STEPHENVILLE – Tarleton football fell in the season opener 35-34 to Findlay at Memorial Stadium.
 
In a rematch of the 1978 NAIA playoffs where Findlay won 13-6, the Texans came up short once again to the Oilers, despite holding a 31-14 lead in the third quarter.
 
After Findlay scored the game's first touchdown on a 2-yard run by Marcus Jones, Le'Nard Meyers hauled in a 50-yard pass from Zed Woerner to put the Texans on the board and tie the score at 7 with 3:26 left in the first quarter.
 
Meyers finished the game with seven receptions for 139 yards. It was Meyers' seventh 100-yard receiving game of the senior's career, moving him into a tie with Will Moody for third all-time in 100-yard receiving games.
 
With Findlay facing a 3^rd-and-7 from the Tarleton 11, Cody Burtscher sacked Findlay's Rhys Gervais and also blocked the 35-yard field goal attempt to switch the early momentum that led to Tarleton's first score.
 
After a 32-yard touchdown pass for Findlay from Gervais to Jason Moore, Tarleton responded by going on a 24-0 run that started with Woerner connecting with Bubba Tandy for a 3-yard touchdown to tie the game at 14 midway through the second quarter.
 
Woerner finished with 21-of-32 passing for 237 yards and two touchdowns and 63 yards rushing on 12 carries.
 
Blake Barnes added a 21-yard field to give Tarleton its first lead at 17-14 with 4:18 left in the first half.
 
After Tarleton forced a Findlay punt with 1:26 left in the half, the Texans took over at their own 43. Three plays later, Jabari Anderson broke free, running untouched up the middle for a 43-yard touchdown to give Tarleton a 24-14 lead going into the locker room. Anderson finished with 79 yards on seven carries to go along with the score.
 
The Texans had 297 yards at half to the Oilers' 232.
 
On Tarleton's opening drive of the second half, Zach Henshaw capped off a 9-play, 65-yard drive by pounding his way in the end zone for a 5-yard touchdown run to pad Tarleton's lead to 31-14, the biggest lead of the game for the Texans.
 
Findlay followed with a 14-0 run of their own when Gervais threw his second and third touchdowns of the game to cut the Texans' lead to 31-28 with 3:57 left in the third quarter. Gervais threw for 343 yards and three touchdowns for the Oilers.
 
Barnes added his second field goal of the game—a 33-yard kick—to give Tarleton a 34-28 lead with 8:25 to go.
 
The following drive, Findlay took the lead after an 83-yard drive was capped off by Jones' second touchdown run of the game, this time from 2 yards out that proved to be the game winner.
 
Defensively, Burtscher led with a game-high 14 tackles along with two sacks and three tackles for loss. Chase Varnado, Tavaris Owens and David Solomon added sacks for the Tarleton defense.
 
Tarleton moves to 0-1 while Findlay improves to 2-0 on the season.
 
Tarleton's next game will be against West Texas A&M on Saturday, Sept. 12  at 3:30 p.m. at AT&T Stadium for the Lone Star Football Festival .