SAN MARCOS - The Texas State football team overcame a sluggish beginning and scored 20 points in the final three quarters en route to a 20-11 victory over Houston Baptist at Bobcat Stadium on Saturday night.
 
The Bobcats trailed 9-0 before James Sherman kicked a 25-yard field goal and Damian Williams scored a touchdown on a four-yard run in the second quarter to take a 10-9 lead into the locker room at halftime. Texas State outscored the Huskies 10-2 in the second half to pull away with the victory.


 
"It's always good to go in a locker room after 60 minutes of playing with a victory," Texas State head coach Everett Withers said. "It's also good to be able to come in on Sunday after a victory and be able to correct some things. Our goal is to be better than we were tonight at the end of practice tomorrow."
 
Houston Baptist jumped out to an early 9-0 lead in the first quarter when Terrence Peters scored on a one-yard run and Alec Chadwick added a 33-yard field goal.
 
The touchdown run by Peters came after quarterback Bailey Zappe completed his first six passes to drive the Huskies down to Texas State's three-yard line. Two plays later, Peters ran the ball into the end zone. However, Texas State gained a little momentum on special teams when Easy Anyama blocked the extra point attempts.
 
The Huskies added to their score on a 33-yard field goal by Chadwick after they drove down to Texas State's eight-yard line. However, the TXST's defense stiffened when Kordell Rodgers and A. J. Krawczyk tackled Ethan Fry for no gain. On second down, Zappe's pass to David Racine fell incomplete at the goal line. Then, Hal Vinson recorded his second career sack when tackled Zappe at the 16-yard line to set up Chadwick's field goal.
 
After the defense forced the Huskies to settle for a field goal, Texas State's offense added to the momentum when the Bobcats scored their 10 points in the second quarter.
 
"Hats off to Houston Baptist for their effort tonight after all they had to go through last week," Withers said. "I talked to coach (Vic) Shealy before the game and they had trouble getting coaches to work during the week. I'm not sure if they were even able to practice until Wednesday because of coaches not being able to work."
 
Texas State extended its lead to 17-9 with 2:03 left in the third quarter when freshman Anthony Smith ran around the right side for a 48-yard touchdown and Sherman added the extra point.
 
In the fourth quarter the Bobcats outscored the Huskies 3-2 when Sherman kicked a 26-yard field goal with 13:05 left to play. Houston Baptist scored the final points of the game with 9:03 left to play when Andre Walker tackled Williams at the goal line for a safety to make the final score 20-11.
 
"This was a typical first game," Withers said. "If you look across the county today, you see the difference in a lot of ball games were turnovers, special teams and execution mainly on offense. We were able to block a kick tonight, which is really good, but we weren't sharp on kickoffs and we have work to do in the punting game.
 
"Offensively, we shot ourselves in the foot with four turnovers. We threw an interception, gave up a safety, had a fumble and turned the ball over on downs. We were able to get four turnovers on defense and we had five sacks tonight."
 
Williams finished the game completing 18 of 28 passes for 135 yards with one interception. He also had 13 carries for 43 yards and a touchdown. Smith led the Bobcats in rushing with 71 yards and a TD on seven carries, and Watts led the Bobcats with six receptions for 23 yards. Elijah King caught four passes for a game-high 85 yards. Sophomore Ishmael Davis led Texas State with nine tackles, including six solo stops, a tackle for a two-yard loss and a fumble recovery. A. J. Krawczyk and Bryan London II added seven stops each.
 
Zappe finished the game completed 21 of 34 passes for 199 yards, while Terrence Peters ran for 51 yards and a TD on 12 carries. Dennis Houston led the Huskies with seven receptions for 73 yards.
 
This marks the second straight year that the Bobcats have won their season-opener under Withers and gives Texas State four season-opening wins in the last five years. Texas State has a 63-45-3 all-time record in season-openers.
 
The victory also gives Texas State a victory against every Division I team in the city of Houston. The Bobcats beat Rice 31-6 in 1986, and have a 9-0 record against Texas Southern and a 4-3 mark against Houston.
 
Texas State will play its first road game of the season next Saturday when the Bobcats travel to Colorado in a game that will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks beginning at 1 p.m. (Central)