WACO, Texas (AP) — Dequan Finn threw for 192 yards and two touchdowns and ran for a 39-yard score to lift Baylor to a season-opening 45-3 win over FCS Tarleton State on Saturday.
Finn made his mark immediately with a 39-yard touchdown run on the Bears’ first drive and added a 32-yard scoring pass to Ashtyn Hawkins later in the first quarter. Finn, a sixth-year senior transfer from Toledo who was named MAC Player of the Year last season, also found Michael Trigg for a 17-yard TD strike in the third quarter.
Finn finished 14-for-22 passing and was picked off twice. Keaton Thomas added to Baylor’s fast start when he intercepted a Jaden Pete pass and returned it 35 yards for a touchdown to make it a 21-0 lead with 4:12 left in the first quarter.
Dawson Pendergrass ran for a 1-yard TD, and Sawyer Robertson fired a 30-yard touchdown to Ketron Jackson Jr. in the fourth quarter for the Bears, who outgained the Texans (1-1) 442-181.
Daniel Greek was 7-for-13 passing for 80 yards for Tarleton State, a program in its final season of the four-year reclassification period before becoming a full NCAA Division I football program next season.
THE TAKEAWAY
Tarleton State: Nerves showed early for the Texans, who were playing a Big 12 foe on the road for the third straight year. They called timeout before their first offensive snap, then had several bobbled snaps and one that was off the mark en route to posting 0 yards in the first quarter despite holding the ball for 7:46 to 7:14 for Baylor.
Baylor: Finn showed his explosiveness on the TD run, when he rolled to his right and froze the defense with a pump fake before breaking away for the score. But it was an up-and-down performance overall for the quarterback, whose first interception came on the goal line late in the second quarter to kill a scoring chance. He also missed a wide-open receiver in the end zone on a fourth-down play early in the fourth.
UP NEXT
Tarleton State will play the second of three straight road games when it meets Houston Christian next Saturday.
Baylor will go on the road to meet Utah next Saturday in a nonconference game that was scheduled before the Utes joined the Big 12.
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