ODESSA, Texas (October 11, 2025) – The No. 6 University of Texas Permian Basin football team suffered its first loss of the 2025 season, falling 27-14 vs. No. 13 Central Washington University in a showdown between nationally-ranked teams on Saturday night inside Ratliff Stadium.

UTPB (5-1 overall, 3-1 Lone Star Conference) opened the game with a 12-play, 75-yard scoring drive that ended with a short eight-yard touchdown catch by TJ McKenzie from Kanon Gibson on the very first drive of the game, but from there, the offense went cold outside of one play.

Later in the first quarter, the Falcons had a fourth-and-four from the Wildcats' 29-yard line, but an incomplete pass ended that nine-play, 54-yard possession.

The UTPB defense, meanwhile, forced CWU (5-1, 4-0) into a three-and-out on each of its first three drives of the game.

Early in the second quarter, a 16-play, 60-yard drive by CWU ended when a fake field goal on fourth-and-five from the UTPB 19-yard line was stuffed out by Champ Mathis, who delivered the tackle on the Wildcats' holder trying to get the first down.

In the final two minutes of the first half, the Wildcats started off the drive with a 42-yard run by the quarterback, Kennedy McGill, on a draw play to get the ball to within the UTPB 30-yard line on just one play. Three plays later, a 10-yard sack fumble by Jacob Humphrey on second down helped make the Wildcats have to settle for a 40-yard field goal to make it a 7-3 Falcons' lead at halftime.

Then on the opening kickoff of the second half, Kendrick Jones forced another Wildcats' fumble, and this time UTPB recovered it as Damien Johnson secured the ball at the CWU 33-yard line. Unfortunately, UTPB was unable to pick up a first down as instead another incompletion on fourth-and-six from the CWU 29-yard line made it a 1-for-3 start on fourth down for the Falcons.

Both teams were still trying to air it out midway through the third quarter, but with little success. That approach would change for the Wildcats, however, as they mounted a 12-play, 63-yard scoring drive that saw running back Taylor Justice account for 57 yards on eight attempts on the ground, including taking it into the endzone from 24 yards out to give CWU its first lead of the game (10-7) in the final two minutes of the third quarter. Justice also converted a two-yard rush on fourth-and-one from the UTPB 31-yard line to keep the drive going.

UTPB had an answer as the second play on the ensuing drive saw Gibson hit Ben Patterson at the 50-yard line, and Patterson took it the distance for a 73-yard touchdown to give the Falcons back a 14-10 advantage in the final minute of the third period. That one play would account for nearly 30 percent of Gibson's passing yards total in the game.

Unfortunately for the Falcons, the Wildcats continued to run the ball with purpose in the fourth quarter, running the ball seven straight times to get back into the endzone for the second time in the half and retake the lead at 17-14 thanks to a six-yard bulldozing run by the quarterback, McGill. That 10-play, 56-yard drive started with 9:29 left in the game and ended with 3:15 on the clock.

Despite a 15-yard completion from Gibson to McKenzie on the first play, the next Falcons' drive was stopped by a pair of sacks, including an eight-yard sack by Matulino Masunu on fourth-and-nine from their own 41-yard line. That gave the ball back to CWU with 1:45 left at the UTPB 33-yard line.

UTPB had two timeouts to try and stop CWU underneath the two-minute warning, and the Falcon defense was up to the task as they did not let the Wildcats get a first down. Three straight running plays by the Wildcats made it fourth-and-four, forcing a 44-yard field goal to make it 20-14 with only 44 seconds remaining.

Desperate for big plays downfield, the second play of UTPB's next drive saw the Wildcats' Javonte Walker take a 35-yard interception return to the house to put the game out of reach.

The UTPB defense limited CWU to just six rushes for 13 yards in the first quarter, which represented the Wildcats' total sum of offense in the opening period. In the second quarter, however, CWU rushed 15 times for 83 yards, followed by 16 rushes for 85 yards in the third quarter and 15 runs for 57 more yards in the fourth.

CWU outrushed UTPB 238-50 and totaled 52 rushing attempts for a 4.6-yard average. UTPB out-passed CWU 250-70 and limited the Wildcats to just seven completions. Total yardage was just an eight-yard advantage (308-300) for the Wildcats, who ran 11 more plays than the Falcons (70-59) and held the ball for over 38 minutes.

Gibson was 16-for-39 for 250 yards and two touchdowns, with McKenzie (62 yards, 1 touchdowns) and Heston Kelly (27 yards) both accounting for five catches.

For the CWU offense, Justice ran 20 times for 100 yards and a touchdown, McGill ran 16 times for 81 yards and a touchdown, and backup running back Beau Phillips ran 15 more times for 56 yards.

Defensively for UTPB, Tristan Exline was a menace, registering 19 tackles, including 13 solo tackles. He was joined by Tre Yanez with eight tackles while Humphrey finished with seven tackles and a sack fumble.

Next up, the Falcons head to Oregon next weekend to take on Western Oregon University starting at 3:05 p.m. Central Time / 1:05 p.m. Pacific Time. Last year the Wolves edged the Falcons by a final score of 30-27 in overtime.