It was everything a rivalry game should be.

Entertaining and thrilling.

The Battle of Interstate-20 trophy will remain in Alpine for another year.

On Saturday afternoon, the Sul Ross State football team defeated the McMurry War Hawks, 33-27, in front of an electric crowd at Jackson Field during homecoming festivities.

Sul Ross won its first homecoming game since Oct. 20, 2018. The Lobos are now 6-5 during homecoming since 2011.

McMurry still leads the all-time series against Sul Ross — 47-43-2. Sul Ross has won three of the last four meetings against the War Hawks.

The Lobo defense had to make a stand early on the first offensive series for McMurry.

Dalton Bills came up with a tackle for loss to spoil a fourth-and-one conversion by the War Hawks.

Sul Ross capitalized by putting together a nine-play drive that was capped off by a seven-yard touchdown pass from Korbin Covarrubiaz to Vicente Luevano with 7:01 in the first quarter.

McMurry answered back by scoring on a 47-yard touchdown pass from Andrew McBride to Jermond Lovely with 4:03 in the opening quarter.

The War Hawks got the ball back as Hayden Dejean picked off Trent Graves as the Lobos were marching into McMurry territory.

McMurry turned the turnover into a one-yard touchdown run by Drew Hagler to go up 14-7 with 8:05 in the second quarter.

A botched snap that was muffed by the War Hawk punter gave the Lobos two easy points on a safety with 4:37 on the clock.

The Lobo defense then got an interception from Dayln Dunbar after James Parker put some pressure on the McMurry quarterback.

Sul Ross was able to muster up three points with a field goal with less than 1:35 remaining in the first half.

Trailing 14-12, the Lobos took the lead on a 22-yard touchdown run by Ozias Wright, 14 1/2 minutes into the third quarter.

A muffed punt return by the Lobos led to a fumble recovery by McMurry, which it was able to turn into a touchdown drive capped off by a five-yard run by McBride, which gave the War Hawks a 20-19 lead.

Covarrubiaz then tossed his second touchdown pass. This time he found Gus Charles from 22 yards out to put the Lobos back on top 26-20.

McMurry missed out on gaining three points when Jared Mendoza missed a 46-yard field goal attempt.

The War Hawks later took a one-point lead when McBride threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Canada with 3:21 in the third quarter.

The turnover bug bit the Lobos again after a fumble that was recovered by the War Hawks at their own 30-yard line.

Sul Ross had a chance to take the lead again, but a 32-yard field goal was missed.

The Lobo defense forced McMurry to punt on its next drive, which help setup a seven-play drive that proved to be the game-winner for Sul Ross.

Covarrubiaz' third touchdown pass came during the biggest moment of the game. He rolled out to his left and threw a dart to Austin Ogunmakin who caught the 10-yard touchdown pass with 28 seconds to go in the fourth quarter.

McMurry had one last shot at winning on a walk-off pass, but it didn't happen.

Covarrubiaz finished with 269 yards while he completed 23 of 31 passes. Charles led the receiving corps with six catches for 88 yards.

"It felt good. Everybody on the offensive line and the receivers had trust in me," said Covarrubiaz. "So, I knew I could trust them to make a play. I'm proud of our defense. They fought hard.
"It built up my confidence just going in, getting my first snaps of the game."

Wright rushed for 41 yards on seven carries.

The Lobos had 439 yards of total offense compared to 277 for McMurry.

Jade Rios led the Lobo defense with 13 total tackles while Ronin Williams finished with 10.

>> RECORDS: Sul Ross 3-5 (3-3); McMurry 1-8 (1-6)

>> UP NEXT: Sul Ross travels to Marshall to take on East Texas Baptist at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5.

>> WHAT THE COACH SAID: "It was immense for Korbin. We threw him in there. He's had kind of an up and down week at practice and he's stepped up big time for our team. We wouldn't have won the game without him. I'm excited. He's an area kid from Eldorado. I'm so happy for him. He's the player of the game. It was probably the ugliest win I've witnessed in my life. I'm just so glad for our guys to overcome so much adversity from penalties to mishaps. We got a lot of stuff to clean up. We got to play a lot better. We got to sure up some things because ETBU's going to be a big challenge for us. They have one of the best defenses in this conference, and we're going to have to work our tails off to make sure that this can't happen again. I-20 trophy rivalry — can't want much more than that." — Head coach Barry Derickson