Football finishes season 1-9 after 49-0 defeat in West Texas

CANYON, Texas --The 2011 A&M-Commerce football season came to a disappointing close Saturday afternoon as the Lions were held off the scoreboard, dropping a 49-0 decision to West Texas A&M at Kimbrough Memorial Stadium. A&M-Commerce closes out the year 1-9 overall and 1-7 in Lone Star Conference play.

Little went right for the Lions on the final Saturday of the season as the Buffaloes dominated across the board, posting 481 yards of total offense on the afternoon compared to just 142 for A&M-Commerce. The Lions managed just 68 passing yards and 74 yards on the ground while West Texas accumulated 439 yards through the air.

J.J. Harp began the game at quarterback for A&M-Commerce, completing two of six passes for 25 yards and an interception before leaving the game in the first quarter with an injury. Ryan Lusby closed out the game by completing 15-of-32 passes for 43 yards with two interceptions.

Seth Smith led the Lion receiving corps with five catches for 25 yards, while Taylor Fore pulled in four catches for 13 yards. With the four receptions, Fore upped his season total to 58 catches, tying Victor Bennett's mark in 2003 for the program record for most catches in a single season. Marcus Graham also had four receptions for five yards.

On the ground, Graham was held to just five yards as he closes out his career with 1,990 career rushing yards. That places him eighth all-time in program history, surpassing Cliff Edwards (2005-06) and sitting just 10 yards shy of becoming the sixth player in A&M-Commerce history to rush for 2,000 yards in his career.

Jamar Mosley led the Lion rushing attack with 36 yards on seven carries with Smith accumulating 19 yards on three carries. Travis Zacharie carried the ball four times, racking up 18 yards.

Defensively, it was Bryn Roy that led the Lions, posting seven tackles on the day, including four unassisted, with a tackle for loss. Joel Wren finished with six stops with Danny Mason and Matt Claggett each posting five. Linebacker Cory Whitfield closed out his A&M-Commerce career with four tackles, giving him 103 on the year and averaging 10.3 per game. Brandon Turner recorded his first career sack while Israel Hughes notched his first interception of the season.

The game got off to an ominous start for A&M-Commerce after exchanging punts, West Texas A&M broke off an 82-yard pass and catch from Dustin Vaughan to Lance Ratliff to take a 7-0 lead with 9:13 remaining in the first quarter. The Buffs added a one-yard touchdown run from Khiry Robinson and another Vaughan-to-Ratliff connection, this time from 19 yards out, to take a commanding 21-0 lead after the first quarter.

In the second quarter, West Texas began the Luke Halpin-Brittan Golden connection as the duo connected for three consecutive touchdown passes, one from 11 yards, one from 43 yards and another from 24 yards over the next two quarters, building a 42-0 lead after three. One last touchdown pass in the fourth gave the Buffaloes the final 49-0 margin of victory, extending their winning streak over the Lions to four games.

The two-quarterback duo of Halpin and Vaughan picked apart the Lion defense all afternoon. Halpin completed 12-of-21 passes for 187 yards and three touchdowns while Vaughan was six-of-13 for 184 yards and a pair of touchdown passes. Golden and Ratliff both surpassed 100 receiving yards on the day, with Ratliff catching three passes for 145 yards and two scores while Golden had four catches for 138 yards and three touchdowns.

The Lions were held scoreless in a game for the first time since a 35-0 defeat at Texas A&M-Kingsville in 2008, while the 49-point margin of defeat was the most for the Lions since a 51-0 loss at Angelo State in 1975.