LSC Week 4 Preview

September 25th, 2025 4:00am

Week 3 Recap

OK, what happened to UTPB’s offense?  How come they only managed a paltry 43 points when all the other winners this past week put up video game numbers?  When did they turn into the “3 yards and a cloud of dust” team? 

Anyway, that’s how Week 3 went in the LSC – three blowouts, one game that was competitive for a half, and one that was competitive into the fourth quarter (that one happened to be the UTPB game).  We also had one of the most spectacularly efficient passing games I’ve seen in a long time by ENMU’s Chad Ragle, along with a near-equally spectacularly ugly games by just about everyone not involved in the WT passing game (but that was still ugly for a half) and Sul Ross State. 

Now, about last week:

Western Oregon wins at home over Sul Ross State 66-3

It’s very easy to look at Sul Ross State’s record and this season’s statistics and think “where’s the improvement?”  But this is still a team that is in the transition phase from Division 3, replaced their head coach, and went on the road to games at Division 1 opponents and was still on the road at Western Oregon.  So, this is about the future and not necessarily the present. 

That being said, oh man are these numbers rough.   Some of the hard-to-read statistics include: Outscored 195-3 in three games, outgained by 1672 to 179 yards, 10-1 behind in turnovers, and a 67% success rate for opponents on third down. 

Unfortunately for Sul Ross, this game added to those numbers.  The Lobos, unlike last week, did gain some positive yardage, but even that was minimal as Andrew Martinez and Kye Callicoatte combined for 110 passing yards and only one Lobo had double-digit rushing yards (David Smith with 39 yards).  5 WOU rushers had more than 25 rushing yards, led by Jermaine Land with 52 yards and a touchdown, as the Wolves ran for 233 yards on the day.  Jordan McCarty completed 12 of 18 passes for 220 yards and 4 touchdowns as the Wolves rolled to their largest margin of victory since the 1934 season (a 99-0 win over St. Martin’s, who ended football in 1950). 

Sul Ross finally did score, on a 37-yard field goal by Vicente Gariveay with 25 seconds left in the first half and WOU up 35-0.  To that point, the Lobos had given up 164 unanswered points to start the season.  At least they get a home game next week. 

Western Oregon improves to 2-1 and Sul Ross State falls to 0-3.

https://wouwolves.com/news/2025/9/20/FB20Sept2025.aspx

#6 Angelo State wins at home over Western New Mexico 56-27

The first half of this one looked like we could have a shootout, with WNMU’s Connor Ackerley completing a 2-yard touchdown pass to Deuce Zimmerman (who was one of two WNMU receivers to gain 102 yards) to bring the Mustangs to within 28-20 at the half. 

Angelo State had other ideas. 

In the second half, the Rams took over despite WNMU holding a near 11-minute advantage in time of possession and running a total of 80 plays to ASU’s 56.  But the Mustangs couldn’t sustain and finish drives in the second half to keep pace with the Rams’ second-half onslaught. 

ASU outscored WNMU 28-7 in the second half, scoring on three consecutive drives in the third and fourth quarters and extending their lead to 49-20 before WNMU scored their only points of the second half.  Kaeden Smith didn’t let last week’s nightmare linger into this week and threw for 214 yards and 5 touchdowns on 14 of 22 passes.  Of course, a porous WNMU defense didn’t hurt either.  Cameron Dischler ran for 74 yards to lead an ASU attack that gained 197 rushing yards. 

Angelo State improves to 4-0 and Western New Mexico falls to 1-3.

Eastern New Mexico wins at Midwestern State 56-31

Chad Ragle didn’t attempt a pass until the game clock was inside of 2 minutes in the first half.  That pass was completed to Kyler Fossett for 72 yards for a touchdown, and the Greyhounds were up 35-14 going into the half.  ENMU picked a good time to have their best game of the season by far, rushing for 453 yards on 59 carries and 6 touchdowns.  Ragle, in a game that exemplifies all that Kelley Lee wants to see on offense, only attempted 4 passes.  However, he completed all of those passes for an amazing 185 yards and 2 touchdowns. 

Midwestern State, to their credit, did have plenty of offense themselves, with Jakolby Longino completing 24 of 37 passes for 350 yards, 2 touchdowns, and an interception.  Kenji Johnson carried the ball 20 times for 139 yards and 2 touchdowns, the best rushing game for an MSU player this season.  Demonte Green caught 6 balls for 168 yards and 2 touchdowns to lead all receivers.  However, MSU couldn’t finish enough drives and, more importantly, their defense gave up touchdowns 8 of the 11 times ENMU had the ball.  Not nearly good enough to keep pace. 

Eastern New Mexico improves to 1-3 and Midwestern State falls to 0-3.

#7 Texas-Permian Basin wins at Texas A&M-Kingsville 43-30

Forum user ‘89HOG pretty much pinned this one down with one of his forum posts as the fourth quarter went on and UTPB was breaking big play after big play.  At the time, the Falcons had a time of possession advantage of 32:36 minutes to 19:20 for TAMUK.  Like the Javelinas’ loss last week to Northwest Missouri State, they fell behind, got close (or in this week’s case, tied), but the opponent in both cases took advantage of a tired defense and took over the game late.  UTPB turned a 23-23 tie to a 43-23 UTPB lead in the fourth quarter with touchdown drives of 1:17 (4 plays for 70 yards), 10 seconds (1 play for 70 yards) and 51 seconds (2 plays for 36 yards), with big plays defining each of those drives.

UTPB outgained TAMUK 491 to 375 yards and held the ball for 36:52 to 23:08 for TAMUK.  Kanon Gibson completed 18 of 26 passes for 316 yards and 3 touchdowns.  Jaylon Tillman caught 8 passes for 92 yards and a touchdown.  Kory Harris ran 22 times for 95 yards and 2 touchdowns.  For the Javelinas, Jack Turner completed 25 of 37 passes for 270 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions and Christian Kretz caught 6 passes for 83 yards.    

Texas-Permian Basin to 3-0 and Texas A&M-Kingsville falls to 1-2.

#19 Central Washington wins at home over West Texas A&M 52-6

WT quarterback RJ Martinez threw for 271 yards in the first half.  Pretty good, right?  Offense was doing its thing and it’s a shootout, right?  If you can believe it, no.  Martinez threw 33 passes in the first half out of desperation as the WT defense put up little resistance, giving up 4 touchdowns the first 5 times CWU had the ball.  CWU outgained WT 330 to 230 yards (more on why WT’s number was 230 later) in that first half and 528 to 232 yards for the game.  Martinez was picked off twice, with CWU converting both interceptions to touchdowns, and he managed just 21 passing yards in the second half.   CWU took a 35-6 lead into halftime and WT pretty much gave up any attempt at running the ball (Martinez carried the ball 12 times for a net yardage of minus-41 yards).  For reference, Sul Ross had minus-37 rushing yards against Stephen F. Austin last week.  WT pretty much left Martinez out there to fend for himself against the CWU defense, which was happy to oblige, sacking him 6 times.

Things didn’t get better for the Buffaloes in the second half as CWU extended their lead in to 49-6 before the Wildcats started to work in the second-teamers.  Three other Buffaloes eventually carried the ball, and Jayden Hibbler even gained 6 yards (the team ended up with minus-60 rushing yards), but he fumbled the ball twice, losing one of them.  Kennedy McGill threw for 217 yards and 4 touchdowns on 10 of 16 passes, and he also ran for 62 yards on 12 carries to lead the Wildcats, who hit the big blow early and the Buffaloes never got off the mat. 

Central Washington improves to 2-1 and West Texas A&M falls to 1-3.

LSC Standings

Week 4 Preview

For the fourth straight week, the LSC has 3 teams in the D2Football.com top 25, with Angelo State and UTPB in the top 10.  UTPB (home for MSU) and Central Washington (at WNMU) will be in action this week while Angelo State gets the week off to rehab Braeden Fuller some more.  Sul Ross State finally gets their first home game of 2025 as Kingsville visits.  And then we have maybe the closest game of the week with WT hosting Western Oregon, who would love nothing more than to get their fifth straight win over the Buffaloes.

All games are on Saturday, September 27.  All game times are in the Central time zone.

Midwestern State at #7 Texas-Permian Basin (Game at Midland, TX), 6:00 PM

Series History: Midwestern State leads 6-3

Last meeting: 2024 (Texas-Permian Basin won 27-3)

Midwestern State has had plenty of passing yards, but the running game and defense have been mixed bags, and the defense did very little right against ENMU.  Now they face a UTPB team that has been grinding opposing defenses to dust with effective rushing and passing games.  I would be quite concerned about the Mustang defense if I was an MSU fan going into this game.  MSU had quite a bit of difficulty stopping ENMU last week, and now they face an offense that is deeper in UTPB.  MSU could be in big trouble this week. 

For MSU, Jakolby Longino should be able to find Demonte Greene and his receiver friends enough to get MSU in striking distance on some drives and maybe even score some points, but I don’t expect MSU to finish enough drives and defend well enough to stay in the game.  UTPB’s superior depth and talent on both sides of the ball should keep the Falcons ahead for most of the game.  Texas-Permian Basin by 17 points.

Texas A&M-Kingsville at Sul Ross State, 7:00 PM

Series History: Texas A&M-Kingsville leads 32-7-1

Last meeting: 2024 (Texas A&M-Kingsville won 56-21)

Texas A&M-Kingsville has been keeping games close against solid opposition but the defense wasn’t able to hold out for a full 60 minutes in those games against consistent offensive pressure.  Sul Ross State – I’ve already gone into their difficulties at length (like giving up 65 points per game) and I think that continuing to do so could distract from the task at hand, which is to evaluate this matchup.  All I will say is this – until Sul Ross has the resources to recruit and develop players who have more of a physical presence, especially up front, only then can they begin to improve.  How well they are progressing toward that goal should be clearer against non-Division 1 opposition, but the Western Oregon game wasn’t a promising sign.  I hope Sul Ross fans can practice patience, because this week’s probably going to be another rough one.  I don’t see them being able to put enough pressure on the Javelina defense to tire them, or defend well enough to keep the Kingsville offense out of the end zone.  Texas A&M-Kingsville by 24 points. 

Western Oregon at West Texas A&M, 7:00 PM

Series History: Western Oregon leads 4-0

Last meeting: 2024 (Western Oregon won 24-16)

Lou: Who is that?
Charlie: Must be Cerrano. Defected from Cuba, wanted religious freedom.
Lou: What's his religion?
Charlie: Voodoo.

- Major League

There will come a day (I think) when West Texas A&M beats Western Oregon to put to rest whatever voodoo curse the Wolves have over the Buffaloes.  Some of the most unexpected and strange results in recent LSC history have come from this matchup, and amazingly WT hasn’t won any of them.  The Buffaloes desperately need to find something on offense that isn’t directly tied to the arms and legs of RJ Martinez, or else opposing defenses will try to key on Martinez like CWU did last week (but CWU’s defense is more highly-regarded that WOU’s, who to their credit is still a hard-nosed group). 

I’ve gone back in my past columns, and it turns out I’ve made picks of all four previous matchups and I picked WT in all of them.  So, I’m apologizing to Wolves fans in advance since it’s quite possible I’ll get this one wrong again.  I really don’t know what WT has outside of Martinez, and being the optimist I can’t imagine the Buffaloes going into full desperation mode this week if they get hit with another haymaker like CWU did.  They’ll get some points because the passing game will certainly give WOU some problems, but they’ve only had sustained success in the second half in the WNMU game.  Between that and their defensive inconsistency, it has me leaning slightly to the Wolves.  Western Oregon by a field goal.   

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097815/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_major%2520league

#18 Central Washington at Western New Mexico, 7:00 PM

Series History: Central Washington leads 7-0

Last meeting: 2023 (Central Washington won 36-0)

After taking care of the WT passing game CWU tries their hand with another pass-happy team in Western New Mexico.   Connor Ackerley has put up strong numbers and the Mustangs have scored their share of points (36 per game), but the defense has done little to hold back any opposition and are now one of two LSC teams to average over 50 points given up per game at 51 points per game. 

CWU will try to get Kennedy McGill the space to do what he does best, and I expect they will with their veteran offensive line.  WNMU has enough offensive talent to maybe hang with the Wildcats for a half if they can find the end zone.  However, the CWU defense, like Angelo State, is one of the toughest in the LSC to score against, and I expect they will be able to adjust if WNMU starts off strong.  Then there’s WNMU’s biggest problem, which is their defense, and when your defense is within hailing distance of 65-point per game Sul Ross State, there’s no way I’m picking you to win (except maybe if you’re playing Sul Ross).  Central Washington by 24 points. 

#6 Angelo State and Eastern New Mexico have the week off.