KINGSVILLE, Texas – Led by a potent ground game, the Texas A&M-Kingsville football program turned in its first Lone Star Conference win of the year on Saturday night at Pepsi Field at Javelina Stadium to the tune of a 37-34 win over Western New Mexico in the 2018 Homecoming Game sponsored by Wells Fargo Bank.

"It's always great when you get a victory," said head coach Daren Wilkinson. "It doesn't matter how you get there, at the end of the day we're thinking about it, tomorrow we're thinking about it, and what's important is that we found a way to win the game.

"There's a lot of things we still need to fix, since we gave up two long runs and dropped four passes on third down in the first half. We'll be going up to Canyon next week to take on a very good West Texas A&M team that can cause a lot of problems with their running game and their defense if we play the way we did tonight, but I'm very proud about the way our guys battled through to get the win tonight."

The Javelinas (3-6, 1-5 LSC) got 153 yards on the ground from senior Nick Pelrean (Houston, Texas) alongside one score on a 62-yard sprint to come away with the win to keep the Mustangs (0-8, 0-6 LSC) out of the win column.

"I have to give a lot of credit to my fullback, my receivers and the offensive line for doing their jobs tonight," said Pelrean. "We got a lot done this week at it helped me go out there and perform."

WNMU struck first on the scoreboard at the 11:17 mark of the opening quarter after DeAndre Williams broke off a 61-yard run to put the Hogs down 7-0.

TAMUK responded later in the quarter after junior transfer Koy Detmer Jr. (Somerset, Texas) found sophomore Ryan Martinez (Kingsville, Texas) for 39 yards with 3:46 remaining in the frame to set the line score at 7-6.

The Mustangs extended their lead before the end of the quarter after Arkemus Baskerville ran away with a 56-yard touchdown at the 1:19 mark to hand the Hogs a 14-6 deficit heading into the second.

Senior kicker Julio De La Garza (Brownsville, Texas) tacked on a 28-yard field goal early in the second stanza to trim the lead to five at 14-9 before Pelrean came away with his 62-yard score at the 9:19 mark to put the Blue and Gold ahead at 16-14.

Neither side could come up with another point in the half as punts were traded on the way to the locker rooms.

The Javelinas built up a cushion in the third quarter after junior Brent Hertel (Cypress, Texas) snuck behind the linebackers on a 15-yard drop off from Detmer Jr. with 14:09 showing on the clock in the third.

Senior Jeff Carr (Temple, Texas) extended TAMUK's lead with 5:54 remaining in the third on a 15-yard run that needed a dive from the Oklahoma State transfer to set the score at 30-14 favoring the hosts. The touchdown came courtesy of a strip-sack from redshirt-freshman Vaughn Taylor (Conroe, Texas) and senior Brandon Jones (Houston, Texas) on the Mustangs' half of the field.

WNMU came back and added a 36-yard rushing score from Williams to pull within 10 at 30-20 at the end of the third before Blayne Armstrong found Elijah Jones for nine yards early in the fourth following an onside kick to close within three at 30-27.

Detmer Jr. added his final touchdown of the day on a five-yard route to redshirt-junior Aaron Dilworth (Corpus Christi, Texas) at the back of the end zone to give the Hogs some breathing room at 37-27 with 5:52 to play. TAMUK caught a break when redshirt-sophomore Nick Stiff (Cypress, Texas) cutoff a throw from Gabriel Tomaszewski at Western New Mexico's 14 yard line to lead up to the score.

Western New Mexico kept the contest interesting as Williams added a 50-yard score on the ground less than a minute later to ramp up the pressure.

The Javelinas, endured, however, as De La Garza pinned the Mustangs deep following TAMUK's next drive and a failed fourth down conversion spelled the end for the visitors.

Detmer Jr. ended up with 244 yards through the air and three touchdowns. Junior Tyler Wilson (Bay City, Texas) pulled in five catches for 92 yards to lead the receiving corps yet again.

Junior Caleb Valentine (Fulshear, Texas) made his return to the starting lineup after missing the previous two weeks and led the defensive unit with 11 tackles, five for loss, and 2.5 sacks. Redshirt-sophomore Tre'Michael Tutt (Channelview, Texas) was close behind with 10 tackles while Jones added nine to go with four tackles for loss and two sacks.

The Hog defense had five sacks and 14 tackles for loss as a unit.

The Javelinas will head out on the road for one last time in 2018 as they travel to Canyon, Texas, next week to take on West Texas A&M. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. CT at Happy State Bank Field at Kimbrough Memorial Stadium on November 3.

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

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