Balanced offense leads Tiger football to season-opening victory

Story by ELI BLANKINSHIP Photos by JORDYN BREDENGERG

After a very rainy Thursday night, the Fort Hays State University Tiger football team kicked off its season at Lewis Field Stadium Friday afternoon in a rescheduled game due to multiple lightning delays on Thursday. In a physical game where both teams earned multiple penalties during their first drives, FHSU (RV) defeated #24 Angelo State 21-7, snapping their four-game home-opener losing streak and earning its first home-opener victory since 2018.

FHSU (1-0) quarterback Jack Dawson threw for 271 yards on 23-36 passing. The key to the Tiger’s win over the Rams came down to the short passing game. Dawson found tremendous success when trusting his receivers in this matchup. FHSU spread the ball around against ASU (0-1), with four different receivers netting 40 or more yards. 

Trevor Watts lead the charge for the receiving core, hauling in six receptions for 73 yards, good for 12.2 yards per reception. Additionally, running back Shane Watts was utilized as both a receiver and a running back, with 62 receiving yards and 61 rushing yards. Shane also had two of the Tiger’s three touchdowns: one in the air and one on the ground.

For new offensive coordinator Tom Ross, this was a good opportunity to prove his keep and he did exactly that. Not only did the Tigers have 345 total yards on offense, but they threw for 271 yards against one of the toughest pass defenses from the 2023 season. 

Defensively the Tigers dominated from the get-go, allowing only 160 yards of offense, and one touchdown, and forced the Rams to punt eight times. The second half was a big defensive battle for both teams with the first score coming early in the fourth quarter from the Tigers. The nail in the coffin for ASU was a forced fumble by Ty Cooper, giving  FHSU a redzone possession leading to a touchdown and extending their lead to 14.

“[My] strategy was to be physical, and let them [ASU] know that the MIAA is physical,” FHSU safety Benyon Williams said. “We knew that coming from a different conference that they didn’t know how we were going to play, so we knew we had to be the more physical team.”

This week, the Tigers are slated to take on an MIAA conference opponent, the 1-0 Missouri Western State Griffons. FHSU has struggled against the Griffons in recent years, going 1-5 vs MWSU since 2017 and losing five straight games in that stretch.  Kickoff is set for 7 pm on Saturday at Lewis Field Stadium.