JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Oct. 25, 2025) – In front of another sold out crowd (9,836 fans) at William B. Greene Jr. Stadium, the ETSU football team got back into the win column with a 14-10 win over SoCon foe Wofford in its annual Homecoming game. Saturday's win propels the Bucs to an overall record of 4-5 this season, which includes a 2-3 mark in league action.
Running back
Devontae Houston had another stellar game to help lead the Bucs offensively. Houston finished the night with 94 rushing yards on 18 carries (5.2 avg.) to go with both of ETSU's touchdowns. Houston, who added 28 yards receiving, has not only set a new personal career-best in rushing yards this season (688) but has also surpassed 2,000 career rushing yards.
ETSU's passing game was efficient.
Cade McNamara started the game under center for the Bucs and completed 12 of 13 passes for 103 yards. McNamara's younger brother, Jake, came in and completed 14-of-18 passes for 97 yards.
Ephraim Floyd continues to pile up the catches with nine more against the Terriers for 60 yards.
Jeremiah Harrison, meanwhile, was ETSU's top receiving target in terms of yards with 79 on seven receptions.
Defensively, the Bucs were led by veterans
Ty Anderson and
Drew Francis with eight tackles each. Francis tallied one of ETSU's three sacks on the day with another going to
Brian Alston and the third split between Anderson and
Jivon Oggs.
SCORING PLAYS
FIRST QUARTER
- ETSU 7, Wofford 0 – After the Buccaneer defense forced Wofford's offense go three-and-out to start the game, ETSU used a couple of explosive plays to get on the scoreboard first. Big pass plays to Floyd (18 yards) and Charlie Browder (27 yards) led into a 28-yard rushing touchdown by Houston to put the Bucs on top.
- ETSU 7, Wofford 7 – The Terriers promptly answered ETSU's touchdown with one of their own. After an ETSU penalty tacked onto a big conversion on a 3rd-and-8 by Wofford. A wildcat play had Colby Alexander getting the ball and finding the end zone to knot the score at 7-7.
- ETSU 14, Wofford 7 – ETSU's offense kept rolling on its next possession. The Bucs converted on two third downs and hit on big pass plays to Houston and two to Harrison to move them into the red zone for the first time in the contest. Houston found the end zone again, this time from six yards out, to give the Bucs the lead back, 14-7, with a little over three minutes to go in the opening quarter.
SECOND QUARTER
- ETSU 14, Wofford 10 – In what proved to be the final score of the game, Wofford used a pair of 30-plus yard runs to move a drive that began at its own 13-yard line into ETSU territory. Despite the pair of big plays, the Buccaneer defense held Wofford to a 34-yard field goal attempt. That try did split the uprights to bring the score to 14-10 Bucs.
The two touchdowns scored by Houston proved to be all the offense the Bucs needed. Late in the game, however, the Terriers had a last-chance effort to overtake the Bucs as they stopped ETSU on a 4
th-and-2 at its own 45-yard line. Wofford did get one first down but a key sack from Oggs and Anderson forced Wofford to punt the ball back to ETSU with 2:49 to go.
Starting its final drive at its own two-yard line, ETSU did not get much on its first two plays. However, a big third down conversion from McNamara to Harrison finished off the game for the Blue and Gold as it could take the rest of the time off the clock and finish off the victory.
Other News and Notes from Today's Game
- Saturday's win improves ETSU's home record to 4-1 this season. It is also the team's 33rd in 49 games played at Greene Stadium. Additionally, Saturday's crowd of over 9,000 fans marks the 22nd time in the last 24 home games that the Bucs had crowds over the capacity.
- ETSU won the time of possession battle on Saturday holding the ball for about 31 of the 60 minutes. It is just the fourth time this season that the Bucs have won that this season and they improve to 4-0 when they do.
- Houston capped off a stellar month of October with yet another outstanding performance on Saturday. In four games this month, Houston has totaled 491 rushing yards on 75 carries (6.6 avg.) with six rushing touchdowns. Overall, Houston has eight rushing touchdowns in 2025, which is the most for an ETSU rusher since 2022 when Jacob Saylors totaled 15.
- Another player developing into a playmaker for the Bucs is Harrison. Harrison, who sealed the game with a clutch 28-yard catch in the final minute, is up to 406 receiving yards as a freshman and he is averaging 15.04 yards per catch.
- As mentioned earlier, the Buccaneer passing attack was extremely efficient on Saturday. Jake McNamara started his day by completing his first 12 passes. That was just three off the school single game record held by Austin Herink against Limestone in 2017. The five incompletions thrown by both Cade and Jake McNamara was the fewest by ETSU's passers in a game since September 7, 2019, when the passing duo of Trey Mitchell and Cameron Lewis went 17-for-20 passing against Shorter.
- When the Bucs have had success this season, the defense has been a big part of it. In its four victories, the Buccaneer defense is allowing 13.3 points per game and holding opposing offenses to 2.4 yards per carry.
- Saturday's 14-10 win over Wofford was ETSU's third straight over the Terriers and its fourth in the last five meetings. The last time ETSU beat Wofford in three consecutive seasons was 1986-1988. The victory also now gives the Bucs the edge in the all-time series, 17-16.
Next Up – The Bucs will have a bye week next Saturday, but they will return to action on November 8 when they visit Samford for another SoCon matchup. Kickoff for that contest is set for 3:30 p.m. eastern time.
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