The Strangest College Football game of maybe the entire year.....

[TheLionWire]

From Staff and Wire Reports-

Denton TX-While most of the State of Texas was wrapped up in the Red River Rivalry game, a very odd and very important game was being played 170 miles to the Northwest in the town of Wichita Falls that saw back and forth scoring, two ranked teams slugging it out for Lone Star Conference supremacy, a 17 hour half time, and two stadiums hosting two halves of the same Football game. 

Division II ranked # 9 Texas A&M-Commerce, the defending national champions in Division II, squared off with the only team that beat them last year, 4th ranked Midwestern State. The game was literally seconds away from kicking off before a lightening delay moved the kickoff roughly 35 minutes after the original start time. The Lions struck first on a Kristov Martinez 20 yard field goal, but MSU struck back with an 8 yard Layton Rabb run to take the lead. A&M-Commerce came right back, driving the field 50 yards on 6 plays capped of with a 24 yard touchdown strike from Kane Wilson to Ryan Stokes to take the lead back. MSU countered with a 10 play, 42 yard drive that ended in a Jaron Imbriani 21 yard field goal to knot the score at 10 just before the half. 

Then, mother nature came to ruin the fun. 

Right as the Midwestern State Band took the field for their halftime march, another lightening delay was called, and a strong line of severe thunderstorms and flash flooding moved it's way through West Texas. School officials for both squads worked throughout the night to find an arrangement as the initial plan to finish the game on Sunday at 2 PM in Wichita Falls had to be scrapped as the Lion Football team could not find any hotel rooms within an hour drive of Wichita Falls and bad weather still in the forecast for Sunday. Initially, the game was set to be cancelled, until The University of North Texas was contacted. UNT's athletic administration was contacted and put events in motion to be able to host the second half at 2 PM in Denton, about 90 miles southeast of Wichita Falls and 60 miles west of Commerce, Texas. 

"We are so appreciative to UNT Vice President/Director of Athletics Wren Baker, Associate Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jared Mosley, Coach Seth Littrell and their staffs for graciously allowing us to complete our game under such unique circumstances,"  stated A&M-Commerce Director of Athletics Tim McMurray. 

The game picked back up in front of a couple thousand fans in Denton. Midwestern started the scoring on a Vincent Johnson 9 yard run to take the lead back to 17-10 and then Commerce responded with a Martinez 26 yard field goal to pull within 3. After stopping the Mustangs on their next possession, the Lions started their game winning 98 yard touchdown drive that saw Lion QB Kane Wilson 4 yard run to put the Lions up 20-17 with 11 minutes to go. With 8:53 left in the game and Commerce punting, a bad snap sailed over Lion punter Tristen Perry's head and through the back of the end zone, pulling the Mustangs within 1. The Mustangs drove the ball down to the Commerce 30, but had a 46 yard kick blocked, giving the ball back to the Lions, who bled the game clock down to 90 seconds and forcing MSU to use all their timeouts. After a Commerce punt, the Mustangs drove down to the Lion 13 yard line and attempted the game winning field goal, but Mustang kicker Jaron Imbriani's kick was rushed and hooked right as time expired. 

The 9th ranked Lions are now in the driver's seat in the Lone Star Conference with a 5-1 overall record and a 3-0 LSC Record, while Midwestern drops to 5-1 overall and 3-1 in conference play. Midwestern State faces Texas A&M-Kingsville on the road next Saturday, while A&M-Commerce hosts arch rival Tarleton State, another undefeated LSC team, in the annual Texas A&M University System President's Cup game on Saturday.