The second half of the season has sure been more what West Texas A&M head coach Josh Lynn indented in August, and though it took a minute to get there, the Buffs are playing as good of football as anyone in the Lone Star Conference.
With that said, the Buffs defended their home turf and sent the seniors off in style by beating Midwestern State for a fifth year in a row 17-12 on Saturday night at Bain-Schaeffer Stadium.
The Buffs have worked themselves back to .500 improving to 5-5 overall and are now 5-3 in the LSC. MSU falls to 3-7 overall and 2-6 in the league.
The WTAMU defense was the story keeping the Mustangs out of sync most of the night. The Buffs limited MSU to 269 yards of total offense with only 94 rushing yards and held MSU to 1-of-13 on third down conversions.
Linebacker JT Cavender left it all on the field in his game in front of the home fans. The sensational senior and one of the best to ever wear the Buff uniform racked up 10 tackles, three of those solo, pushing him to 341 career tackles.
While the Mustangs defense was strong themselves, the WTAMU offense was able to do enough to get the Buffs on the board keeping MSU at bay.
After a slow moving first half, the Buffs were able to give themselves a cushion going into halftime when quarterback Kanon Gibson found Zorian Stanton for a 43-yard touchdown sending WTAMU into halftime up 10-0.
Early in the third quarter, the Buffs were able to extend that advantage with Gibson throwing his second TD this time on a three-yarder to Brennan Ray putting WTAMU in complete control up 17-0.
Gibson finished the night 13-of-25 for 143 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. Tre’Jon Henderson led the ground attack with 110 yards on 24 carries while Stanton had three catches for 66 yards including his touchdown.
WTAMU closes out the 2024 season with a road trip to No. 23-ranked Angelo State (8-2, 8-0 in LSC) with kickoff set for 6 p.m. Saturday at LeGrand Stadium at 1st Community Credit Union Field. ASU claimed their second league crown in three years on Saturday with a 38-16 road win at Western Oregon.