Box Score ARLINGTON – Fourth-quarter turnovers cost No. 12 Tarleton State Saturday night as the Texans fell to Florida Tech 37-31 at AT&T in a shootout at the Lone Star Conference Football Festival.
 
"That was two good football teams playing out there," said Tarleton head coach Cary Fowler. "I told our team all week how good they (FIT) were. I thought there were times when we didn't play very well and we were right there at the end of it.
 
"The one positive thing I can take from it is we never gave up and we kept fighting," he continued. "Now we've got to regroup and get ready for Midwestern State next week."
 
The teams combined for 1,102 yards of offense with Tarleton accounting for 572 yards on 91 offensive plays. The Texans had 218 yards on the ground on 53 attempts.
 
Tarleton State got the scoring started when Zach Henshaw capped off a 10-play, 74-yard drive with a run from four yards out. The Blake Barnes point after gave the Texans a 7-0 lead with 7:39 to go in the opening quarter.
 
After Florida Tech knotted the score with a four-yard run of its own, it took the Texans only 11 seconds to respond with a big-strike touchdown from Collin Strahan to Bubba Tandy. The sophomore receiver beat the single coverage on the outside and Strahan hit him in stride with nothing but AT&T Stadium turf in front of him.
 
Halfway through the second quarter, the Panthers scored a pair of touchdowns on back-to-back drives for a 21-14 lead with just under four minutes left in the opening half.
 
The Texans would not be content to go into the break trailing, however, as Blake Barnes drilled a 32-yard field goal with 1:18 left in the half and after the Texan defense forced a three-and-out, Strahan led the charge down the field once more and connected with Le'Nard Meyers on a 21-yard touchdown on the last play of the first half to take a 24-21 lead into the break.
 
Out of halftime, Florida Tech scored 10 unanswered points – including the only score of the third quarter – to lead 31-24 with 14:12 left in the fourth quarter.
 
After an interception by Tarleton gave the ball back to the Panthers, the Tarleton defense came up with a crucial turnover of its own when Damien Ward pounced on a loose football to give the ball back to Tarleton.
 
The Texans wasted no time in driving 32 yards in four plays, culminating in a seven-yard run to pay dirt by Strahan to even the score at 31-31 with 8:56 left in the game.
 
Florida Tech took the ensuing possession 75 yards in 14 plays for a touchdown, but the Texans blocked the point after touchdown attempt to keep the FIT lead at only six with 3:50 left in the game. Tarleton, however, could not capitalize as the Texans fumbled the first play of the fresh drive to give the Panthers a new drive with 3:40 left.
 
Trailing by six, time winding down in the game and Tarleton having just fumbled to give Florida Tech new life inside the Tarleton 30-yard line, the Texan defense held true and then Tarleton blocked its third field goal of the night to give the Texan offense one final drive to win the game.
 
However, the offense couldn't get in the end zone as Strahan threw his second interception on a hail-mary attempt with no time left to end the game.
 
Strahan threw for 305 yards on 23-39 passing with a pair of touchdowns. He also threw two interceptions, one of which came on the final hail-mary attempt. He also ran for 75 yards on 16 carries.
 
Bubba Tandy was his primary target through the air, hauling in seven receptions for 154 yards and a touchdown. Meyers also had 67 yards on five catches and a score. Zach Henshaw added 84 yards on the ground for the Texans.
 
For the second straight week, Marc Martinez and Devin Figures led the team in tackles. Martinez recorded 14 stops while Figures accounted for 13 from the safety position.
 
Tarleton will make their home debut Saturday at 7 p.m. when they host Midwestern State for Family Weekend in Stephenville.