UTPB Athletics

ODESSA, Texas (October 17, 2026) – The No. 20 University of Texas Permian Basin football team returned to its home field for the first time in five weeks but was met with a tough 38-19 defeat against Western Oregon University. It was the first loss in Lone Star Conference action for the Falcons under new Head Coach Chris Softley.

Things were exciting early on as WOU's Tony McAdoo, the reigning LSC Special Teams Player of the Week, returned the opening kickoff of the game 94 yards to the UTPB one-yard line before an important tackle by Miles Thompson. Then just one play into the first drive of the game, linebacker McKyle So'oto forced a fumble on the rush by Jermaine Land, and it was recovered by Jaylin Broadus to help keep the Wolves out of the endzone.

The UTPB offense went three-and-out on each of its first two drives of the game while WOU opened the scoring with a 46-yard field goal on its second drive. Then the Wolves' third drive of the game saw a long 13-play, 52-yard drive that ate up over seven minutes of clock time and ended with an eight-yard touchdown pass from the LSC Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, Jordan McCarty, to Jaylyn Fite to make it 10-0 at the end of the first quarter. Nine of WOU's 13 plays during the scoring drive came on the ground, setting the tone for its dominant run game that would break big plays later on.

UTPB's ensuing drive featured four completions of 10-plus yards from starting quarterback Nate TenBarge, including back-to-back passes of 24 yards and 11 yards to George Sims and Tre Brown on the first two plays of the second quarter. However, on first-and-goal at the four-yard line after a 13-yard pass to Sims, a seven-yard sack pushed the Falcons back, and UTPB had to settle for a 28-yard field goal from Diego Chavarria to get on the board down 10-3 three minutes into the second quarter.

On the next WOU drive, a big 10-yard sack on third-and-seven by Kendrick Jones helped force the first three-and-out by the Wolves, and then this time UTPB offense would not be kept out of the endzone as TenBarge threw a screen pass to Cheno Navarrette for 25 yards on the first play, went to Brown or 18 yards on the third play, and then found Sims wide open in the endzone for a 24-yard touchdown pass on the fifth play. That tied the score at 10-10 with eight minutes left in the first half.

After Matthew Sebade punted out of his own endzone for the second time in the first half, the UTPB defense forced its second turnover of the first 30 minutes when an interception by Godgive Ugochukwu on a tipped pass at the line of scrimmage by Joey Lealao gave the Falcons the ball at the 50-yard line with under three minutes remaining before halftime. UTPB would proceed to take the lead (13-10) on a 38-yard field goal by Chavarria.

WOU totaled six first downs compared to just one first down and 35 total yards by UTPB in the first quarter, but the second quarter saw UTPB rack up 130 yards of offense and 10 first downs compared to just two first downs for WOU.

However, after the two teams traded shutout quarters to start the game, the second half would be nearly all WOU.

The Wolves retook the lead (17-13) on a 72-yard touchdown pass from McCarty to Jackson Timmer, who caught the ball at the 50-yard line and took it the distance just three minutes and 20 seconds into the half. It would be the only score of the third quarter, but the most crucial play of the game was still to come in the period as a muffed punt by Heston Kelly was recovered by WOU at the UTPB 28-yard line with 1:39 left in the quarter.

WOU would make UTPB pay as the first play of the fourth quarter resulted in a 14-yard touchdown rush by McCarty to make it 24-13.

In the fourth quarter, things got away from the Falcons a little bit.

With the Falcons' backs up against the wall down by two scores, two incomplete passes by TenBarge looking for Traylen Suel on third-and-four and fourth-and-four gave the ball back to the Wolves, and then just one play later a 44-yard run by Jayshon Limar got the ball to the UTPB one-yard line before the tackle by Jones. That tackle by Jones and another tackle at the one-yard line by Dwayne Wingfield on a designed quarterback run by McCarty two plays later came before Tyler Konold punched it in from one-yard out on third-and-goal, making it a 31-13 Wolves' lead, but still with over 10 minutes left to play.

Facing a big deficit but still with plenty of time on the clock, UTPB's new quarterback, Braxton Baker, came out swinging and completed a 60-yard pass to Brown on his first throw of the season. Later on fourth-and-eight from the WOU nine-yard line, Baxter fired one into the endzone to Brown, who somehow held on for the touchdown catch after the play was originally ruled incomplete. It was a heads-up challenge by Coach Softley to keep the Falcons in it for the time being (down 31-19 with 7:45 left to play).

A tackle by Jones four yards short of a first down on third-and-10 on the next WOU drive helped get the ball back to the Falcons with five minutes remaining, but an interception by Andrew Simpson on the pass from Baker at the WOU 33-yard line with three minutes remaining was pretty much all she wrote as the very next play saw Carson Workman take it 79 yards for the game-sealing touchdown run.

In the end, it was a play on special teams (muffed punt) that made the biggest difference in this one, while big plays from the WOU offense also made a huge impact on the outcome. The Wolves totaled a 44-yard rush to the one-yard line, and two touchdowns of over 70 yards.

WOU outgained UTPB 151-130 in the fourth quarter. 145 of those 151 yards for the Wolves came on the ground as WOU outrushed UTPB 219-(-2). overall UTPB led 342-180 on passing yards, but it was not enough to compensate for negative rushing yards, allowing 174 kick return yards, going 0-for-13 on third down, and allowing five sacks. In addition, WOU ran the ball 44 times to UTPB's 15 attempts.

For UTPB, TenBarge was 20-for-35 for 218 yards and a touchdown while Baker was 13-for-18 for 125 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Brown (5 catches, 101 yards) and Sims (7 catches, 87 yards) both caught a touchdown while Navarrette (6 catches, 69 yards), Kelly (6 catches, 37 yards), Camden Tyler (4 catches, 27 yards) and Suel (4 catches, 26 yards) made it a total of six Falcons with at least four receptions.

On defense, Ugochukwu, Jones and So'oto all contributed seven tackles while Jones added a sack, So'oto had a forced fumble and Ugochukwu had an interception. It was Ugochukwu's best game so far as a Falcon. For So'oto, the D2Football.com National Defensive Player of the Week from two weeks ago, it was his fourth game in a row recording either a forced fumble or an interception.

After surrendering just 14 touchdowns through its first six contests of the season, the UTPB defense gave up five touchdowns to the Wolves on Saturday.

UPTB (5-2 overall), which came into the game allowing a league-low 19.8 points per game, saw its five-game winning streak snapped and dropped to 4-1 in the LSC while WOU (3-4 overall) picked up its first conference win of the season at 1-4. It was the third straight loss for the Falcons against the Wolves.

Next up, No. 20 UTPB heads to the Pacific Northwest for its biggest game of the season at No. 11 Central Washington University. The Falcons and the Wildcats will square off starting at 8 p.m. Central Time / 6 p.m. Pacific time from Tomlinson Stadium in Ellensburg, Washington.