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HBU Huskies (3-5) at UTEP Miners (2-6)
Saturday, Nov. 5 – 7 p.m. CDT
Sun Bowl – El Paso, Texas
 
Audio (Lonnie King)
Video
Live Stats
Game Notes
 
EL PASO, Texas - HBU will finish off a three-game road swing when it faces UTEP, its second FBS and Conference USA opponent of the season, Saturday at 7 p.m. CDT at the Sun Bowl. The Legacy Sports Network audio broadcast with Lonnie King will be available on HBUHuskies.com.

The Huskies (3-5) are coming off a 24-17 win at Lamar, the first-ever Southland Conference road win in the history of the program. Senior quarterback Tony Dawson went 9-for-24 with 193 yards, two touchdowns and rushed for 73 yards. For the season, he has completed 106-of-215 passes for 1,312 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions, while rushing for 454 yards and a pair of scores. Junior running back Terrance Peters has rushed for 511 yards and two touchdowns, while junior running back B.J. Kelly has rushed for 279 yards and two touchdowns. Junior Isaiah Hall leads HBU with a single-season record 25 receptions, while junior Wesley Lewis has made 22 for a team-leading 325 yard. Junior h-back Mev Ajdin has made two touchdown catches.

Junior linebacker Garrett Dolan spearheads the HBU defense, leading the Southland Conference and ranking fourth nationally with 12.1 tackles per game (97 total), adding two forced fumbles and two recoveries. Senior linebacker Dorrin Turner has made 51 stops and the Huskies' lone interception, junior linebacker Cody Moncure has made 43 and junior cornerback Derek Broussard has 40 tackles and a single-season record eight pass breakups. Freshman defensive end Andre Walker leads the team with 2.5 sacks.

Junior punter Christian Guzman ranks second in the SLC with a 41.0-yard average and sophomore kicker Alec Chadwick has made a single-season record 12 field goals on 20 attempts.

UTEP (2-6) dropped a 31-21 decision at home to Old Dominion last time out. Ryan Metz has completed 70-of-110 passes for 726 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions. Aaron Jones has rushed for 940 yards and nine touchdowns, while Cole Freytag has made 24 catches for 378 yards and three touchdowns and Hayden Plinke has addd 22 catches for 240 yards and four touchdowns.

Dante Lovilette leads the Miners with 59 tackles, Nick Usher has made 56, including 3.5 sacks, and Alvin Jones has 52 tackles. Dashone Smith has two interceptions. Alan Luna has punted 45 times for a 43.3-yard average, while Jay Mattox is 2-for-3 on field goal attempts.

The Huskies return to action in their final home game on Senior Day Saturday, Nov. 12 against Stephen F. Austin at Husky Stadium, before the season finale on the road against Incarnate Word Thursday, Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. in San Antonio.
 
HBU Head Coach Vic Shealy Quotes
On Lamar: ""One of the things that is probably important to understand, when you're growing from ground zero up, you're working to become good, so you have a chance to win. Once you kind of get there, you find a way to win the close games, so maybe one day we'll find a way to win going away, but we'll take it tonight. I would have liked to have thought there midway in the fourth quarter where we had a 14-point lead and the ball it wouldn't have come down to this, but our kids showed great resolve and they kept on fighting. Even when we had some adverse moments there late in the fourth, our guys still found a way to win and it's a real credit to how hard they've worked and how committed they are to doing the little things right."
 
On the offense: "I really thought we played pretty well on third down in the second half -- the first half I didn't think we played really well in that respect. We were 2-for-2 on fourth down conversions in the first half, which is good. I thought we came back and were much better all-and-all, with being able to control the ball and put together first downs back-to-back. We've got to get a little cleaner in the running game still and we've still got to be able to do some things where we're consistently throwing and catching, but we are improving. It's tough to win a game on the road in this league, so this is a significant win for our program tonight."
 
On the defense: "We played better than maybe the 17 points we gave up, but the number of penalties we had on defense tonight, we have to clean that up. We have just not done a good job as coaches to purge out the number of penalties, some of them come when kids are trying so hard and maybe they're straining a little bit, they get a little bit overeager. We had five pre-snap penalties tonight, three on offense and two on defense, and you can't really do those things, but we'll get better and I'm just proud at the end of the game the guys just kept believing and we got it done in the fourth quarter."
 
On UTEP: "I those can be the games where you make the most improvement as a program. I look back at the Western Kentucky game and even though we struggled defensively, we got exposed to some things I think help you grow up a little more. You can talk about technique in practice, you can talk about the need to play better and cleaner, but when you face a team that is very, very good, they reinforce coaching and the need to be technically and fundamentally sound. These are welcomed challenges, you go into a big stadium with a crowd that's adversarial, it helps toughen your kids up, in terms of playing on the road. It's a good experience, we'll enjoy it and I'm confident our kids will line up, they'll prepare well and I expect us to go up there and compete and find a way to win a ballgame. "