Rhett Bomar broke a slight smile when he was talking about the Bearkats’ season opener against East Central Oklahoma minutes after Thursday night’s game.

“I don’t think that has ever happened to me before,” Sam Houston State’s senior quarterback said as he left the interview room at the Ron Mafrige Field House.

He wasn’t talking about winning, but the fact that he didn’t even step on the field in the second half. Bomar completed 14-of-22 passes for 198 yards and four touchdowns, and running back James Aston picked up 115 yards and two more scores on the ground as the Bearkats easily disposed of East Central Oklahoma 58-14 at Bowers Stadium.

Sam Houston (1-0) scored on all eight of its possessions in the first half and the defense forced six Tiger turnovers (two interceptions and four fumbles) in a game that was over by halftime with the Kats leading 52-0.

The victory marked a night-and-day difference from last season’s opener when SHSU held on for dear life before knocking off Angelo State 17-13.

“It was a little bit different from last season’s game, so that was a better feeling,” Bomar said. “To not even play in the second half, I don’t think that has happened to me in my life. That was nice.

“We came out with mentality to go after them a little bit, which was different than last year. We were going to throw it a lot. We actually didn’t run a bunch of our stuff because we got such a big lead.”

The Bearkats were a little shaky on their opening possession of the game, but once they got rolling there was no stopping them. Bomar hit senior wide receiver Justin Wells for a 25-yard gain to set up the first score, a 7-yard pass to senior Catron Houston.

After defensive end Ryan Gloston came up with a big hit on Tigers quarterback Marcus Johnson, which caused a fumble deep inside SHSU territory, Aston rushed for 26 yards on three carries before Bomar hit wide receiver Jason Madkins from 11 yards out to help put the Kats up 14-0.

All-Southland Conference defensive end Chris Brown sacked Johnson to end East Central Oklahoma’s next possession and Aston pushed the score to 21-0 following Taylor Wilkins’ extra point with a 49-yard touchdown run with 1:35 left in the first quarter.

Behind an inexperienced offensive line, Sam Houston lost yardage on its first running attempt of the game. That was about all that went wrong as the Bearkats finished the game with 261 yards on the ground behind Aston, Chris Hardy (69 yards, two touchdowns), Torian Wilkins (40 yards) and Bomar (30 yards).

“It was a worry because (the offensive line) was so young,” Aston said. “We had a bunch of injuries during two-a-days and graduated a bunch of people, so we were a little worried about it. But they seemed to jell real good from the start of the game and holes were everywhere.

“Overall they just did a great job.”

With the Kats up 7-0, East Central Oklahoma was knocking on the door and threatening to tie the game after Houston fumbled a punt at the SHSU 16. But on second-and-goal from the three, Gloston hit Johnson from the side on a bootleg, forcing a fumble, and senior linebacker Nolan Bucek came up with the loose ball.

The SHSU defense turned it up after that and didn’t allow the Tigers to get on the board until the 9:33 mark of the third quarter when Johnson hit Thurman Sims for a 6-yard score.

The Bearkats put pressure on Johnson, recording three sacks by Brown, Gloston and linebacker Derrick Raymer. Cornerback D.J. Emerson and linebacker Luke McCall each had an interception.

“I told the defense during pregame that there is always questions surrounding this defense, so tonight we needed to come put with answers and perform,” Brown said. “We didn’t need to start the season off like last year because when we started off that way, it kept on happening.

“We needed to make a statement that we are a good defense and we have improved as a whole team.”

Bomar added two more scoring passes in the second quarter, one to Aston for 21 yards and the other to Houston that went 24. Aston bulled his way into the end zone on a 1-yard run to make it 45-0 before Hardy capped the first half with a 5-yard run.

Wilkins also kicked a career-high 45-yard field goal, which put the Bearkats up 24-0 with 25 seconds to go in the first quarter.

Houston led Sam Houston with five catches for 72 yards, Aston had three grabs for 41, Madkins had three for 39 and Trey Payne added two for 13. The Bearkats only threw two passes in the second half with third-string quarterback Jeff Welch completing both for 8 yards.

“It’s always nice to open the season with a victory,” SHSU head coach Todd Whitten said. “We talked a lot about coming out fast and trying to get on top early. We were able to do that. I was pleased with the way we executed.”

The Bearkats are off next week but host Prairie View A&M; on Sept. 13 at 6 p.m.