SAN ANGELO – Tarleton held a 21-14 halftime lead on the road against Angelo State but was outscored 43-3 in the second half and defeated by the Rams 57-24.
 
The Texans put up 411 yards of offense in the first two quarters and quarterback Zed Woerner had 302 passing yards at the half. However, Angelo State's quarterback Kyle Washington, the national leader for total yards, threw for 337 yards and five touchdowns to go along with 155 rushing yards and a score to lead the Rams' second-half surge.
 
Woerner and the Texan offense were able to go off in the first half because of the playmaking abilities of senior wide receiver Le'Nard Meyers. The senior from Gatesville lit up the box score with three touchdowns in the second quarter – all of which either tied the score or gave Tarleton the lead.
 
Trailing 7-0 in the second quarter, Meyers hauled in a 31-yard pass from Woerner to tie the game at 7. Four minutes later after the Rams scored on a 91-yard pass from Washington to Donovan Thompson, Meyers found the end zone on a 14-yard pass to tie the score.
 
With under a minute to go in the half and tied at 14, Tarleton was able to have the advantage heading into the locker room when Meyers showed his athleticism on a 66-yard catch-and-run touchdown where he leaped over the defensive back and cut towards the middle of the field for the go-ahead score.
 
Meyers finished with 12 receptions for 150 yards, which tied the Tarleton all-time record for career 100-yard games with 10 that's held by Devin Guinn.
 
In the second half, Washington scored on a 66-yard run to tie the game at 21. On the ensuing possession, Tarleton marched down the field to the Angelo 15 but was forced to settle for a 37-yard field goal by Blake Barnes that pushed the Texans ahead 24-21.
 
The Texans got the stop they needed when Thompson needed 39 yards for a touchdown, but was chased down by Brandon Moore who swatted the ball free from the Angelo receiver at the one-yard line and was recovered by Kevin Baker in the end zone for a touchback.
 
Tarleton couldn't get the offense generated in the second half to match the first-half momentum and the Rams responded with 36 unanswered points to pull away from Tarleton, including 29 fourth-quarter points.
 
Woerner finished with 396 passing yards on 40-of-64 passing with three touchdowns and two interceptions. For Woerner, it's the second time this season he completed 40 passes and the first time since 1970 that a Tarleton quarterback threw more than 60 passes in a game.
 
Of his 40 completions, 14 of them went to Cooper Cole, who set a career high in receptions and yards with 88. Bubba Tandy also caught six passes for 81 yards. Joseph Sadler led the rushing attack with 69 yards on the ground.
 
Defensively, Cody Burtscher and Chase Varnado each had 11 tackles with Burtscher and Tavaris Owens recording the only sacks for the Texan defense.
 
With the loss, Tarleton falls to 2-6 overall and 1-5 in the Lone Star Conference to earn the No. 6 seed for the LSC playoff system. The Texans will host No. 7-seed Texas A&M-Kingsville, who Tarleton defeated 38-34 earlier in the season, on Saturday, November 7 at 7 p.m.