The No. 8 ranked WTAMU Buffalo football team hosted the Greyhounds of Eastern New Mexico on Nov. 2 in the 2013 edition of the annual Wagon Wheel Game from Kimbrough Memorial Stadium. ENMU snapped a string of seven consecutive losses to WT with a 39-38 victory on a touchdown drive in the final minute of play. The Greyhounds had not beaten the Buffs since Oct. 9, 2004.
WT opened the scoring on an eight-yard touchdown pass from senior Dustin Vaughn to senior Nathan Slaughter for a 7-0 lead with 9:40 remaining in the opening quarter. The Buffs would strike again on a 24-yard scoring connection between Vaughn and senior Torrence Allen to give WT a 14-0 lead after one quarter of play.
ENMU’s offense would gain momentum after an interception by Greyhound’s linebacker Seth Bailey set up a 20-yard touchdown from Jeremy Buurma to Adrian Horton making it a 14-7 Buffs lead. Each team traded field goals before Vaughn found junior Jeremy Watson for a 39-yard touchdown and a 24-10 lead. Dmajeric Tucker would take the kickoff back 99 yards for a touchdown, but the Buffs would answer on a one-yard touchdown pass from Vaughn to Allen for a 31-17 halftime advantage.
Senior Ethan Westbrooks would recover a fumble early in the third quarter, allowing Vaughn to throw an eight yard touchdown pass to senior Jace Jackson to give WT a 38-17 lead with 12:45 left in the quarter. ENMU would answer with a one-yard scoring run by Christian Long to cut the Buffs lead to 38-24 after three quarters.
Long would score on an eight yard run with 14:32 to go in the game to make it a 38-31 WT lead. The Buffs would go on to miss a field goal with 5:04 remaining. After crucial penalties kept the Greyhounds drive alive, Long would run in a one-yard touchdown and ENMU would convert the two-point conversion to seal the 39-38 win.
“We knew they had a lot of belief in them,” Interim Head Coach Mike Nesbitt said. “We’re not making the play when we need to and they did.”
The Buffs accumulated only 12 rushing yards as a team and 472 passing yards for a total of 484. Vaughn was 38 of 57 passing for 472 yards, five touchdowns and an interception. Allen finished with 11 catches for 158 yards and two scores and junior Anthony Johnson had 10 catches for 129 yards and no touchdowns.
WT is now 7-2 overall and 3-2 in Lone Star Conference play. The Buffs will take a week off from LSC play to host West Georgia on Nov. 9 at 6 p.m.
