HOUSTON – Lamar scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns to rally past HBU, 23-16, in the Huskies' home finale in Southland Conference football Saturday afternoon at Husky Stadium.
Freshman running back LaDarius Dickens rushed for 72 yards and caught a touchdown pass, while senior running back
Terrance Peters rushed for 52 yards and threw the touchdown to Dickens. Junior quarterback Jesse Crebbe completed 3-of-19 passes for 21 yards and an interception for HBU (1-9, 0-8 SLC).
Senior linebacker
Garrett Dolan finished with 16 tackles, moving into the top 10 in FCS history in career tackles. Senior linebacker
Cody Moncure added 11 tackles and junior linebacker
Kyle Bowling made eight. Sophomore defensive end Andre Walker had seven stops, including 1.5 sacks, and senior defensive lineman
Tyler Helaire also had seven tackles. Junior cornerback Raphael Lewis had an interception for HBU, which he returned for a touchdown.
Blake McKenzie completed 12-of-26 passes for 193 yards, a touchdown and interception, while rushing 12 times for 42 yards for the Cardinals. Myles Wanza carried 26 times for 143 yards and a score. Kirkland Banks made four catches for 27 yard, Dewan Thompson jr. had three for 51 yards and Isaiah Howard caught one for a 35-yard touchdown.
Jaylon Bowden led Lamar with nine tackles and Manasseh Miles had seven. Davon Jernigan intercepted a pass for the Cardinals and Cameron Houston had a sack.
Lamar outgained HBU, 460-187, but turned the ball over three times, while the Huskies only turned it over once. The Cardinals had 267 yards on the ground to the Huskies' 147 and 193 yards passing to HBU's 40. Time of possession was nearly even, Lamar committed 11 penalties for 85 yards and the Huskies had seven penalties for 47 yards.
The Cardinals took the opening kickoff and marched down the field to the HBU 18, but a McKenzie pass was intercepted by Lewis at the 4 and returned 96 yards for a touchdown, the longest scoring play of any kind in HBU history, to give the Huskies a 7-0 lead.
HBU went three-and-out on its first offensive possession, but senior punter
Christian Guzman's 51-yard punt was fumbled by Rodney Randle jr. and recovered by the Huskies' Coi Miller at the Lamar 13. The Huskies then ran an option pass with Peters finding Dickens for the 13-yard touchdown strike. The extra point was blocked and returned the distance by Randle, making the score, 13-2, with 6:23 remaining in the first quarter.
Guzman pinned the Cardinals back at their own 1-yard line with a punt, but the Cardinals went on a nine-play, 99-yard drive in just under three minutes. McKenzie hit Marcus Daggs for an 18-yard completion, then rushed for a 22 yard gain, before hitting Martell Hawthorne for a 48-yard completion to the HBU 5. Wanza took it in from four yards out to cut the deficit to 13-9 with 40 seconds left in the half.
The lone score in the third quarter came on junior kicker Alec Chadwick's 58-yard field goal with 5:08 to go. The field goal is the longest in NCAA Division I this season, just as Chadwick's career-long 60-yarder was a year ago. He now has two of the four longest field goals in the FCS this season.
Early in the fourth quarter, HBU was forced to punt from its own 30, but the kick was blocked by Brandon Dabney and recovered in the endzone by Desmond Veals to tie the game, 16-16, with 12:29 remaining in the game. After a failed drive by each team, Lamar got the ball back with 7:20 to go. Wanza opened with a 32-yard run and McKenzie found Howard for a 35-yard touchdown on the back line of the endzone to give the Cardinals their first lead with 6:11 left.
Sophomore quarterback Jack Swensen drove HBU down to the Lamar 26, but two incompletions gave the Cardinals the ball back with 2:31 and they were able to whittle the clock down to three seconds. The Huskies got the ball back on its own 27 after a punt, but Swensen's pass was incomplete.
The Huskies finish up the season on the road against No. 4 Sam Houston State Saturday, Nov. 18 at 1 p.m. at Bowers Stadium in Huntsville, Texas.
