MIDLAND, Texas (October 5, 2024) – The University of Texas Permian Basin football team suffered its second loss of the season in Lone Star Conference action, falling 36-7 at home against Angelo State University on Saturday.

After an early injury to starting quarterback Dylan Graham on the Falcons' second drive of the game, it became clear that defense and turnovers were potentially going to be a determining factor in the ballgame.

UTPB finished its second drive with a punt by Rafael Vargas that was muffed by ASU's Andrew Pitts and recovered by Ja'Juan Mason at the Rams' 28-yard line.

That would setup a 35-yard field goal attempt from Vargas to get the Falcons onto the scoreboard first, but instead a blocked kick by Owen Seaver was recovered by ASU's Eric Rascoe and returned 85 yards for what looked like the first touchdown of the game.

Fortunately for UTPB, an illegal block in the back penalty returned the ball to the ASU 35-yard line, and then the next ASU drive ended with a 44-yard field goal attempt by Cade Fuller, but it was wide right as the two teams remained deadlocked.

The scoring drought ended abruptly, however, when halfway through the second quarter a rush by UTPB's backup quarter, Christian Kaopua, saw a fumble from his own five-yard line that resulted in a scoop-and-score by ASU's Kentron Allen to get the scoring started.

The fourth straight three-and-out by the Falcons' offense was followed by a seven-play, 65-yard ASU drive that saw three penalties and two pass interference calls against UTPB. It was the longest drive of the game to that point in terms of yardage. In the end, ASU quarterback Brayden Fuller hit Brayden Wilcox for a six-yard touchdown catch, and then a two-point conversion thrown by the kicker made it a 15-0 lead for the Rams with just 47 seconds left before halftime.

The third quarter started with a three-and-out for both teams, but just one play into ASU's second drive of the quarter, Fuller took the ball himself 86 yards for a touchdown to take the life out of the home crowd.

Kapoua and the Falcons got down to the Rams' 38-yard line on their next drive, but an interception on second-and-nine again kept UTPB from taking advantage of its chance to get on the scoreboard.

Freshman quarterback Issac Mooring started the next Falcon drive and came out throwing as he connected with Deon Cook for a 32-yard completion on his first play. That drive, however, would end with an incompletion on fourth-and-six from the ASU 30-yard line.

UTPB would finish the game just 3-for-18 on third down, but was 4-for-5 on fourth down.

The next ASU drive was a big 14-play, 70-yard scoring drive that saw Fuller's first of two short touchdown runs in the fourth quarter, this one from two yards out to make it 29-0.

UTPB would finally break through with 5:45 left in the contest when Mooring found Ben Patterson down the middle of the field for a 38-yard touchdown pass.

Mooring finished by completing seven of 17 passes for 113 yards and the touchdown. Cook (53 yards), Jeremiah Cooley (42 yards) and La'Quan Wells (24) yards all finished with four catches.

ASU would answer the first points of the game by UTPB with a scoring drive of its own, going 48 yards in seven plays and finishing off the game with a four-yard run by Fuller.

Fuller was 9-for-15 for 112 yards and one passing touchdown for ASU, but was a killer on the ground, taking off 15 times for a grand total of 146 yards and three scores.

Total yards were just a three-yard difference, 280-277 in favor of ASU. The Rams outrushed the Falcons 168-108 while passing yards were 169-112 in favor of UTPB.

Kory Harris ran the ball 18 times for 61 yards for the Falcons while Camden Tyler ran six times for 20 yards and Kapoua took off 11 times for 18 yards.

In the end, the Rams averaged 4.4 yards per carry compared to just 2.8 for UTPB, and averaged 5.2 yards per play overall compared to 3.9 yards per play for the Falcons.

UTPB was also done in by 11 penalties for 114 yards, while ASU committed just three penalties.

In addition, both teams finished with 14 first downs, but six of ASU's first downs came via a penalty by the Falcons.

With the win, the Rams improve to 3-2 overall on the year while holding a 3-0 record in conference play. UTPB falls to 3-3 and 2-2.

Tristan Exline led the UTPB defense with nine tackles while Jamarion Ravenell had six and Jalen Williams added four.

One of the bigger bright spots in the game for UTPB was the effort from Vargas, who punted eight times for 336 yards (42.0-yard average), had two punts of 50-plus yards, and put three punts inside the opponent's 20-yard line.

The Falcons head to the Pacific Northwest next weekend to take on No. 11 nationally-ranked Central Washington University at 8 p.m. Central Time / 6 p.m. Pacific Time.