ELLENSBURG, Wash. – The Central Washington Wildcat football team (3-2, 3-0 LSC) will ride their three-game winning streak back to Ellensburg for their first home game since September 16^th when they host the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds (3-2, 1-2 LSC) at Tomlinson Stadium at 6:00 p.m. this Saturday, October 7^th.
 
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LAST WEEK
 
The Wildcats traveled down to Silver City, N.M. where they were able to corral the Mustangs of Western New Mexico (1-4, 0-3 LSC) by a 55-17 score.
 
Lone Star Conference Offensive Player of the Week Tyler Flanagan led the Wildcat offense, rushing for 143 yards and four rushing touchdowns that included a 55-yard rushing touchdown. JJ Lemming led the Wildcat passing game completing nine of his 19 passes for 146 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception.
 
Justice Taylor ran all over the field on the Wildcats final drive in the game accumulating 52-rushing yards. Tre'Jon Henderson added 38 rushing yards and the sole other rushing touchdown. Marcus Cook was the leading target for Lemming, making four catches for 48-yards and one touchdown. Kaiden Hammond had the other receiving touchdown and 10 total yards receiving. DeMonte Horton and Daniel Johnson each had one catch for 38 and 21-yards, respectively.
 
The Wildcats defense as a while had themselves a game, led by three-time defending Lone Star Conference Defensive Player of the Week Tanner Volk whop recorded seven tackles, one pass breakup, and two more interceptions. Volk has now recorded two interceptions the past three games, and one more against Montana Tech to lead the entirety of the NCAA with seven interceptions already this season.
 
Dominic Wieburg had quite the game with five tackles, one tackle for loss, one pass breakup, and one interception that was almost returned for a touchdown. Bridger Feldmann was very disruptive against the Mustangs, recording five tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, one sack, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery. Brett Accimus also recorded five tackles, while Josh Flowers had four tackles and two pass breakups. Chase Loidhamer and Josiah Cochran each recorded a sack with Loidhamer also recording 2.5 tackles for loss while Cochran had 1.5 during the game. Brett McCalla also recorded one tackle for loss while Jalen Owens, Matulino Masunu, and Daniel Matagi all had a 0.5 tackle for loss with Brycen Indell also recorded a forced fumble.
 
Dan Stewart recorded four punts for 180 yards with all four landing within the 20-yard line of WNMU. Josh Jones finished the day converting all seven point after touchdown attempts and kicking both field goal attempts through the goalposts with the longest coming at 45-yards.
 
ABOUT THE GREYHOUNDS
 
After a 3-8 campaign with a 2-7 LSC record, the 'Hounds overhauled their coaching staff bringing back 2017-2020 head football coach Kelley Lee who is known for his rushing attack, breaking the ENMU rushing record with 4,191 rushing yards in the 2019 season, and led the Greyhounds to their first ever Division II postseason bowl victory over Southern Arkansas in the Heritage Bowl.
 
"They're a similar program to culturally," CWU Head Football Coach Chris Fisk said. "I think Coach Lee does a great job, he's a proven leader. You can see the immediate impact he's had at this point. They went from being not very good to an extremely good team and they run a military-style triple-option that has its own challenges. They play with great discipline, and they play with great effort. You can see it on film that he's had an immediate impact on that program."
 
Lee has already matched the 2022 win mark for ENMU, posting a 3-2 record already this season with a 1-2 LSC record. The 'Hounds recorded a 28-26 victory over in-state rival New Mexico Highlands to start the season. They backed up that victory with a 51-12 victory over future LSC member Sul Ross State, then a 30-29 victory to open LSC play over Western Oregon. The past two weeks haven't been as nice to ENMU, first dropping a 34-31 contest at Midwestern State before being shut out in the second half after leading 14-10 at half to Angelo State, falling 23-14.
 
Lee has once again implemented the infamous rushing attack already recording 1,279 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns on 255 attempts compared to the 52 passing attempts for 521 yards and six touchdowns. Five different Greyhounds have recorded over 100 rushing yards. Elijah Zeh has already recorded 440 rushing yards and four touchdowns with Jonathan Watson in second with 217 yards and one touchdown. Mario Sanchez has 138 rushing yards and six touchdowns.
 
Sanchez has been the lead quarterback for the Greyhounds playing in all five games and attempting 50 of the 'Hounds 52 pass attempts this year completing 32 of them for 479 yards and six touchdowns. Andre Jones has been the go-to receiver for ENMU, accumulating 14 catches for 245 yards and two touchdowns. Ja'Calvin Newsome has nine receptions for 164 yards and three touchdowns, while Michael Molio'o is the only other Greyhound with a receiving touchdown and 13 yards in one catch.
 
Eric Williams and Talon Sanders each have 31 and 30 tackles so far this season. Williams also has six tackles for loss, one sack, one pass breakup, two quarterback hurries, and one forced fumble to his name already while Sanders has recorded one tackle for loss, one interception, and three pass breakups. Timothy Jones (27), Trey Cain (23), and Colten Madison (22) all have over 20 tackles so far this season as well. Four other Greyhounds have one sack to their name with two more combining for one sack.
 
Five different Greyhounds have recorded one interception this year and 14 pass breakups led by Sanders and Micah Lewis with three apiece. The ENMU defense has forced two fumbles, recovering one.  
 
Francisco Moreno has punted 22 times for ENMU for 808 yards with six of his punts landing in the opponents 20-yard line. Kaden Bell has converted three of his five field goal attempts with his longest coming at 37-yards with both attempts over 40-yards failing to go through the goalposts.
 
"We need to keep our defense off the field. We need to convert first downs and stay on schedule offensively and put ourselves in a third and manageable positions as opposed to third and long which some weeks we've been able to do and some weeks we haven't. We've really got to play complimentary football this week. If you look at the ENMU, Angelo State game, as the game transpired it really went to what ENMU wants to do which is limit possessions, only allowing Angelo nine possessions the whole game which benefits Eastern New Mexico whereas the week prior Midwestern State had 13 possessions. So, we really want to challenge them with ball security defensively, we want to challenge them to do their job with ball handling and be opportunistic when those chances arrive to get the ball out and force them into turnovers and bad situations. At the same time offensively, we need to be able to move the ball down the field and convert and even be okay with "we don't really care what the score is, it's a field position game and a time of possession game" against a team like this."