STEPHENVILLE – Tarleton saw a 17-0 halftime lead slip away in the second half as Texas A&M-Kingsville scored the final 21 points to stun the Texans 21-17 on homecoming night at Memorial Stadium on Saturday.
 
The loss snapped Tarleton's season-long 3-game winning streak and dropped the Texans back to .500 on the year at 4-4 overall and 4-2 in the Lone Star Conference.
 
Tarleton's first-half defense was the best its been all season by holding A&M-Kingsville without a point and it was on display during the Javelina's opening drive of the game when Elliott Hart intercepted a Myles Carr pass at the TAMUK 34. The interception put Tarleton in excellent field position and the Texans capitalized when Zed Woerner connected with Bubba Tandy for a 6-yard touchdown pass for the early 7-0 lead. Tandy finished with 56 yards on four catches.
 
Tarleton's second drive of the game didn't start as favorable as the first in terms of field position, but the results remained the same. Starting at their own 8-yard line, Woerner led the Texans down field by completing six of his nine passes, including a 34-yard strike to Tandy to move past midfield, and capped the 13-play, 92-yard drive off on a 4-yard touchdown pass to his go-to red zone target, Del'Michael High. High finished with a game-high 73 yards on five catches.
 
Woerner has an LSC-leading 21 touchdown passes with nine coming from the hands of High. High, who leads the LSC with his nine touchdown receptions and also has a team-high 623 yards on 41 catches, is now seventh on Tarleton's single-season touchdown receptions list. Le'Nard Meyers holds the school record with 15 set last season.
 
A&M-Kingsville appeared to be on its way to a scoring drive in the second quarter when the Javelina's connected on a 30-yard field goal but after a roughing the kicker penalty on the Texans, Kingsville accepted the penalty and would later get the first down on a 3-yard run. The following play for the Javelina's resulted in Tyrique Murray forcing a Kingsville fumble that was recovered by Treston Ridge at the Tarleton 4-yard line to keep the shutout intact.
 
Tarleton would later add a 22-yard field goal by Sergio Sroka for what would be the final points of the game for the Texans with 4:22 left in the first half.
 
The Texans forced three Javelina turnovers in the first half, the third one coming on Dominique Martin's third interception of the year. Martin, Cody Burtscher and Treston Ridge all have three interceptions for the Texans this season, which is tied for the most in the LSC. Burtshcer led the Texan defense with 11 tackles, giving the senior an LSC-leading 93 tackles on the year.
 
In the second half, however, it was all A&M-Kingsville and its defensive pressure on Woerner. The Javelina's had eight sacks in the game and 13 tackles for loss.
 
Defense led to offense for A&M-Kingsville, as the Javelina's first two drives of the second half resulted in field goals that made it a 17-6 lead for Tarleton heading into the fourth quarter. Tarleton's seven drives in the second half consisted of five punts and two turnovers on downs.
 
Carr gave A&M-Kingsville its first touchdown of the game to start the fourth quarter on a 4-yard pass to Stehly Reden and Luis Lopez ran in the 2-point conversion to make it a 17-14 Tarleton lead with 12:49 remaining.
 
The Javelina's scored the game-winning touchdown on a 29-yard pass from Carr to Reden with 2:36 to go. The Texans go one last chance to win the game when EJ Speed forced his LSC-leading fifth fumble that was recovered by Chase Varnado and returned to the Kingsville 41 with 1:05 left. However, Woerner was sacked twice and threw two incompletions on the drive and Kingsville would run out the clock.
 
Tarleton managed only 251 yards of offense in the game compared to Kingsville's 362. Woerner threw for 230 of the yards on 18 of 35 passing and the two touchdowns.
 
The Texans will travel to Goodwell, Oklahoma on Saturday, Oct. 29 to take on Oklahoma Panhandle State at 1 p.m.