Well, looks like God was a Baptist (again) yesterday….
UMHB FOOTBALL EDGES TEXAS LUTHERAN 28-21
Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor football team fought off three turnovers and a challenge from an upstart Texas Lutheran team as the Crusaders posted a 28-21 victory over the Bulldogs Saturday night in Belton. The second-ranked Crusaders improve to 2-0 overall and 1-0 in American Southwest Conference play with the victory. The loss drops Texas Lutheran to 0-2 overall and 0-1 in the ASC. The game was played in front of a UMHB record crowd of 6,438.
Texas Lutheran drew first blood after UMHB turned the ball over on each of its first two offensive possessions. Sean Salinas hit Jason Trahan with a 20-yard TD pass to cap an 11-play, 80-yard drive at the 7:28 mark of the first quarter. UMHB came back to tie the game on a 61-yard touchdown pass from Josh Welch to P.J. Williams just over four minutes later. The Crusaders stretched the lead on second quarter touchdown runs from Andy Padron and Justin Bryson to make it 21-7 with 2:52 left in the first half. TLU would cut it to 21-14 on a 23-yard pass from Salinas to Trahan with just 50 seconds left to play before halftime. The Bulldogs tied the game on a six-yard scoring strike from Salinas to Darrell White with 2:21 to play in the third quarter and both teams traded punts before UMHB scored what proved to be the game winner on Bryson’s eight-yard touchdown run with 13:50 left in the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs would have two more possessions but the Crusaders forced punts on both and ran out the final 3:16 of the game to seal the victory.
Williams caught three passes for 125 yards and a TD for the Crusaders. Padron ran for 60 yards and a score and threw for 96 more yards. Bryson also had 60 yards and a pair of touchdowns and tied Chad Starnes school record with 35 total TD’s in his career. Salinas was 24-37 passing for TLU for 272 yards and three touchdowns but he also threw two costly interceptions. Trahan caught five passes for 109 yards for the Bulldogs and Dexter Brewer ran for 48 yards on 11 carries to lead the TLU rushing attack. The Bulldogs ran 76 offensive plays for 362 yards of total offense while the Crusaders managed 357 yards of offense on 59 plays. UMHB also turned the ball over three times and was penalized nine times for 61 yards. Josh Kubiak had a game-high 12 tackles for UMHB and Jerrell Freeman added 11 more. Jake Dearing had 12 stops for the Bulldogs.
UMHB will travel to Pineville, Louisiana next Saturday for a 2:00 PM kickoff at Louisiana College (0-2, 0-1 ASC). Texas Lutheran will return home for a 6:00 PM kickoff against McMurry University (2-0, 1-0 ASC).
