WICHITA FALLS, Texas – Eastern New Mexico completed a second-half comeback for the second week in a row to take down Midwestern State by a final score of 27-24 on Saturday night inside Memorial Stadium.

Eastern New Mexico moves to 4-1 on the season and 2-1 in Lone Star Conference play thanks to a strong opening half performance that saw the Greyhounds jump out to a 17-3 lead at the halftime break. Midwestern State (3-2, 0-2 LSC) responded with 21 unanswered points in the third quarter to take a 24-17 lead, but couldn't survive a final-quarter rally for the Hounds.

Senior Paul Terry shouldered the load with 40 rushing attempts and 225 yards on the ground and a score to pace the nation's top rushing attack to 391 yards on the ground. Those 40 carries ties the school-record and gives Terry his sixth straight game with 100 yards or more rushing.

Eastern totaled 428 yards on offense and forced two turnovers to complete the fourth-quarter comeback with 10 unanswered points in the fourth quarter.  

Eastern New Mexico took the ball first and drove all the way down to the Midwestern State 16-yard line before senior Tyler Vargas missed a 33-yard field goal to give the ball back to the Mustangs. The Greyhound defense forced a quick three-and-out to set up junior Justin Manyweather with a 70-yard punt return for a touchdown to put the Hounds up 7-0 at the 6:45 mark of the opening quarter.

The Mustangs responded to the special teams score with a 48-yard rush on the first play of the ensuing drive, but the Greyhound defense stood strong and allowed a field goal to draw the score to 7-3. That score would hold steady into the conclusion of the opening quarter as the Hounds limited the Mustangs to just 50 total yards in the opening quarter.

Vargas would redeem himself early in the second quarter with a 47-yard field goal just under a minute into the frame to extend the Greyhound lead back out to seven points. Senior Charles Countee forced the first turnover of the contest on the ensuing Mustangs possession with his second interception in as many weeks to give the Eastern offense the ball on the Midwestern State 41-yard line.

Eastern New Mexico took the Countee interception and drove all the way down to the Mustang one-yard line in just seven plays before quarterback Wyatt Strand fumbled the ball back over to the Mustangs to negate the Countee interception. Midwestern State managed to get out of their own end zone with a six-play, 53-yard drive before once again stalling out on the offensive side of the ball and punted the ball back to Eastern New Mexico.

Strand finished the night with 17 yards on 14 carries and completed three-of-six attempts through the air for 37 yards.

Terry led the Hounds on an 11-play, 81-yard scoring drive to end the first half of action with Eastern New Mexico ahead 17-3. The Amarillo, Texas native carried the ball six times on that scoring drive alone and found pay dirt from three-yards out for his first score of the contest.

Eastern out-gained Midwestern State 232-to-127 in the first half and kept the Mustangs out of the end zone for the entirety of the first 30 minutes of the game.
Midwestern State stormed out of the locker room at the start of the second half and scored on the opening possession with a 10-play, 78-yard drive capped off with a touchdown to cut the Greyhound lead in half. The Greyhounds coughed up the second fumble of the game on the next possession to set Midwestern State up with another scoring drive to tie the game up at 17-17 with 5:21 left in the third quarter.

The Mustangs gained their first lead of the ball game with their third unanswered score of the third quarter with 1:29 remaining in the quarter to go up 24-17.

Following two stalled drives for each team, the Greyhound defense came up big once again and forced a strip-sack at the Midwestern State nine-yard line to completely turn the momentum back in favor to the Green-and-Silver. Redshirt senior De'John Burns came off of the blitz and sacked the Mustang quarterback for a 13-yard loss and forced the ball out, which was eventually recovered by the Hounds.

Senior Johnny Smith tied the game up three plays later with a two-yard score on the ground to tie the game up at 24-24 with 10:09 remaining in the ball game. Eastern forced a three-and-out on the ensuing Mustang possession to get the ball back with just under ten minutes remaining on the clock.

The Greyhounds put together a 10-play, 68-yard drive that took 4:50 off of the clock and set Vargas up with a 23-yard field goal make to put Eastern ahead 27-24 with 3:21 remaining on the clock.

The Greyhound defense stiffened up and forced an incomplete pass for the Mustangs on fourth down to get the ball back up 27-24 with 2:30 left in the game. Eastern was able to run out the remaining time on the clock and escaped with the 27-24 victory.

Smith joined Terry with over 100 yards rushing with 105 yards on 15 carries and a score. Junior Noah Sweitzer led the Hound defense with 10 total tackles while Burns had six tackles and the aforementioned sack and forced fumble.

Eastern New Mexico will return home next Saturday night to welcome #4 nationally-ranked and undefeated Tarleton State to Greyhound Stadium. Kick-off for that highly anticipated contest is slated for 6 p.m.