The ULM football team travelled to the desert where they took on the New Mexico Lobos on Saturday night.
Winning the coin toss would be about the only positive for the Warhawks as the game got underway with a turnover by ULM.
Due to Garrett Smith’s knee injury that kept him sidelined, quarterback Will Collins got the start for the Warhawks.
In his first passing attempt of the game, Collins threw an interception to J.D. Boatright who took it 40 yards the other way for a touchdown to put the Lobos up 7-0 early in the first quarter.
After a failed drive the Warhawks would then be forced to punt and give the Lobo’s possession in their own territory.
After a couple of play action plays by the Lobo’s, running back Tyrone Owens was able to break loose for 53 yards into the red zone.
Owens run set up a short 7-yard rushing touchdown by Richard McQuareley to put the Lobos up 14-0.
Later in the first quarter the ULM defense looked as if they may have finally gotten to the Lobos when forcing a third and fifteen. However, red shirt freshmen Teryion Gipson had other plans as he caught a pass for the first down to keep the drive alive.
Later on in the drive the Lobos extended their lead going to Gipson yet again when he spun around a tackler to get in the end zone from the outside. With only four minutes left in the first quarter the Lobos were ahead 21-0.
The following drive, ULM’s offense was finally able to move the ball and, after a run by Duke Carter, the Warhawks were looking at a third and four on their own 47 yard line. Unfortunately for the Warhawks, Will Collins was sacked which forced them to punt.
The very next play the Lobos scored on an 83-yard touchdown run by Tyrone Owens to go up 28-0 with only a minute left in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Warhawks were finally able to put a drive together that ended in point when field goal kicker Craig Ford connected on a 33-yard field goal.
The Warhawks defense giving up easy points would be the theme of the night. This was shown when the Lobos scored a touchdown with 12 seconds left in the first half.
Although this touchdown was a part of an eight play, 86-yard drive, ULM added more points to their 35-3 deficit heading into half.
The second half proved to be not much different. The half started with a 93 yard kickoff return by the Lobo’s Elijah Lily who went the distance to make the score 42-3.
With the Warhawks only having 122 yards of total offense through three quarters, it was obvious their offense couldn’t find any rhythm and kept settling for punts.
The Lobos would eventually substitute some second string players in for starters, but the story still didn’t change.
Diquon Woodhouse got in on the fun and made the game 49-3 when he ran 36 yards for a touchdown towards the end of the third quarter. Later the Lobos tacked on a field goal to make the score 52-3 at the end of the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, ULM’s offense showed life when they put in quarterback Caleb Evans. He was able to make throws on a couple of thirds downs to move the ball and set up Thomas Koufie for ULM’s first touchdown of the night.
Evans campaign for the starting position wasn’t done yet. After the defense stopped the Lobo’s he got the ball back and found Xavier Brown for a 30-yard touchdown to make the score a whopping 52-17.
The Lobos tacked on their final score of the game when Daryl Chestnut scored a rushing touchdown to make the final score 59-17. Chestnut became the eighth Lobo to score on the night.
The Warhawks look to bounce back next week when they head to Arkansas State to take on the Red Wolves. The game will be televised on Saturday, October 29th on ESPN3 at 6 p.m. central time.
