The WTAMU Buffalo football team traveled to Arlington, Texas to play in the Lone Star Football Festival at Cowboys Stadium against the No. 14 ranked Texas A&M-Kingsville Javelinas. The Buffs exploded for 30 second half points en route to a 40-10 rout.
WT’s head coach Don Carthel picked up his 69th win as the Buffs coach, passing Joe Kerbel (1960-1970) as the all-time winningest coach in WT history. Carthel has a 69-20 record in his eight years coaching the Buffs.
“It was a very emotional day for me before, during and after the ball game,” Carthel said.
WT got the scoring started when junior Dustin Vaughn threw a 13 yard touchdown pass to junior Trevor Hammargren to put the Buffs in front 7-0 with12:13 remaining in the first quarter. WT and Kingsville would trade field goals and go into the half with a 10-3 score in favor of WT.
The Buffs would score twice in the third quarter on passes from Vaughn to junior Lance Ratliff. The first was a 32-yard strike with seven minutes left in the third and the other, a 4-yard pass, with 2:19 to go in the third.
The Javelinas would cut WT’s lead down to 24-10 with a touchdown pass by Nate Poppell to Sherman Batiste about five minutes into the fourth. The Buffs answered with a 7-yard run by senior Khiry Robinson, after a Vaughn touchdown pass to Hammargren was negated by an illegal formation penalty, making the score 31-10 with 6:36 remaining in the game.
WT’s defense would get involved with the scoring when junior Chris Metcalf returned a fumble recovery 25-yards for a touchdown to extend WT’s lead to 38-10 and again when sophomore Shane Sobnosky finished the scoring with a safety, sacking TAMUK’s backup quarterback Bryan Ehrlich in the end zone with 1:24 left in the game.
“The offensive line and receivers have stayed consistent through three games and the running game is better than it’s been in a long time,” Carthel said.
Vaughn finished the day with 19 completions out of 29 passes for 250 yards and three touchdowns. Ratliff led the Buffs receivers with three catches for 76 yards and two scores and Hammargren had four catches for 44 yards and one score. Robinson carried the ball 17 times for 110 yards and a touchdown.
WT’s record so far is 2-1 overall and 1-0 in the Lone Star Conference. The Buffs’ next game will be in San Antonio, Texas on Sept. 22 against the Incarnate Word Cardinals at 7 p.m.
