PORTALES, N.M. – Eastern New Mexico football began the season with a 34-28 loss to New Mexico Highlands.

"I thought we fought hard to the very end," said head coach Kelley Lee. "We did not capitalize on our opportunities early and that came back to haunt us. You have to capitalize when you have short fields."

One major change for the 2025 season was the addition of defensive coordinator Austin Bortle. ENMU's defense proved to be the better side of the ball for the opening half as they limited the Cowboys to just 43 total yards and forced three turnovers over the opening 25 minutes of the contest. However, that's when the shift of the game took place.

New Mexico Highlands had just surrendered the first touchdown of the season to Eastern New Mexico with 27 seconds remaining in the half. With this score, ENMU had taken a 10-0 advantage.

"We gave them a window and they took the most of it," said Lee on the moment.

With less than half a minute in the first half, NMHU ran a two-play 65-yard drive to cut the deficit to 10-7, just before the period ended.

The second half went fully in NMHU's favor.

The Cowboys ran six drives between the third and fourth quarter. Four of those drives resulted in touchdowns.

NMHU's key contributor to their success was freshman running back Jeffery Jones. He carried 19 times for 227 yards and three scores. The Florida native had two touchdown runs go for longer than 45 yards.

One area where ENMU shined was through the air. Eastern's 200 passing yards are their most in a single game since Oct. 14, 2023 when the program faced UT Permian Basin.

Sophomore Gerry Gomez led all pass catchers with four receptions for 94 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He is the first Hound to have a multi-TD reception game since Andre Jones did so in the aforementioned contest against UTPB in 2023.

Eastern continues to run the ball well as they picked up 228 total yards. Five different rushers had seven or more carries. All five of those Hounds ended up totaling 25+ yards on the ground.

Defensively, the Hounds had 12 players with multi-tackle performances. Both Aaron Warren and Charley Pitt forced fumbles in the win. Dylan Quartieri led the program with 2.5 tackles for loss. J.J. Silver also picked up his first career interception and tied his career high with eight tackles.

Kicker Kaden Bell began the 2025 season going 2-for-3 from field goal attempts. Also on special teams, Ryan Travis had five punts for a 43.2 average, including a long of 65 yards.

The only rushing touchdown came from Chad Ragle who found the endzone on a night where he finished with 15 carries and 39 yards.

ENMU will continue the season with another opponent from the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. They will travel to Colorado Mesa for a 6 p.m. contest on Sept. 6.