SILVER CITY, N.M. – Eastern New Mexico secured the 15^th straight win over rival Western New Mexico by a final score of 48-17 in Silver City, N.M. on Saturday night.

The Hounds recorded six rushing touchdowns as a team and relied on explosive plays with three touchdown runs of over 30 yards to pull away in the second half after leading 17-10 at the halftime break. Eastern New Mexico recorded 576 yards rushing to defeat Western New Mexico to take home the Chile Bowl trophy for the second straight time and had three rushers notch 100 yards or more on the ground.

Senior Paul Terry rolled up 180 yards on the ground and two touchdowns to pace an Eastern offense that accumulated 639 yards of total offense. Junior Justin Manyweather scored on runs of 39 yards and 64 yards to total 147 yards on just 10 carries.

The Hounds limited Western New Mexico to just 289 yards of total offense on 68 plays and didn't allow a single offensive score in the second half as the Hounds outscored Western New Mexico 31-7 in the final 30 minutes of the contest. Senior Wyatt Strand totaled 131 yards on the ground and chipped in two rushing touchdowns to captain the Eastern offense to a spectacular second half of action.

The Greyhounds got started early offensively with a 7-play, 48-yard touchdown drive after stalling out on their opening possession of the contest. Strand finished off the first scoring drive of the ball game with a five-yard rushing score to open up a 7-0 lead for the Hounds.

A missed field goal attempt for the Mustangs on the ensuing possession set Strand and company up with another opportunity to score points in which they capitalized on with a 48-yard field goal by senior Tyler Vargas. Eastern looked to continue to string together scoring drives after sophomore Ryan Moore picked off a deep pass attempt from Western New Mexico in the Mustang end zone to set the Greyhound offense up at the opposing 25-yard line.

Eastern would cough-up the ball just four plays later and allowed Western to find the end zone for the first time with a 32-yard passing score to draw the score to 10-7. That one-possession advantage for the Greyhounds wouldn't last long however as junior Justin Manyweather broke free after making multiple defenders miss in the open field to score on a 39-yard touchdown run with 4:32 remaining before halftime.

The Mustangs took the ball after the Manyweather score and drove down the field in just over four minutes to tack on a 30-yard field goal with 30 seconds remaining in the half to draw the halftime score to 17-10.

 The Greyhound defense came out of the halftime break with an immediate defensive stand on the opening drive for the Mustangs, forcing a punt that set Eastern up at their own 22-yard. Manyweather took another pitch from Strand on the option and got loose once again, scoring from 64 yards out on just the third offensive play in the second half for the Hounds.

Eastern forced another punt for the Mustangs on the ensuing drive and drove 77 yards in 11 plays to set Vargas up with another field goal, this time from 28-yards out to extend the lead to 27-10. Western New Mexico continued to stay in the ballgame with a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown on the very next play to close the gap to just 10 points with 2:07 left in the third quarter.

Strand contributed the third rushing touchdown of 35 yards or more for the game for the Hounds at the 13:34 mark of the final quarter with a 45-yard score to cap off a seven-play drive for the Greyhounds. Terry continued to extend the Hound advantage with two rushing scores less than five minutes apart to bring the score to 48-17 with 7:08 remaining in the game.

Sophomore Colby Russ and junior Noah Sweitzer each totaled 10 tackles on the night to lead the Hounds to their best defensive performance of the season.

Eastern New Mexico will return home next weekend for the annual Wagon Wheel Game against West Texas A&M. Kick-off for the second straight rivalry game for the Hounds in as many weeks is set for 6 p.m.