Freshman Richard Reese racked up 156 yards and three touchdowns and Blake Shapen added scores running and passing as No. 17 Baylor reeled off 28 unanswered points over the final 31 minutes and rolled to a 42-7 win over Texas State on Saturday afternoon in Waco, Texas.
Baylor (2-1) bounced back after a double-overtime loss at BYU last Saturday with an easy victory over its Lone Star State rival 125 yards to the south. Reese, in his first start for the Bears, also caught a 17-yard pass from Shapen, who finished with 184 yards passing in a workmanlike performance.
Texas State’s Ashtyn Hawkins hauled in 13 receptions for a career-high 114 yards in the loss. Layne Hatcher completed 24 of his 36 passes for 186 yards for the Bobcats (1-2), who managed only seven points from six trips into Baylor territory.
The Bears jumped to the front on Reese’s 14-yard touchdown run at the 8:35 mark of the first quarter after a 13-play, 75-yard march. Baylor added to the lead on its first possession of the second quarter when Craig Williams ripped off a 30-yard TD run around left end and just inside of the end zone pylon.
Texas State used a short-field situation to reel off a five-play, 54-yard drive and scored on a 12-yard pass from Hatcher to Hawkins with 1:59 remaining before halftime. But that was plenty of time for the Bears, who answered via a 35-yard touchdown run from Shapen on fourth down to push their lead to 21-7.
Baylor expanded its advantage to 28-7 on Shapen’s 28-yard scoring hookup to Gavin Holmes with 4:42 to play in the third quarter. Texas State had a chance to cut into its deficit after recovering a Williams fumble at the Baylor 45 but failed when Seth Keller’s 46-yard field goal attempt was blocked by Chidi Ogbonnaya on the final play of the third quarter.
Reese then put an exclamation point on his big day, first bursting through the line for a 52-yard TD run less than a minute into the fourth quarter and then twisting his way over the goal line for a 5-yard TD with 12:19 to play.
–Field Level Media