SAN ANGELO, Texas - Junior quarterback and team captain, Ward Anderson went 26-for-43 for 299 yards and two touchdowns through the air and rushed 13 times for 64 yards (4.9 avg) and two more scores on Thursday night in the Yellow Jackets opening loss vs. Angelo State University Rams in San Angelo, Texas.

Although Anderson had 363 yards of total offense and 4 total touchdowns, the Jackets could not overcome a powerful ASU running game that tallied 377 total rushing yards on way to the 38-26 win. 

Head coach in his second season, John Reiners, was pleased to see a multitude of positive things but will be looking for consistency moving forward as they play archival, South Dakota Mines (Tech) next weekend. 

"We missed opportunities on both side of the ball.  We didn't come down here to lose 38-26 - we came down here to win.  So I'm excited for our team and coaches to learn from this game and move on to one of our biggest rivals next week in Tech," Reiners said. 

The Rams' defense finished no. 1 overall in 2012 in division II's Lone Star Conference, but it was their offense who ASU relied on for the victory after running up 594 total yards, while averaging 7.5 yards per rush as a team. 

The Green and Gold jumped out to an early 7-0 lead after the defense held ASU to a missed field goal.  Following the miss, Anderson led the Jackets to a five-play, 80 yard drive that ended with him scoring on the ground from 29 yards out.

Eventually ASU's running back and University of Oklahoma transfer, Jermie Calhoun, scored on a 10-yard pass play from QB Warren Truesdale late in the first quarter to make lock it up at seven points all heading into quarter the second quarter. 

The Yellow Jackets defense stepped up again in the red zone to force ASU to a 42 yard field goal, made by Rams kicker Rhett Peterson as they took the first lead of the game, 10-7, early in the second quarter. 

After the field goal, the Jackets fast no huddle attack produced their longest and most complete drive of the night of a 10-play, 77 yard drive that ended with Anderson scampering for his second rushing touchdown of the night from 14 yards out to put BHSU back in the lead, 14-10. 

Before halftime, ASU managed to have a quick five-play, 63 yard drive where Calhoun scored from 23 yards out to take the lead 17-14 at the break, and the remainder of the contest. 

Calhoun had 12 rushes for 140 yards (11.7 avg) and two total touchdowns with a long of 53 yards on the night.

ASU then broke the back-and-fourth streak of trading touchdowns by having a 52 yard touchdown run by QB Kyle Washington on their first play from scrimmage in the third quarter. 

After finally holding the Yellow Jacket offense to punt, ASU proceeded to have their longest drive of the night that was almost five minutes long that ended in a goal line touchdown run by Blake Smith to make it 31-14 Rams. 

The Jackets fought back to score after a six-yard touchdown pass to the corner of the end zone to get within 11 points with just over eight minutes to play in the fourth quarter. 

Washington, who split time at quarterback with Truesdale, finished 12-of-17 for 104 yards and one touchdown and six rushes for 97 yards and another score.  Truesdale went 7-of-12 for 113 yards and a touchdown and added 11 rushes for 46 yards. 

The Jackets scored again with 3:25 minutes to play in the game to get back within two scores by way of true freshman WR Bradley Adamson.  Adamson finished with 105 total yards on the night after three receptions for 50 yards and a touchdown to go along with three kick returns for 55 yards. 

Other top receivers for the Yellow Jackets were Alex Anderson with seven receptions for 78 yards and Luke Whalen who pulled in four balls for 96 yards.  The Jackets running game outside of Anderson's 64 yards, managed to get 54 more between running backs Bryar DeSanti and Drew Nielson. 

Drew Nielsen came in to see more carries in the second half and finished with seven rushes for 31 yards (4.9 avg), while DeSanti found yards hard to come by after his 13 rushes netted just 23 yards (1.8 avg). 

ASU Ram defensive tackle, Joey Searcy II, was a nuisance most of the night for the Jacket offensive line as his 6-foot-335-pound frame managed to halt many plays from developing. Searcy's presence allowed Rams linebacker Rush Seaver to run free to pull down nine tackles on the night. Searcy and Seaver combined for four tackles for a loss of 12 yards. 

The Jackets offense did hold win the time of possession battle by nearly 10 minutes as the offense was on the field for 42:28 and went 7-of-16 on third down (44%).  Outside of some giving up some big plays, the Jackets defense held tough to hold ASU to just 3-of-14 on third down (21%). 

Trent Boner led the way on defense for BHSU with eight total tackles (2 TFL and 1 FF).  Newcomer transfer from Moorpark College, CB Brian Baldwin also had 8 tacked (5 solo, 3 asst and 1 pass breakup) to lead the Jacket defense.  

Senior captain Neil Novak had seven solo tackles and one tackle for a loss, while DL Boone Bowker finished with six solo tackles.  

The Yellow Jackets now will turn their full attention to archival and also newly NCAA division II school in South Dakota Mines next Saturday night, Sept. 14, from Rapid City, SD at 6 p.m. MT.  The game is the annual, "Battle for the Homestake Trophy," which the Jackets won convincingly last season by a score of 35-6.