Saturday, November 3, 2018 was the Western New Mexico University football team’s last home game of the season and it was certainly a hard-fought game. The team came up short in the last home game of the season to the #2 team in the division and championship contenders Midwestern state out of Wichita Falls, Texas. Coming into this game, our team knew that it was going to be a rough and difficult challenge to beat this successful and established team.
The football team came and played their hearts out and fans of Western New Mexico football really enjoyed watching the game. There was a great turnout in the crowd and everyone was there proudly cheered on our fellow mustangs. The crowd was on the edge of their seats it seemed every second of the game until the clock ran out. This had to be the best, if not one of the best, crowds Western has had in a very long time.
The team came out in the 1st quarter and kicked the ball to Midwestern State. Our defense came out on fire and forced them to punt on their 1st drive. It was interesting to watch because all of the quarterbacks for Western New Mexico were injured and we were down to 1 Quarterback by the name of Raemos Fano and boy did he have himself a game today!
Raemos, in his debut as a Mustang rushed for a touchdown, threw a touchdown and caught a 2-point conversion in his 1st time as a starting quarterback in collegiate football. Raemos Fano ended the day completing 14 out of 26 of his passes while throwing 201 yards and 2 touchdowns. It was a back and forth shootout on the offensive side of the ball as both teams went back and forth scoring touchdowns. Western held the lead pretty much the whole game until the end of the 4th quarter. While Western was down 28-21 in the end of the 3rd quarter they overcame adversity and scored a on a 37-yard pass to Issac Crichton who had an outstanding game and finished the game with 2 touchdowns, 4 receptions and 66 yards receiving. We scored but couldn’t convert on the extra point and then kicked it off to Midwestern State. Midwestern then marched down the field on an 8-play drive totaling 77 yards which led them to score another touchdown to put them up 35-27.
Our mustangs did not back down at all in this battle between our division rivals. They kept fighting hard and overcoming the adversity that they faced. The Junior Running Back Deandre Williams who just came off a career high game last week came into the game and busted out 71 yards for a mustang touchdown to tie the game up 35-35. That play by Deandre Williams had got everyone hyped including the players and the crowd. Top of the 4th quarter Midwestern answered back and scored on a 54 yard run. The Mustangs still had a chance to go down the field and score with the game being 42-35 midway through the 4th quarter. We ended up not converting and getting a 1st day which caused a turnover on downs. With no timeouts left Midwestern State ran down the clock and put the game away on senior day.
Overall, our mustang football players came and played their hearts out and battled and gave the crowd a show throughout the whole game. After this performance many people including the players, coaches, students as well as people in the community are proud to be called Mustangs. Congratulations to our senior Mustang football players!
