yards at the 4:20 mark before the Texans converted a fumble recovery into a touchdown three minutes later when Turner rushed in a five-yard score.

Turner added a 55-yard run in the final minute to put the Javelinas in a 35-14 disadvantage heading into the locker rooms.

Coming out of the break, Turner piled on two more scores for the hosts, first on an 18-yard rush to open the second half before capping an eight-yard rush five minutes later.

Detmer Jr. found Dilworth for 16 yards at the 4:44 mark of the third but the effort turned into a last-gasp as TSU added another touchdown through the air early in the fourth before cementing the line score at 59-21 on the heels of a 17-yard field goal with 10:15 remaining in the game.

Detmer Jr. finished the game with 223 yards on 27 completions for two touchdowns and an interception to go with his rushing score.

Wilson caught 10 passes for 95 yards and one touchdown while Dilworth had three catches for 45 yards and a score.

Senior Payton Hendrix (Dallas, Texas) led the defensive unit with 10 tackles, five solo, while classmate Brandon Jones (Houston, Texas) and redshirt-sophomore Shawn Sims (Manvel, Texas) teamed up for a sack.

Senior Sean Landez (Mission, Texas) snuck in for a pair of sacks on his own to go with three total tackles.

The Javelinas will return to Kingsville next week for the 2018 Homecoming Game sponsored by Wells Fargo Bank on Saturday, Oct. 27, with kickoff set for 7 p.m. CT.

To keep up-to-date with Javelina football, follow the program on Facebook at /JavelinaFootball or on Twitter @JavelinaFB

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