The Mustangs continued their dominant 2011 season in Blackwater Draw, New Mexico on Saturday afternoon.
Midwestern State advanced to 8-0 on the season and 7-0 in Lone Star Conference play, beating the Greyhounds of Eastern New Mexico, 57-34.
The Mustangs put up 492 yards of total offense, 339 coming on the ground. That’s eight straight games of over 250 yards of rushing for the Mustangs.
The rushing attack was lead by Lester Bush. Even though he only rushed for 37 yards on the day, three of his eight touches were for touchdowns.
Keidrick Jackson led in yardage for the Mustangs, putting up 128 yards on the ground and one touchdown. This was Jacksons third 100-yard game of the season.
Quarterback Brandon Kelsey rushed nine times for 89 yards and a touchdown. Freshman Jimmy Pipkin saw six touches for 66 yards and a touchdown. Peter Smith had six carries for 24 yards.
Altogether, the Mustangs rushed 40 times for six touchdowns and averaged 8.5 yards per carry on the day, and each running back had at least one run of over 13 yards. Even on a rush-heavy day, the Mustangs still found the end zone through the air.
Kelsey was 12-for-13, with no picks, for two touchdowns and 143 yards. Back-up quarterback Jake Glover’s one pass of the game was completed for ten yards.
Kelsey found Edgar Theliar in the end zone yet again this week. Theliar led the Mustangs with five catches for 57 yards and a touchdown.
MSU’s other receiving touchdown came on a 31-yard completion to Kelvin Swanson, his only catch of the day.
Sheldon Galloway caught three passes for 25 yards. David Little had two catches for 15 yards. In addition to his rushing performance, Jimmy Pipkin had a catch for 15 yards. Matt Tanner also had a catch of the day for ten yards.
Pat Gardner led the defense with nine tackles. Antwon Dixon had eight and Ty Duncan had seven. The Mustangs’ defense came up with six tackles for loss and a sack.
The offense went a perfect six for six in the Red Zone on Saturday, all for touchdowns. The Mustangs stayed perfect in the end zone on the season, going 43 for 43, 40 being touchdowns.
The Mustangs have already put up a total of 432 points in this record-breaking season. That’s an average of 54 points a game. They’re on pace to break another record, with several games left in the season. The record for MSU right now for points in a single season is 489, set in 2007.
The Mustangs started the scoring on their opening drive, that went for 69 yards and was capped off by a 5-yard touchdown rush by Bush.
Eastern New Mexico answered though, going 60 yards for a touchdown, but the extra point attempt failed, putting the Mustangs up 7-6.
The Mustangs responded with a five-minute, 79-yard drive that ended in a Edgar Theliar 8-yard touchdown pass from Kelsey, but the Greyhounds pounced back on a 1-yard run to make it 14-13. The back-and-forth would continue until, with eight minutes left in the half, it was 21-20 MSU. And it was all MSU until the fourth quarter.
The Mustangs scored twice more in the first half, with two more Bush runs, from a yard and two yards out, to put the Mustangs up 35-20 at the half, their third consecutive 35-point half.
Kelsey kicked off the scoring in the second half with a 19 yard touchdown run to put the Mustangs up 42-20.
And with just under four minutes left in the third quarter, Swanson caught a 31-yard touchdown pass, and Bush ran in the two-point conversion to put the Mustangs up 50-20, entering the fourth quarter.
Five seconds in, Eastern New Mexico scored again, only to be answered a minute after by a 41-yard Pipkin run for a touchdown. The Greyhounds scored one more time before the day was done, and that’s how it ended.
With the win, the Mustangs jumped to their first 8-0 start in school history and to fifth in the rankings, their highest ranking in school history.
The Mustangs close out conference play in their last home game of the season Saturday at 2 p.m. at Memorial Stadium.