STEPHENVILLE, Texas — AJ Hairston Jr. and Austin Palmer connected for a pair of first-half touchdowns to send the Merrimack football team into the half facing a mere three-point deficit against No. 4 Tarleton State at Memorial Stadium on Saturday night.
The second half belonged to the nationally-ranked Texans, though, as the hosts scored three third-quarter touchdowns and pulled out a 45-20 win in front of 24,612 fans.
"I thought we came out and played really, really competitively in the first half," head coach Mike Gennetti said. "We spotted them a touchdown, which was disappointing. But we rallied, got stops, and made it a game. Really proud of the offense in the second quarter, responding the way they did and making it a close game. Unfortunately, the game isn't won and lost at halftime."
Tarleton held a 38-20 lead after the third quarter.
"We got to play better. Longer. That was what we saw in the third quarter where we just kind of collapsed a little bit defensively, and offensively couldn't get anything going," Gennetti said. "There were highlights and lowlights, and that definitely was not our best performance in the third quarter."
Merrimack outgained Tarleton in the first half (252-229) and held the advantage in time of possession by nearly four minutes. A key factor in that was the play of Hairston, who threw for 159 yards in the first half, all while Merrimack's ground game had a 95-7 advantage in rushing yards at the break. Matthias Latham (13 carries, 86 yards) averaged 7.6 yards per carry during the first half as he turned 10 touches into 76 rushing yards.
The Warrior defense held Tarleton's high-powered offense to just 10 first-half points, though the hosts took a 7-0 lead after a Merrimack fumble led to a defensive touchdown for Tarleton. It occurred after the Hairston-led offense advanced deep into Tarleton territory on their opening drive of the game.
During the contest, Tarleton scored 14 points off three Merrimack turnovers.
Hairston concluded the game with a season-high 214 yards passing, completing 53 percent of his passes. Palmer had six of his seven receptions and 90 of his 95 receiving yards in the first half. Cooper Lehman scored the other touchdown for the Warriors with a 22-yard grab in the third quarter while Stephon Patrick hauled in five of his seven targets for 73 yards.
"It just proves we can do it," Gennetti said of the offense. "We got to do it more consistently. We've talked about playing better football, complementary football. And that's what you saw in that second quarter with the offense clicking, AJ and Austin clicking, getting Steph Patrick involved was great to see. Guys all contributed. So, things to build on for sure."
Gennetti and company will try to build on it when they return to Duane Stadium on Saturday. Merrimack will host the University of New Haven on Homecoming, Alumni & Reunion Weekend with kickoff set for 1 p.m. ET.
