Tarleton State Stays Unbeaten, Outlasts Austin Peay 40-32
The first half did it. Tarleton State led Austin Peay 23-10 at the break, and then lost the second half 22-17 and still walked out with a 40-32 win. Fantasy managers who like points will tell you that was a fine afternoon for everybody. Only one of them has to explain the loss.
Austin Peay scored first, a 23-yard Hamilton DiBoyan field goal, and that was the only lead it ever had. Tanner Schmidt caught a 34-yard touchdown from Kaden Anderson to make it 7-3, Alejandro De La Poza kicked a field goal, Anderson threw a six-yard score to Kyle Thompson (the extra point failed), and Miequle Brock ran in from 16 yards. That was 23-3 with 8:05 left in the second quarter. Chris Parson answered with a three-yard run before halftime, and it kept coming from there: Parson ran again in the third, Matthew Wilson ran one in with a two-point conversion in the fourth, and Denver Harper caught an 11-yard touchdown from Parson with 3:47 left to cut it to 40-32. Before that, Markellus Bass had put Tarleton up 40-25 with a four-yard catch from James Paige at 7:55. Austin Peay got within eight and no closer, and that was all the Governors had left to give.
Tarleton State outgained Austin Peay 497 yards to 386, with Anderson's 347 in the air doing the damage, and sacked the Governors three times. Austin Peay fumbled once, Tarleton threw one interception. Tarleton is 5-0, and Austin Peay is 5-1 with a loss it can say it earned the hard way.