WICHITA FALLS, Texas - The Texas A&M-Kingsville football program's halftime lead over No. 20/18 Midwestern State fell just short of the mark on Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Lone Star Conference action.
"Our kids played extremely hard tonight," said head coach Mike Salinas. "I thought we played well in the first half, but when you lose a ball game like then I have to do a better job preparing our guys.
"You can't turn the ball over on the road and we did that three times, so we have to play cleaner. Too many penalties in all three phases, so we have to go back to work next week, work hard, and get ready to play at home."
The Javelinas (2-3, 1-2 LSC) were the beneficiary of a timely special teams play for a one-score lead over the Mustangs (5-1, 4-0 LSC) at the break, but couldn't maintain the momentum in the second half as they suffered their second league defeat of the fall campaign.
Neither side found purchase in the first quarter as a scoreless tie shined on the scoreboard after 15 minutes had elapsed. The hosts finally broke the evened count early in the second with a 19-yard connection from Dillon Sterling-Cole to Kandin Robertson at the 13:33 mark of the stanza.
The Hogs responded on their next drive as they marched down the field for 88 yards as graduate student Shane Johnson (Houston, Texas) found senior Ryan Martinez (Kingsville, Texas) for 34 yards and the score as the game clock ticked just past eight minutes remaining in the second.
Both teams stalled out from there but a critical special teams play took place in the final minute as redshirt freshman Marco Noriega (Weslaco, Texas) broke through the punt formation and got a hand on the ball for a blocked kick that was eventually scooped by classmate Darian Mayberry (Floresville, Texas) for 10 yards and a 13-7 score favoring the visitors at the half.
The Javelina defense made a convincing stop on the Mustangs' opening drive of the second half as redshirt sophomore Cameron Cauthen (Mont Belvieu, Texas) made a shoe-string sack of Sterling-Cole deep in the TAMUK red zone for the turnover on downs.
The momentum was short-lived in the Hogs' favor, however, as the Mustangs intercepted Johnson's pass on the very next play from scrimmage and eventually got a three-yard rush from Trenton Kennedy that tied the game at 13-13 as the TAMUK special teams blocked another kick on the point-after try, this one courtesy of redshirt sophomore Amos Coleman (New Orleans, La.).
The next two MSU drives both culminated in the end zone as Kennedy tacked on a one-yard score to cap a 16-play, 97-yard possession that chewed up 7:45 of game time to take the lead with one minute remaining in the third, while Sterling-Cole scampered for three yards on the finisher of the next march down the field that began with another Hog turnover for a 27-13 cushion at the 11:06 mark of the fourth.
The hosts added a 38-yard field goal later in the fourth as the Javelinas failed to make a dent the rest of the way en route to the 30-13 final.
TAMUK returns home next week for the final non-conference game of the 2021 schedule with a matchup against Lincoln (Calif.) at Pepsi Field at Javelina Stadium with kickoff set for 7 p.m. CT.
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