SAN ANGELO – The Angelo State football team waited 69 years to play on campus and the Rams put on a show in front of a home crowd of 5,870 defeating Western State 38-6 in the inaugural game at LeGrand Stadium at 1
st Community Credit Union Field on Saturday night.
The Rams (1-0) rolled to 607 total yards of offense while limiting Western State (1-1)to just 288 yards of total offense one week after gaining 496 yards. The Mountaineers were held to 82 yards on the ground.
Kyle Washington threw for a career-high 396 yards, including touchdown passes to
Anthony Yancy and
Talon Smith. The 396 passing yards is the ninth most in a single game in ASU history. The Humble native rushed for 60 yards on 11 carries and added two more touchdowns on the ground.
The Rams defense forced a three and out on the first drive of the game to give the offense the ball on the 42-yard line. The first touchdown scored at LeGrand Stadium at 1
st Community Credit Union Field was a 1-yard run by
Blake Smith. The senior led the Rams rushing attack with 83 yards on the ground and averaged 4.9 yards per carry.
ASU's defense limited WSCU to only 50 yards in the first quarter and gave the offense the ball two more times in the first quarter.
The second drive of the game resulted in the first touchdown pass with an 8-yard pass from Washington to Smith to push the Rams lead to 14-0. Washington found pay dirt for the first time on the ground at the end of the first quarter on a 5-yard run to extend the lead to 21-0.
Western State Colorado would score its only points of the game on a 24-yard run by Austin Ekeler with 3:52 to go in the second quarter.
The Rams defense continued to improve throughout the game. ASU forced a punt to start the third quarter and would only allow 90 yards of offense in the second half to the Mountaineers.
Dakarai Peciknois returned to the field after sitting out last season due to an injury and showed his skills in the third quarter. The senior made an acrobatic catch on a 29-yard pass from Washington to setup an 18-yard field goal by
Peter Marquez to make it 24-6.
Pecikonis led all receivers with a career high with 163 receiving yards on nine catches.
The Rams defense was led by
Blair Smith's 11 tackles and
Rush Seaver's nine stops.
Clayton Callicutt had a field day recording three and a half sacks and five tackles for loss.
Overall, ASU forced seven punts and two turnovers on downs during the game while recorded 6.0 sacks and 11 tackles for loss.
Doug Elliot gave the defense its first turnover of the season with his first career interception as a Ram in the fourth quarter.
Yancy would score the final touchdown of the game taking a pitch from Washington 28 yards.
The Rams will open Lone Star Conference play next week against McMurry on Saturday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. at LeGrand Stadium at 1st Community Credit Union Field.
