ODESSA, Texas (August 31, 2024) – No. 21 nationally-ranked University of Texas Permian Basin football faced little resistance en route to a 41-3 win over Western New Mexico University in what was the season opener and first Lone Star Conference game of the season for both teams on Saturday night inside Ratliff Stadium.

"Week 0" saw the Falcons start slow with just a 47-yard field goal to show for their offense efforts in the opening quarter, but an 83-yard touchdown pass from graduate student Dylan Graham to junior Ben Patterson early in the second half set the tone for the remainder of the game.

After starting the game with a variety of short passes and screen plays, Graham opened things up as the game went on and finished by completing 31 of his 50 passes for 404 yards and three touchdowns.

Graham's 31 completions were only three short of his own program record of 34 set on September 24, 2022, when he was previously the starting quarterback for the Falcons. In addition, his 404 yards passing ranks third in program history, trailing only Taylor Null who twice threw for over 400 yards in 2018.

Earlier in the game, Graham completed a 22-yard touchdown pass to the reigning LSC Receiver of the Year, senior Jeremiah Cooley, for the first touchdown of the season with 7:23 remaining in the second quarter before ending his night with an eight-yard touchdown pass to another senior, La'Quan Wells, to make it 34-3 with 6:47 left to play.

Cooley (116 yards) and Patterson (113 yards) both finished the game with over 100 yards receiving while Cooley and Wells both hauled in eight receptions in the first game of their respective campaigns. In all, 10 different Falcons had at least one reception.

Junior Kory Harris paced the ground game with 82 rushing yards on 21 carries. He would get into the endzone from three yards out to round out the scoring in the game with 3:54 remaining.

In addition, the Falcon offense would finish the night a perfect 6-for-6 when entering the redzone.

Defensively, the Falcons were led by junior Frank Mulipola with eight tackles while senior Jalon Rocquemore, sophomore Kendrick Jones and junior Austin Williams each added five tackles.

Sophomore Tristan Exline added four tackles and two sacks individually while as a team, the Falcons finished with 8.5 tackles for loss and five sacks.

UTPB (1-0 overall, 1-0 LSC) also limited WNMU (0-1, 0-1) to just five first downs for the game, 51 rushing yards, 67 passing yards, an average of 2.6 yards per play, and a 1-for-12 conversion rate on third down.

Junior Jacob Humphrey added a forced fumble and sophomore Ife Current pounced on the ball to set up the final scoring drive of the game.

As impressive as Graham and the rest of the UTPB offense was in this game, one of the standouts was freshman kicker Angel Diaz, who converted on field goals of 47, 32, 36 and 25 yards out and added three extra point kicks to finish a perfect 7-for-7 on the day.

Diaz's 15 points are the most for a kicker in the Kris McCullough era at UTPB.

"I am proud of our fight tonight," said McCullough. "The first half was ugly and we had way too many mistakes, but we cleaned it up in the second half. A lot of guys made plays when their number was called. Especially the defense and Dylan Graham."

UT Permian Basin hits the road for the first time this season on Saturday, September 7, taking on Colorado State University Pueblo. The game is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Mountain Time / 7 p.m. Central Time.