PORTALES, N.M. – Eastern New Mexico football opened the Lone Star Conference season with a 28-14 loss to Midwestern State at Greyhound Stadium Saturday night.

The Mustangs got on the board first with a field goal in the first quarter and added a touchdown in the following drive to take a 10-0 lead into the first break in action.

On the first play in the second quarter, Kason Martin found Asa Wondeh for a deep 51-yard touchdown pass. The score is Wondeh's third of the season.

In the middle of the second, MSU tacked on another field goal to push the match at 13-7 going into halftime.

ENMU had a much more composed offense in the third quarter as they came out of the intermission with a quicker tempo.

The Hounds took their only lead in the ball game from a three-yard rush from Isaiah Tate. It was the junior's second score of the year.

The two programs traded drives over the quarter and head into the final 15 minutes of play with Eastern up, 14-13.

During the final moments of the game two interceptions thrown by ENMU led to a pair of scores for the Mustangs and clinched MSU its first victory of the season.

"I am proud of the fight that our team had tonight. We battled but we didn't finish and execute down the stretch the way we needed to against a very good team, said second-year head coach Tye Hiatt. "We have to learn to take care of the football and we must be the most physical team on the field. We did not do those two things tonight on a consistent basis and when you face a great program like Midwestern, those mistakes will cost you the ball game."

Next week Eastern heads east to face former LSC foe and current DI institution, Tarleton State. The game can be seen on ESPN+ and will begin at 5 p.m. MT.