ABILENE The UTPB football team’s eight-game winning streak came to an end Saturday at the hands of a Division I opponent in Abilene Christian University.
Despite keeping the game a close affair in the early minutes, Abilene Christian capitalized on some key turnovers to defeat the Falcons 34-9 at Anthony Field at Wildcat Stadium.
“I thought our guys played well,” UTPB head coach Justin Carrigan said after the loss. “Outside of that, we continued to fight and we’ll bounce back.”
After throwing an interception on its first drive of the game, UTPB took over after Abilene Christian missed a field goal from the opponent’s 20 yard line.
The Falcons managed a 12-play, 38-yard drive that took off 5:14 from the clock in the first quarter.
They took a large chunk of time off the clock, but they couldn’t capitalize with a score as the drive stalled at the Wildcats’ 42.
The following drive proved to be a bit more fruitful for the Falcons, as they drove 29 yards down the field in less than two minutes to set up Carson Roberts for a 35-yard field goal to put UTPB up 3-0 with 52 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
Abilene Christian tied the game up early in the second quarter when Blair Zepeda hit a 30-yard field goal and that started a scoring burst for the Wildcats before the halftime break.
Momentum swung in Abilene Christian’s direction as the half came to a close when its defense forced three turnovers with a forced fumble, an interception and blocked punt.
The Wildcats scored 17 unanswered points in the final minute of the second quarter to take a 27-3 lead into the intermission.
UTPB was able to hold the Wildcats to seven points scored in the entire second half, but they couldn’t get much going offensively.
Carrigan also gave backup quarterback Suddin Sapien snaps starting in the third quarter.
Jayvon Davis would score the Falcons only touchdown of the contest, a 13-yard run in the fourth quarter.
“We’d get a little bit of momentum and then we’d hand it right back,” Carrigan said. “Stuff like that provides a little bit of hope that you’re able to do some things, but you have to be able to sustain drives.”
UTPB will now turn its attention to Western New Mexico at 7 p.m. next Saturday in Silver City, N.M..
>>Follow Chris Amaya on Twitter at @OA_CAmaya
