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THE OPENING KICKOFF
The Sul Ross State University Lobos (5-4, 3-2 ASC) will wrap up the 2016 slate at East Texas Baptist University (7-2, 3-2 ASC) this Saturday in a 1:00 p.m. ASC kickoff from Ornelas Stadium.
MEDIA INFORMATION
QUICK HITS AND RECAP
- In the final home game of the season the Sul Ross Lobos cruised by Howard Payne University (0-9, 0-6 ASC), 42-8 at a cool and windy Jackson Field Saturday night.
- For the game the Lobos outpaced the Jackets in total offensive yards by a 424-232 margin.
- James Davis (Houston/South) completed 27 of 36 passes for 247 yards and three touchdowns.
- Steven Savedra (El Paso/Del Valle) grabbed seven catches for 105 yards and a score.
- Zack Roberson (Houston/Cypress Ridge) led the defense with eight tackles including a pair of sacks for a loss of 16 yards.
- Quinton Jackson (Austin/Reagan) and Jacob Castaneda (El Paso/Franklin) posted interceptions for returns of 30 and 24 yards respectively.
SCOUTING THE TIGERS (from ETBU sports info.)
- Trying to make a push for the NCAA playoffs in a top 25 match up, the #21 East Texas Baptist University Tigers didn't have the day they wanted against #10 Hardin-Simmons University. After the first series of the game, ETBU had trouble with HSU's defense as they were handed their second loss of the year, 66-30.
- HSU defense gave ETBU trouble all day as the Tigers finished with just 465 yards of total offense.
- Richard Johnson finished with a career-high 227 yards receiving and broke the single season record for touchdowns in a season.
- He caught ETBU's first touchdown of the game on an 84-yard toss from Dru Smith for his 13th touchdown of the game breaking Stephen Alfred's record of 12 set in 2014.
- Smith threw for 323 yards and two touchdowns.
- Jourdan McNeill gained his 16th rushing touchdown of the year and produced 62 yards rushing.
- With 57 yards receiving, Chase Sojka now has over 1,000 yards receiving on the year.
- Caleb Taylor led ETBU with 15 tackles as Ty Parsons had 13 tackles. Garrett Gibson had ETBU's lone sack on the day.
- The Tigers are under the helm of former Sul Ross offensive coordinator and quarterback Scotty Walden.
- The Tigers are first in the ASC in total offense with 5351 yards.
- ETBU currently ranks second in the conference in scoring offense with 481 points scored.
- In rushing offense the Tigers rank second with 1899 yards.
- ETBU is also second in passing offense with 3452 yards.
- East Texas Baptist leads the conference in first downs at 261.
- McNeill is the third leading rusher netting 794 yards with 16 touchdowns.
- Smith is third in the league in passing completing 234 of 349 passes for 2916 yards and 31 touchdowns.
- Sojka leads the ASC in receptions with 79 for 1044 yards and nine scores.
SERIES HISTORY
- The Tigers lead the all-time series with the Lobos, 12-3
- The series dates back to 2000 as the Lobos claimed a 40-21 win.
- SRSU's last victory over the Tigers came in 2012's season finale as Sully claimed a 50-37 conference victory over the Tigers at ETBU's Ornelas Stadium.
LAST MEETING (Oct. 31, 2015)
- East Texas Baptist put up 658 yards of total offense on their way to a to a 61-21 conference victory over Sul Ross spoiling the Lobos' homecoming in 2015.
- The Tigers did the lion's share of the damage through the air with 445 passing yards.
- As a team ETBU finished 27 of 40 in passing attempts.
- East Texas Baptist was perfect inside the Lobos' red zone at seven for seven while Sully finished at two for five.
- Sul Ross finished the day with 375 yards of total offense and netted 268 yards on the ground outpacing ETBU by 55 yards off the rush.
- Hasan Lipscomb (Houston/Cypress Ridge) ran for 176 yards off of 12 carries and a touchdown while Williton Grear (Austin/Del Valle) rushed 18 times for 102 yards and a score.
- Jordan Reyes (El Paso/Hanks) completed seven of 18 passes for 70 yards but was picked off twice. Paul Rodriguez (Weslaco/WHS) threw for 37 yards including a scoring strike to Calvon Henderson (Cameron/Yoe).
SUL ROSS TEAM AND INDIVIDUAL NOTES
- After nine games the Lobos rank second in punt returns with 208 yards and two touchdowns.
- The Lobos are being outscored by their opponents by a slim 275-270 margin.
- Davis is sixth in the ASC in passing completing 165 of 259 passes for 1883 yards and 15 touchdowns.
- Davis is also sixth in total offense with 2286 yards.
- Adam Cruz (Canutillo/CHS) is third in the conference in field goals at four for five including a season-long 42 yard field goal against Arizona Christian on September 17.
- Roberson leads the ASC in sacks with 10.5 for a total loss of 72 yards.
- Roberson also leads the league in tackles for loss with 19 stops for a loss of 99 yards.
- Job Mason (Thorndale/THS) leads the conference in breakups with 14.
- Jermaine Stevens (Houston/South) is fourth in breakups with 11.
ASC RECAP (WEEK 10)
No. 3 Mary Hardin-Baylor 59, Belhaven 21
JACKSON, Miss. – Mary Hardin-Baylor fell behind early but dominated the rest of the way as the Cru cruised to a 59-21 victory over Belhaven Saturday afternoon in Mississippi.
No. 10 Hardin-Simmons 66, No. 21 East Texas Baptist 30
ABILENE, Texas - Hardin-Simmons moved to 8-1 with a 66-30 win over No. 21 East Texas Baptist in American Southwest Conference action at Shelton Stadium.
McMurry 34, Louisiana College 28
ABILENE, Texas – An eight-point fourth quarter deficit proved to be no problem for McMurry, as it scored a 34-28 come-from-behind victory over visiting Louisiana College at Wilford Moore Stadium.
QUOTES FROM COACH JOHN PEARCE
On Saturday's win and the slow start against HPU: Last Tuesday and Wednesday we did not have our best practices and that might have been an indicator as to a scoreless tie in the first period. We were able to put together two really good days of practice on Thursday and Friday so it's interesting how the pattern of the game pretty much followed the pattern of practice last week. Our defense played four quarters of great football but our offense was just flat at the beginning. But they were able to put it all together late in the second quarter and came out swinging in the third.
Overall thoughts on the offense: Again our production level really got better towards the half. James had a great night. Steven came up with that unbelievable catch in the fourth quarter and Sidrick Brown really stepped up as a freshman with a big touchdown run in the end. So it was a good solid win on both sides of the ball. We just came out flat on offense but they regrouped and got the job done.
On battling late-season injuries and fatigue: Nothing is easy playing in this conference. I've said it before but we play in the toughest league in Division III football and every opponent brings its share of challenges. Everybody's just trying to win. Every team is battling injuries and other issues to some extent at this juncture.
On the improved performance of special teams: Overall we looked much better but we did have some missed opportunities especially with a few punts we should have blocked. Stephen punted the ball really well and was able to pin Howard Payne deep in their end of the field. Wesley is doing a heck of job fielding punts. That's been our number one rule with punt returns. You have to catch the ball. Any yards after that is just icing on the cake.
On Steven Savedra's fourth quarter catch: James was able to work his way out of a delayed blitz on his roll out. Looking at the film it looks like he was just trying to throw it away and Steven just pulled it down. Both of those kids are just unbelievable. They have such a solid work ethic they bring everyday to practice. Both of them are responsible for changing the culture of this program.
Injury report: Paul [Rodriguez] is still a little banged up on his knee from the Mary Hardin-Baylor game so he's day-to-day. But overall we're pretty healthy. It's just really some nics and bruises but again, at this point in the season, that's expected.
Thoughts and keys against East Texas Baptist: No question they're a good, Top 20 football program. Scotty is a Sul Ross guy and really understands his offense. He built it here and was able to expand on it. He's going to score points. Our offense has to capitalize and put points on the board and our defense needs to contain their offense which is up tempo and explosive. Time of possession is going to be a huge factor for us along with protecting the ball and making big stops defensively and creating turnovers.
