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Lone Star Conference Football: Three Big Takeaways After Week 7

Lone Star Conference Football: Three Big Takeaways After Week 7

Here’s a look back at some of the top takeaways following Week 7 in Lone Star Conference football.

Oct 15, 2024 by Briar Napier
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Ten Lone Star Conference football teams started conference play last month with high hopes and a blank slate.

After Week 7, we are now down to just two unbeaten teams in the LSC standings — and neither the defending champion nor a once top 10-ranked team are among them.

Just another weekend in the wild, wild world of Lone Star Conference football.

Here’s a look back at some of the top takeaways following Week 7 in Lone Star Conference football:

Flying Falcons Stun CWU

Just when it looked like Texas Permian Basin’s fire had run out and the defending LSC champion had lost its luster, it came out and pulled off the shocker of the conference season to date.

The fact that it was an upset of a top-10 team, too, was an added bonus for the Falcons.

UTPB quarterback — and true freshman — Issac Mooring scored both of the Falcons’ touchdowns on the ground in his first collegiate start, but his poise in never giving the ball back up to Central Washington for the final 8:31 of play was especially impressive in UTPB’s 14-13 victory over the then No. 9-ranked Wildcats on Saturday in Ellensburg.


With UTPB being clobbered 36-7 by Angelo State the week prior in a game in which the Falcons lost starting quarterback Dylan Graham, Houston native Mooring was given the start in his place this past weekend with the tall order of trying to steer a Falcons offense in the right direction on the road against a CWU defense featuring the defending Cliff Harris Award winner, safety Tanner Volk.

Unfazed by the challenge, Mooring, even with his inexperience as he only had 20 career passes going into this week, led UTPB to its highest-ranked win in program history.

Both of the Falcons’ scoring drives were over 10 plays long as they had no interest in letting the Wildcats’ offense get in a flow, while the UTPB defense limited the impact of CWU quarterback Kennedy McGill through the air as he only completed five passes for 51 yards. All-American CWU running back Tyler Flanagan was also held in check, only managing 68 yards on 20 carries.

McGill was effective with his legs, however, running for 138 yards and two scores. But UTPB answered CWU’s second scoring drive late in the third quarter with a mammoth 15-play scoring drive of its own, which wrapped up with a Mooring keeper from short range with 11:42 to play. The Falcons then forced a punt and didn’t let the Wildcats’ offense see the field again, icing it when CWU ran into kicker Angel Diaz on a field goal attempt to give UTPB a first down with just over a minute left.

With two LSC losses, UTPB will need some help the rest of the way if it wants to go back-to-back with conference championships, but its statement win at CWU showed that no one left on the Falcons’ schedule will be treating them as pushovers.

Rams Run Riot Over Javelinas

The biggest winner from UTPB’s stunner over CWU (besides the Falcons themselves) was Angelo State, of which its LSC title destiny is now completely in its hands after this weekend because of it.

And while the Rams definitely appreciated the Falcons doing some of the dirty work for them in Washington, ASU made plenty of noise itself in Week 7, too.

In a showdown between unbeaten LSC teams, Angelo State romped over Texas A&M-Kingsville 38-0 as the Rams firmly established itself as the conference title favorite on paper with a dominant display in all facets against the Javelinas — who the Rams took down for the 11th straight time. 

Braeden Fuller kept his breakout season under center for the Rams going as he had five total touchdowns (four passing, one rushing) and threw for 332 yards, all while Angelo State’s increasingly nasty defense shut out its second LSC opponent this season as the Rams have now only allowed seven points across their past three games combined.


Held to under 200 yards of total offense, the Javelinas were helpless to get anything going as they only went 2 for 14 on third down and had three turnovers, all while quarterback Teague Sedtal was getting heavily pressured in the pocket as he was sacked six times. ASU’s Stephen Woods had two of those sacks as a defensive back, leading a defense that is one of only two units in the LSC to rank in the top three in the league in both sacks and interceptions across conference play.

The only other team that joins Angelo State with that distinction, Western Oregon, also got to 4-0 in LSC play this past weekend after winning at home (49-20) against Eastern New Mexico. Both teams still need to get through three weeks of football before potentially meeting for a de-facto conference championship game on Nov. 9 at WOU, but the red-hot Rams have looked as dangerous as ever over the past three weeks and now have their ticket to a LSC title if they just keep winning.

Buffs Have Found A Quarterback

Though Kanon Gibson had already thrown 166 passes across nine games as a true freshman for West Texas A&M in 2023, his yardage (1,107) and touchdown (12) numbers through the air weren’t anything spectacular as the Buffaloes trudged to a 3-7 record last season.

Saturday against Western New Mexico ended up being Gibson’s first start of the season after Nebraska-Kearney transfer Sean Johnson was under center for the Buffs’ first five games — and Gibson may have very well solidified himself the starting job for the rest of the season with a fantastic performance.

Gibson was involved in all six of West Texas A&M’s touchdowns in a 42-17 win over the Mustangs in Canyon, throwing for five scores and running in another as he accounted for over 400 yards of total offense (374 passing yards, 36 rushing yards) in the Buffs’ best performance of the season to date. 

The Wink, Texas, native was additionally instrumental in avoiding a late dogfight as he turned a 21-17 Buffs halftime advantage into 21 unanswered second-half points, all of which came via passing touchdowns in the third quarter. Helped by big days from receivers Zorian Stanton (eight catches, 187 yards, two touchdowns) and Tucker Swoboda (three catches, 93 yards, two touchdowns), Gibson was on fire all night and looked exactly like the piece West Texas A&M was missing on offense throughout a four-game losing streak in with the Buffaloes failed to score more than 17 points in any of those defeats. 

West Texas A&M’s 2-4 start was partially due to the fact that it had a brutal four-week stretch of playing three ranked teams (Colorado Mines, Western Colorado, and Central Washington) plus the surging Western Oregon in a row. With some newfound energy under center and a softening schedule, however, watch for the Buffs to be a team with upset-causing potential over the second half of the LSC slate.


AFCA Division II Football Rankings For Week 8

Oct. 14, 2024

  1. Harding (Ark.) (30) - Prev. 1
  2. Grand Valley St. (Mich.) - Prev. 2
  3. Valdosta St. (Ga.) - Prev. 3
  4. Ferris St. (Mich.) - Prev. 4
  5. Kutztown (Pa.) - Prev. 5
  6. Slippery Rock (Pa.) - Prev. 6
  7. Pittsburg St. (Kan.) - Prev. 7
  8. Western Colorado - Prev. 8
  9. Ouachita Baptist (Ark.) - Prev. 10
  10. West Alabama - Prev. 11
  11. Central Oklahoma - Prev. 12
  12. Colorado School of Mines - Prev. 13
  13. Charleston (W.Va.) - Prev. 14
  14. Colorado St.-Pueblo - Prev. 16
  15. Minnesota St. - Prev. 15
  16. Emporia St. (Kan.) - Prev. 18
  17. Lenoir-Rhyne (N.C.) - Prev. 17
  18. Carson-Newman (Tenn.) - Prev. 23
  19. Indianapolis (Ind.) - Prev. 21
  20. Johnson C. Smith (N.C.) - Prev. 22
  21. Central Washington - Prev. 9
  22. Frostburg St. (Md.) - Prev. 24
  23. West Florida - NR
  24. Southern Arkansas - NR
  25. Henderson St. (Ark.) - NR

Dropped Out: Delta State (Miss.) (19), Findlay (Ohio) (20), Indiana (Pa.) (25)

Others Receiving Votes: Augustana (S.D.), 34; Delta St. (Miss.), 19; Virginia Union, 19; Findlay (Ohio), 17; New Haven (Conn.), 12; Wayne St. (Neb.), 12; Angelo St. (Tex.), 11; Colorado Mesa, 8; Emory & Henry (Va.), 8; Saginaw Valley St. (Mich.), 8; Assumption (Mass.), 7; Limestone (S.C.), 7; Sioux Falls (S.D.), 7; Fort Hays St. (Kan.), 6; Ashland (Ohio), 2; Davenport (Mich.), 2; Wingate (N.C.), 2; West Virginia St., 1.

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