WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- Rising sophomore Triston Williams accounted for two touchdowns to lift Maroon to a 21-14 win over Gold in the 31st Annual Maroon & Gold Spring Game Friday night at Memorial Stadium.
 
The Andrews, Texas native finished off an eight-play, 45-yard drive with a 1-yard run late in the first half, then connected with Xavier Land with a 32-yard scoring pass to pull the Gold team even at 14-14 with 13:04 to go in the third quarter.
 
Williams completed 5-of-15 passes for 146 yards and a touchdown, while newcomer Emanuell Williams connected on 7-of-10 passes for 75 yards including a go-ahead 7-yard strike to Jared Derbigney with 47 seconds left in the third quarter.
 
The efforts nullified another signature effort by rising junior All-America Juwan Johnson, who caught seven passes for 131 yards for the Gold squad, while redshirt-freshman Ja'Marzeyea Arvie hauled in three passes for 69 yards.
 
Rising junior Zach Purcell took advantage of the stellar duo to complete 13-of-29 passes for 221 yards to help Gold take a 14-7 lead into the intermission.
 
Each of the two scores came on the ground as Fahez Yusuf capped off a seven-play, 72-yard drive with a 6-yard run in the first quarter, while rising senior Quinton Childs finished off a 6-play, 65-yard drive with an 11-yard run late in the second quarter.
 
Childs paced all rushers with 48 yards on eight carries for the Gold team, while rising sophomore Kylan Harrison topped the century mark with 103 yards on three catches including a game opening 60-yard catch and run.
 
Freshman Zed Asowata led all tacklers making seven stops including 1.5 tackles for loss with a sack for Gold, while Marcus Wilkerson made six tackles with a pass breakup to top Maroon efforts.
 
Gold's Damarcus Wilson recorded the lone interception of the game, while Khalil Finley and Jaydon Cunigan broke up two passes each for Maroon.
 
Midwestern State opens the 2019 season at Northwestern State on Sept. 7 at Turpin Stadium in Natchitoches, La. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

- Maroon's 21-14 win snaps a two-game winning streak for Gold in the series. Maroon leads 8-6 since the series was tracked beginning in 2006.
- Senior Nate Nicolas made two sacks to lead Maroon, who totaled six sacks as a team.
- Maroon produced five chunk plays of 15-or-more yards with a long of 60 on a pass completion from Triston Williams to Kylan Harrison on the squad's first play of the night.
- Gold produced 10 chunk plays of 15-or-more yards with the long coming on a 50-yard completion from Zach Purcell to Juwan Johnson late in the second quarter.
- Quinton Childs burst for 33 yards on Maroon's second play from scrimmage for the longest rush of the game.