WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- Christopher Abron rushed for 130 yards including a 71-yard touchdown to lead Maroon to a 19-8 win over Gold Saturday night at Memorial Stadium.

The redshirt-freshman from Crandall raced 71 yards around the right end for the first touchdown of the game to give Maroon at 12-0 lead at the half. Abron helped Maroon put the game away by running for 54 yards on six carries in the fourth quarter.

The Maroon defense, led by Javian Gipson-Holmes and Quincy Montgomery, limited the Gold team to 104 total yards of offense and off of the scoreboard for the first three quarters of the game.

Gipson-Holmes finished with a game-high eight tackles, while Montgomery logged four tackles including 2 1/2 stops for loss with two sacks and pass breakup.

Maroon struck first with a 53-yard field goal by Mitchell Stokes, then expanded the lead to 5-0 on a safety off of an errant snap on a punt before Abron broke the game open with a long run midway through the second quarter.

Quarterback Sean Jastrab hit Adam Johnson on a 28-yard touchdown strike with 2:32 to play in the fourth quarter to stretch the lead to 19-0 for the Maroon squad.

The Gold crew put together a seven-play, 75-yard drive aided by face mask and personal foul penalties to avert the shutout on a 3-yard run by Kaleb Manning with 59 seconds to play.

Christian Olige tacked on the two-point conversion with a jump pass to Kelby Hickerson to close the scoring log.

Aaron Jaimes-Rodriguez and Austin Cumpton had six tackles to lead Gold defensive efforts with 10 different players recording tackles for loss.

Emmanual Abdallah led the Gold attack with 56 yards off offense. The junior from China Spring, Texas, rushed for 24 yards on three carries and had a 32-yard reception.

Midwestern State opens the 2024 season by hosting Missouri Southern on Thursday, August 29 at Memorial Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.