HAMMOND, La. – HCU football kicked off the 2026 college football season in grand fashion at Strawberry Stadium on Thursday night with a 34-28 Week 0 Southland Conference win over No. 19/20 Southeastern Louisiana.
The last time the Huskies (1-0) traveled to Hammond resulted in HCU's first-ever win over the Lions (0-1) by a 34-19 final. The win over the 19
th-ranked Lions goes down as the biggest upset over a ranked opponent in program history with the Huskies' only other ranked win coming at home in 2024 when they defeated No. 22 McNeese, 43-22.
Thursday evening started slow as the Huskies went three-and-out on their first drive, leading to a punt and a six-minute, touchdown-scoring drive by the Lions that made it a 7-0 ballgame at the end of the first quarter.
After another defensive stop early in the second quarter with a big stop of fourth-and-one, the Huskies took over at the Southeastern 34-yard line. A trick play that resulted in a 27-yard pass from receiver
Trayjen Llanas-Wilcox to
Champ Dozier got the offense moving as it kickstarted a drive that resulted in a 30-yard
Lukasz Smolen field goal.
On the next SLU drive,
Jayven Anderson got into the backfield and blocked a 43-yard field goal attempt with
Brenden Bradshaw recovering the ball at the HCU 31. The Huskies needed just 2:31 of game time to march 69 yards with running back
Champ Dozier punching in the score from four yards out, putting HCU ahead, 10-7. Five plays later, cornerback
Jaden King broke up a pass that held up in the air for
Micah Henderson to dive and scoop up just before it hit the ground, giving the ball back to the Huskies with just 2:07 left in the half.
HCU moved the ball swiftly on the next possession and capped the 56-yard drive with a
Cutter Stewart pass to
Keith Wheeler who snagged a 12-yard touchdown pass toward the back corner of the end zone and tapped his feet for the score with two seconds left in the half, giving HCU a 17-7 advantage at halftime.
HCU received the opening kick of the second half and kept rolling, chewing up 6:31 off the clock with a 15-play, 78-yard drive that ended with a one-yard scoring run by
Jaylen Middleton for a 24-7 HCU lead.
The Lions had an answer on their next possession, however, with quarterback Kyle Lowe scampering 55 yards on a keeper to pull the hosts back within 10. HCU punted on its next possession but got the ball back six plays later thanks to a
Hope Tita forced fumble recovered by
Trent Zappe. On the next play, Stewart went over the top and found
Jamaal Hall II who went 66 yards to the house for his first touchdown as a Husky.
Leading 34-14,
Javon Bejarano got in on the forced fumble fun with
Rufus Toe falling on it. The Huskies moved the ball 26 yards to set up a 32-yard Smolen field goal, pushing the lead to 34-14 early in the fourth quarter.
The Lions came alive in the fourth, scoring a pair of touchdowns to get within six, 34-28, with 3:29 to go. HCU converted a pair of third down conversions to run out the clock and secure the victory.
Stewart finished the night with 173 yards passing for two touchdowns with one interception, completing 10-of-18 attempts, while also rushing 15 times for 95 yards. In 13 previous games played for the Huskies, Stewart had totaled 73 yards on the ground. Hall caught a pair of passes for 71 yards while Wheeler had three receptions, totaling 38 yards.
Ja'Ryan Wallace finished with two catches for 41 yards.
Defensively, Anderson had a monster game with five tackles for loss, including one sack, among his eight tackles while also blocking a kick. Bejarano led all players with 10 tackles while
Darius Bean and Zappe each had nine.
Southeastern out-gained the Huskies, 398-361, but HCU forced three turnovers while giving the ball away just once. Those three turnovers gained turned into 17 points for the Huskies.
The Huskies will be back in action in Houston on Saturday, Sept. 5, when they face the Rice Owls for the first time ever at Rice Stadium for a 6:00 p.m. kickoff.
