West Texas A&M quarterback #9 runs with the ball as teammates block near a sunny football field. — West Texas A&M quarterback Knox Porter looks for yards against Western Colorado during a season opening non-conference game Thursday night at Bain-Schaeffer Buffalo Stadium. [Joe Garcia III/ Press Pass Sports]

Missed opportunities on top of crucial miscues started a landslide for West Texas A&M it never could recover from resulting in a highly disappointing 52-21 defeat at the hands of No. 11-ranked Western Colorado in a season-opening non-conference contest Thursday night at Bain-Schaeffer Buffalo Stadium.

Everything that could go wrong did for the Buffs (0-1) from blown redzone chances to untimely turnovers, allowing the Mountaineers (1-0) all the momentum.

The Buffs offense got out to a good start, taking their third drive of the game and driving it to the Western Colorado 1-yard line. However, this is where things started to go downhill for WTAMU. The offense was stopped on four straight plays giving the ball right back to the Mountaineers in the shadow of their own endzone.

American football player in white and red uniform running with ball on a stadium field, crowd in background — Western Colorado’s Ramon Ruiz sprints toward the endzone for a touchdown against West Texas A&M on Thursday night. [Joe Garcia III/ Press Pass Sports]

WCU quickly escaped trouble taking only four plays to go 96-yards that was highlighted by a flea flicker call and a 46-yard pitch and catch from quarterback Josiah Roy to Ramon Ruiz, putting the Mountaineers up 7-0.

Things only got worse for the Buffs from there. WCU scored 10 straight points off WTAMU turnovers and punched a devastating touchdown in right before half on a 4th and goal end around pass from Ruiz to Blake Kramer from 2-yards out.

The Buffs were deflated at that point and went into the locker room trailing 24-0 at the break. The second half didn’t get much better. WCU 14 points within the first five minutes to put the game well out of reach.

“Early in the game we had a nice drive and we didn’t score,” WTAMU head coach Josh Lynn said. “They turn around and score and then we had turnovers that gave them points. We tried to play catch up from that point on. I thought we did do some good things, but we had too many mistakes.”

Football player in maroon uniform runs with the ball, sprinting past defenders on a green field with a cheering crowd in the stands. — West Texas A&M running back Contae Cason looks for yards against Western Colorado on Thursday. [Joe Garcia III/ Press Pass Sports]

Mountaineer quarterback Josiah Roy was solid going 9-of-11 for 268 yards with four touchdown tosses.

The WTAMU offense did find life in the second half. The seasons first touchdown came in the third quarter on a flea flicker of their own when Knox Porter threw a deep ball to Cade Figg for a 28-yard connection to get the Buffs on the board. Porter, who ran for his life most of the night, did have a solid debut in his first career start going 28-of-42 for 353 yards with a pair of touchdowns.

The Buffs hit the road for another tough non-conference game this time at No. 9 Grand Valley State which is set for 6 p.m. at Lubbers Stadium in Allendale, Mich.