Saturday, December 05, 2015
COPPERAS COVE, TEXAS — Something special happened Saturday at the C.H.A.M.P.S. Heart of Texas Bowl and it had little to do with the final score, but more to do with the young men of the Eastern New Mexico University football team who played their hearts out and sent their seniors off with a memory that none will ever forget.
Despite losing the contest 51-35, the Greyhounds (6-6) played with class and dignity, taking the loss graciously and playing through to the end. Arkansas Tech University (9-3) outplayed Eastern on the field, but both teams can be proud in the fact that they left everything on the field.
Jeremy Buurma was awarded with the H.O.T. Bowl MVP award for the Hounds with his season-high 255 passing yards and season-high three passing touchdowns. Trailing late, ENMU went to the air more than normal, tossing the ball a season-high 24 times. The senior quarterback ended his collegiate career at Eastern on a high note, completing 13 of those 24 passes.
Buurma's main target on the night was Aaron Johnson who caught six passes for two touchdowns, both matching his career-highs. His 146 receiving yards set a new career-high and marked the wide out as the game's leading receiver.
Buurma said, "We were excited, it was a great experience and a fun week, it's just too bad it ended the way it did for us. It was good for our program and we had a lot of seniors and guys that have been here awhile, so it was good for all of us."
Adrian Horton, another senior playing in his last contest as a Greyhound, had a good outing with four receptions for 60 yards and one touchdown.
Kamal Cass once again showed that the Greyhounds have a bright future, with the sophomore back tallying 171 yards on 35 carries. Cass scored two touchdowns on the ground and kept ENMU in the ball game with a tremendous second half effort.
Cass' performance placed him second all-time for single season rushing yards at Eastern, recording 1,514 yards on the season. First place is held by E'Lon Spight who ran for 1611 yards last season.
Joshua (Wade) Bounds, the senior defensive end for the Hounds, recorded seven total tackles and one sack for a loss of five yards, one of ENMU's four sacks on the night. Denzel Philip led Eastern with three sacks, totaling a loss of 17 yards.
Bounds said of his sack and the Bowl game in general, "Great experience for us, there is nothing better than college football. Coach had them [ATU] schemed very well. Our secondary had them locked down and it's a team sport so everything runs downhill, helping us get the sack."
Arsenio Favor totaled 357 yards through the air for the Wonderboys, scoring five touchdowns and going 19-30 passing. Favor, who received the MVP award for ATU, also rushed for 107 yards and two touchdowns, tying his conferences scoring record for a single game.
"Favors is a great player, just like Jeremy [Buurma], and just like him everything goes through them," said Lynn. "Both teams will miss those young men next season and it will definitely be hard to replace a guy like Jeremy."
Another standout for Arkansas Tech was defensive star Logan Genz. The linebacker set a single-game record for the Wonderboys with 25 total tackles, breaking his previous record of 24. Genz is fourth on the list for total career tackles for NCAA Div. II football.
Two touchdowns and a safety found ENMU down early, falling behind 16-0 just under five minutes into the matchup. A two-yard touchdown run by Cass capped off a three minute drive by the Hounds to cut into the Wonderboys lead, but Eastern wouldn't catch a break as Arkansas Tech came back like lightning, scoring in just over one minute to increase their lead to 16 again, 23-7.
ENMU head coach Josh Lynn said, "We put ourselves in a hole early and Arkansas Tech is a good team. Credit those guys though, we made some mistakes early and could just never catch back up."
Four minutes into the second quarter Buurma connected with Johnson on a 27 yard pass to put another six on the board for the Hounds. After the extra point by Timothy Callian, ENMU trailed 23-14 with the lead in reach. Yet a Wonderboys would answer back, a reoccurring theme in the high scoring shootout, pushing their lead back to 16 once again.
After more back and forth scoring, two scores by ENMU cut ATU's lead to only two points at 37-35. Alas, the Wonderboys weren't done scoring and would go on to put two more scores on the board before Eastern would see the red zone again.
With slightly over nine minutes remaining in the fourth period, Buurma led the Greyhounds down the field until, at the 12 yard line, they ran into a stout Wonderboy's defense that buckled down to prevent Eastern from getting the first down on four tries, effectively ending the game.
Lynn said, "We just go behind, but battled back and I was proud of our effort. We just didn't make plays late that we needed too."
Early on the Greyhounds were very effective converting third downs, sitting at 10-14 heading into the final quarter. ENMU would end the match converting 11 of 18 third downs and 1 of three fourth downs.
ENMU will now return home and start looking towards thier next season, with the 2015 season ending on an experience that will be a once and a lifetime opportunity for many of the young men currently wearing the green and silver.
