STEPHENVILLE – Tarleton led from start to finish in a dominating display against Texas-Permian Basin with a 48-20 win on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
 
The Texans (2-3, 2-1) were led by another strong performance from junior quarterback Zed Woerner, who put Tarleton up 7-0 early in the first quarter on a 42-yard touchdown pass to Del'Michael High. On the ensuing UTPB possession, it was Cody Burtscher, the Texans' leader in tackles, who came up with an interception and returned the ball all the way to the Falcons' 2-yard line, setting up Joseph Sadler on the following play to pound his way into the end zone for a quick 14-0 lead in the first three minutes in the game. Sadler finished with 45 yards on the ground.
 
After UTPB made it a 14-7 game, the Texans capped off a tone-setting first quarter on Basil Jackson's interception that was returned 41 yards for a touchdown as the clock ran out in the opening quarter for a 21-7 advantage.
 
Turnovers were a major factor for the Texans in last week's loss at West Texas A&M. However, the mishaps were cleaned up as Tarleton was the one to force UTPB into four turnovers with the Texans having none. In addition to the two interceptions, Basil Jackson and Trent Gow recovered fumbles for the Tarleton defense with EJ Speed forcing a loose ball in the third quarter. Tarleton scored 20 points off UTPB turnovers.
 
Woerner was at it again to start the second quarter, leading the Texans down field on a 67-yard drive with a 31-yard pass to High that put Tarleton in the red zone and later connecting with Jeff Thomas, who broke two tackles and carried three Falcon defenders on his back into the end zone for a 24-yard touchdown reception and a 28-7 lead. It was Thomas' first career touchdown as a Texan and finished the game with 54 yards on three catches.
 
The Texan defense forced a three-and-out by the UTPB offense and Bubba Tandy returned the punt 44 yards to the UTPB 15. It only took Woerner one play from there, finding Jabari Anderson on a 15-yard pass for the touchdown that gave Tarleton a 35-7 first-half lead. Sergio Sroka drilled a 20-yard field goal later in the half that sent Tarleton to the locker room up 38-7.
 
Tarleton opened the second half like they started the game and it was Woerner's arm that kept the momentum moving forward. Woerner completed all three passes on the drive with the final pass ending up in High's hands for a 31-yard touchdown to go up 45-13.
 
In just three quarters of play, Woerner threw for 289 yards on 17-of-24 passing and tied a career high with four touchdown passes. On the season, Woerner has thrown for 1,078 yards with 12 touchdowns and only one interception. High had a breakout game for the Texans, hauling in six passes for a career-high 153 yards and two scores. High has four touchdowns in his last four games. With High's 100-yard game, Tarleton now has three different 100-yard receivers (Tandy, Thomas) in the last two games.
 
The 48 points for Tarleton was a season high, and also made head coach Todd Whitten a perfect 25-0 when the Texans score 40 or more points in his career.
 
Tarleton's defense held UTPB to 359 yards of offense, with most of the yards coming in the second half when the game was already out of reach. It's the second lowest yardage total the Texan defense has allowed this season, trailing Angelo State's 222 and both outings resulting in wins.
 
Burtscher recorded a career-high 15 tackles and now has an LSC-leading 56 tackles on the year. Chris Radford applied pressure to the UTPB quarterback all game, coming up with three hurries and 0.5 sacks to go along with six tackles. Birdel Hodge had a game-high 1.5 sacks.
 
Tarleton will host Western New Mexico on Saturday, Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. at Memorial Stadium.