By Rick Mauch
 
In the first meeting ever between the teams, the Texas Wesleyan Rams defeated Louisiana College 56-39 at Farrington Field in Fort Worth between running back Clint Epperson's record-breaking, six-touchdown performance.
 
The victory improved the Rams to 5-2 overall and 5-2 in the Sooner Athletic Conference. It guaranteed them at least a .500 season with three games remaining on the regular-season schedule.
 
Overall, the Rams have won seven of their past 10 games dating to 2019. They only managed a 1-1 split in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Prior to this season, the Rams had eight wins since the program took the field again in 2017 after a hiatus of more than three quarters of a century.
 
Texas Wesleyan is tied for third place in the SAC with Arizona Christian. However, the Rams defeated the Firestorm 35-28 in Fort Worth earlier this season and own a tiebreaker.
 
The Rams built a 35-7 halftime lead Saturday before the Wildcats (2-6 overall, 2-4 in SAC) rallied. Epperson scored on runs of 25, 15, 8, and 6 yards tying the school record for rushing touchdowns in a single game, while Collier Ricks caught a 5-yard scoring pass from quarterback Dalton Dale.
 
Epperson finished with 159 yards on 19 carries. Dale was 17-for-26 passing for 247 yards with the lone TD and no interceptions.
 
The Wildcats scored 17 unanswered points to close within 35-24 before Epperson broke away again for a 54-yard touchdown to put the lead back to 18 at 42-24 with a couple minutes remaining in the third quarter. The score gave him the school record outright, surpassing Desmond Nisby's 4-TD performance against SAGU in 2018. Another Wildcats score was countered with Epperson's final TD, a 2-yard run, and the score was 49-31 with 6:58 left in the game.
 
A final effort by Louisiana College resulted in a late TD and two-point conversion to get them to within 10 points for the first time since the first quarter. However, Drew Martin capped the scoring for the Rams with a 2-yard touchdown run with 2:12 left.
 
Also for the Rams, Ty Williams rushed 10 times for 67 yards and backup quarterback Martin completed all three of his passes for 95 yards and rushed four times for 25 yards. Ricks was the top receiver with eight catches for 151 yards and the TD, while P.J. Williams hauled in four receptions for 97 yards and Brandon Rolfe had four catches for 48 yards.
Elijah Hall, Dylan Pettway and Vondrice LaFrance led the TXWES defense with seven tackles, including three for a loss by Pettway. He also had a sack, as did Davonn Granger, while Adrian Johnson and Nick David West each registered a half sack.
 
LaFrance nabbed a pair of interceptions and Hall had one he returned 33 yards. Cameron Brown recovered a fumble.
 
The contest featured 62 first downs (32 Rams, 30 Wildcats). The teams also combined for over 1,000 yards of offense (616 TWU, 412 LC). The Rams had more than twice as many rushing yards (274-132) and also led in passing yards (342-280).
 
On defense the Rams also forced four turnovers (3 interceptions, one fumble) and posted four sacks. Countering, they turned the ball over once on a fumble and allowed a single sack.
 
Texas Wesleyan also controlled the clock with a time of possession advantage of more than seven minutes. The Rams were 7-for-13 on third down and 1-for-1 on fourth down, compared to 5-for-14 and 1-for-3 for the Wildcats.
 
The Rams, now 3-0 at home this season, are back at Farrington Field to celebrate homecoming on Saturday, Oct. 30 for a 2 p.m. kickoff against Texas College (0-8 overall, 0-6 in SAC). Texas Wesleyan leads the overall series 2-1, dropping the initial meeting in Tyler, 21-11, in 2017 before winning twice in Fort Worth, 36-7 in 2018 and 61-24 in 2019.