Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Eastern New Mexico running back Johnny Smith runs the ball up the middle, as Midwestern State's Jaydon Cunigan closes in during the first quarter of Saturday's game. MSU beat ENMU, 31-23.
PORTALES - Senior Layton Rabb wasn't perfect, or even up to the standards he's set early in the Lone Star Conference football season. But he and Midwestern State were just good enough Saturday to escape Greyhound Stadium undefeated.
Rabb completed 16 passes for 310 yards and two touchdowns, including the go-ahead 49-yard toss to Juwan Johnson, and the Mustangs moved to 5-0 with a 31-23 victory over Eastern New Mexico.
Entering Saturday, the Midwestern State quarterback had won the Lone Star Conference's offensive player of the week three of the first four weeks of the season, and the other time the award went to Midwestern running back Vincent Johnson - who put the Mustangs up with a 1-yard touchdown run just four minutes in.
The contest featured four lead changes, with the host Greyhounds (1-4, 1-2) knotting things up on a Tayshaun Gary 6-yard run and going ahead in the second with 33- and 30-yard field goals from Tyler Vargas.
Rabb found Kylan Harrison on a 17-yard pass, and Jaron Imbriani's 46-yard field goal as time expired sent the Mustangs into halftime up 17-13.
Gary struck again for the Greyhounds on an 8-yard run with 9:18 left in the third, but the Mustangs took over from there with Rabb finding Juwan Johnson and Justin Jones adding the insurance touchdown with 1:14 left in the third.
Eastern had a last chance after Vargas hit a 44-yard field goal with 1:22 to play, but Kylan Harrison recovered the ensuing onside kick and the Mustangs went into the victory formation to close it out.
Eastern New Mexico was run-heavy as always, rushing 68 times for 319 yards, led by Johnny Smith's 15 carries for 90 yards. Rabb and the Mustangs did most of their damage through the air, with a pair of 100-yard receivers in Juwan Johnson (eight catches, 166 yards) and Xavier Land (four for 108).
Greyhound junior quarterback Wyatt Strand completed 9 of 13 passes for 67 yards, and also rushed 20 times for 64 yards.
The Greyhounds were in their third-consecutive week of facing an LSC opponent in the American Football Coaches Association Top 25, and their fourth-consecutive week of facing a ranked opponent. The streak moves to five Saturday when the Greyhounds visit No. 21 Tarleton State.