ALPINE, Texas – It's been ten years since the East Texas Baptist University football team has had a winning season and with a 61-21 win over Sul Ross State University they will have it. The six wins are the most since 2005 five and ETBU has two games left to try for more wins and will now be playing for the right for first place in the American Southwest Conference next Saturday vs. Hardin-Simmons.
"This win is huge. This is the first step in building up this program," says head coach Joshua Eargle. "We have been working at this for three years and gotten better each year. To have the first winning season since 2005 is the first major step for our program. This is a great honor. Those guys in the locker room are playing hard, they come to play every day, and they do everything we ask of them."
It was another big day for both sides of the ball as the offense finished with 658 yards of total offense with 445 yards passing. The defense forced four turnovers, three of which were interceptions, and had three sacks.
Josh Warbington had a career day passing for 455 yards just missing the ETBU single game record of 450 yards passing. He found four different receivers in the end zone and now has passed for four or more touchdowns seven times in his career. Kendall Roberson continued his rushing dominance with 157 yards and three touchdowns. Jourdan McNeill added 53 yards rushing and two rushing touchdowns. Tyler Bates had his second best day in his career with 229 yards receiving and one touchdown. He now has 11 touchdowns this season and needs two more to break the single season record.
Defensively, Jeremiah Simpson, Tyrell Williams, and Jarrell Williams all recorded their first career interceptions. Xavier Davis added to his yearly total of sacks with one and Dylan Bowman led the team with six tackles. ETBU also held SRSU on the goal line, once, and stopped them three times on fourth downs.
ETBU scored on their first eight possessions of the game and didn't have to punt until late in the third quarter. The first series of the game only took 51 seconds as they went 63 yards ending in Roberson's first touchdown of the day. It only took 2:50 on their second possession as Roberson ran in from three-yards out for a 14-0 lead at the 7:37 mark. SRSU cut the lead to seven, 14-7, following Roberson's score but McNeill bounced in from five-yards out at the 2:48 mark in the first quarter for a 21-7 lead.
Just under two minutes into the second quarter Xavier Gray collected his first touchdown of the year on a 62-yard strike from Warbington that took just 1:26 to go 68 yards to go up 28-7. Seven minutes later Roberson recorded his third touchdown of the day from seven yards away making it 34-7. The final four minutes of the first half finished in two passing touchdowns with the first to Chase Sojka on a seven-yard pass and then Bates took a 79-yard pass to the house as the score ended up 47-7 at the half.
McNeill was awarded his second touchdown run in the third quarter from three-yards out after SRSU scored on the possession before. That run put ETBU up by 39 points, 54-15. In the fourth quarter Cameron Peters caught his first collegiate touchdown from 13-yards out as ETBU went up 61-15. SRSU added one more score in the fourth quarter for the final of 61-21.
ETBU's 61 points was the second most in the Eargle era behind the 68 points scored last year against Millsaps College. With a 3-0 record in the American Southwest Conference, ETBU will play Hardin-Simmons University for first place next Saturday in Ornelas Stadium at 2:00 p.m.