SFA Routs Houston Baptist 27-10 on Homecoming

Saturday, October 21

Nacogdoches, Texas

3:00 p.m.

Stephen F. Austin

3-5 , 3-3

Houston Baptist

1-6 , 0-5

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Houston Baptist

Stephen F. Austin

Photo by: Hardy Meredith | SFA Photography

SFA Routs Houston Baptist 27-10 on Homecoming

10/21/2017 7:44:00 PM | Football

Box Score

Lumberjacks rack up a season-high 483 yards of total offense and hold the Huskies to just 238 yards in Homecoming 2017 victory

By: Luke Bolanos | Assistant Director of Athletic Media Relations

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NACOGDOCHES, Texas – After struggling at times throughout the season to generate offense, the Stephen F. Austin football team totaled 483 yards Saturday in a 27-10 win over Houston Baptist University on Homecoming 2017. The Lumberjacks (3-5, 3-3 Southland) outgained the Huskies (1-6, 0-5 Southland) by nearly 250 yards, holding Houston Baptist to just 238 yards of total offense.

With a strong rushing attack that generated a season-high 262 yards on the ground, SFA's defense was relentless on the Huskies' ground game. The 'Jacks allowed just 22 rushing yards in the contest on 24 attempts by HBU. SFA held the ball for over 13 minutes longer than the visitors as both teams played with discipline, combining for just 11 penalties.

The Huskies came out of the gate ready to strike, going 75 yards on eight plays before quarterback Andrew Haidet took it in himself from a yard out. Taking a 7-0 lead after just over two minutes of play, it would be the longest drive of the night for HBU. In fact, the Huskies gained 17 yards on their second drive of the game before being stonewalled by an inspired defensive effort by the hosts. Through the opening 30 minutes of action, HBU racked up only 90 total yards, finishing with minus-two yards during their final seven drives of the half.

Despite not being able to do much offensively in the opening quarter of play, SFA was able to finally manufacture some offense at the tail end of the first quarter. Sophomore starting quarterback Jake Blumrick (Pearland, Texas) marched the 'Jacks 12 plays and 46 yards down the field before sophomore kicker Storm Ruiz (League City, Texas) nailed a 34-yard field goal early in the second quarter to cut the Huskies' lead to 7-3. SFA's lengthiest drive of the day to that point was aided by an HBU pass interference call on a fourth-down try by the 'Jacks at the Huskies' 31.

With its stifling defense, SFA had another scoring opportunity moments later after a 49-yard drive but came up empty when Ruiz was faced with a bad snap and saw his 34-yard field goal attempt fall well short and off to the left. Midway through the second quarter the 'Jacks made it a one-point game after senior running back Kijana Amous (Mansfield, Texas) took off for 54-yard catch and run, setting up a short-distance field goal. Ruiz put toe to leather once again, this time drilling a 24-yarder to make it 7-6 with 4:47 to go in the half.

HBU went backwards on its ensuing drive before SFA went 74 yards on six plays in 2:28, getting another chunk of yardage on a Blumrick to Amous catch and run. Junior Arkansas transfer running back Juan Day (Little Rock, Ark.) completed the scoring drive with a 22-yard run followed up with a four-yard touchdown. His first rushing touchdown of the season put the 'Jacks ahead 13-7 with 1:38 left in the half.

Holding the Huskies to just five yards in the second quarter, SFA racked up 185 yards of offense, including 103 yards through the air on four completions.

Opening up the second half, the Lumberjacks' took the ball 44 yards on six plays but were unable to convert a fourth-and-two play at the visitor 31 as Day's rushing attempt came up just short of the first-down marker. On Houston Baptist's ensuing drive, junior defensive tackle Demetrion Amie (Fort Worth, Texas) came up with a key, 53-yard field goal block, stopping the Huskies at the SFA 36-yard line. Following the field-goal block, the 'Jacks marched 64 yards down the field and scored on a three-yard touchdown rush by Amous. The score at the 6:08 mark of the third quarter gave SFA a comfortable two-possession lead at 20-7.

Moments later the 'Jacks forced the Huskies to punt for the seventh time of the but SFA was unable to come up with the fair catch, muffing the punt as HBU recovered the ball at the SFA six-yard line. However, the 'Jacks defense came up big once again and did not allow a single yard on the following four Husky offensive plays. HBU knocked through a 23-yard field goal, making it 20-10 with just under four minutes remaining in the third quarter.

SFA outgained the visitors 121 to 21 in the third quarter, thanks in large part to 41 rushing yards by Blumrick.

With HBU threatening once again on its first drive of the fourth quarter, senior cornerback Aaron Foy (Kilgore, Texas) picked no better time to register his first career interception. Foy's pick in the end zone, which he returned out to the 30, stopped the Huskies from making it a one possession game and setup the 'Jacks for their final scoring drive of the game. SFA went 70 yards in eight plays following the interception and ate up nearly four and a half minutes of clock, scoring when Amous punched in his second touchdown of the game and sixth of the season from six yards out.

Amous' score with 9:32 to go would be the final of the game as the Lumberjack defense forced the eighth Husky punt of the night. SFA was able to run off 5:38 of clock on its final drive to seal the win.

Blumrick picked up his first collegiate win as a starting quarterback going 24-of-24 for a career-high 221 yards, while Amous tallied a career-high seven receptions for 102 yards. Day posted a career-best as well with 72 yards on just seven carries. Amous led the rushing corps with 83 yards on the ground on 16 attempts as sophomore wide receiver Tamrick Pace (Brownsboro, Texas) claimed five catches for 38 yards.

Defensively, Foy led with seven tackles, including six solo stops, a pass breakup and his 30-yard interception return. Freshman safety Trenton Gordon (Rowlett, Texas) totaled six tackles, while sophomore linebackers Teddy Britton (San Antonio, Texas) and Spencer Choka (Bryan, Texas) both posted five.

The Huskies played three quarterbacks as Bailey Zappe finished 15-of-24 for 146 yards, while Dennis Houston had a team-high six receptions for 69 yards. First-Team All-Southland Conference and All-American linebacker Garrett Dolan claimed a game-high 19 tackles, including eight by himself, for the second time this season.

Up next…

After playing its lone home game in the month of October, SFA will now travel to Beaumont, Texas, next weekend to face Lamar University. Kickoff from Provost Umphrey Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 28 is slated for 6 p.m.

Stay tuned to SFAJacks.com, as well as SFA's social media platforms, for complete coverage of Lumberjack football this fall.

Notes

Claiming his 49th career Southland win, head coach Clint Conque is now tied for third place on the league's all-time coaching career conference victories list. Coach Conque holds an overall Southland record of 49-32 (.604) in 11 seasons coaching in the conference, including his time at fellow league member Central Arkansas. He sits tied with former Northwestern State head coach Sam Goodwin (49-32-2), who led the Demons from 1987-99.

Senior defensive end John Franklin (Greenville, Texas) registered a nine-yard sack in the first quarter, moving up to tie for sixth on SFA's all-time career tackles for loss list and taking sole possession of ninth on the school's all-time career sacks list. He has now registered 32 total tackles for loss in 38 games played in his career and has posted 16.5 sacks.

The 10 points allowed ties a season-low for SFA's defense, matching the 10 given up at Abilene Christian

The 262 rushing yards and 483 yards of total offense are both season-bests for SFA.

Today's 238 total yards by HBU is the least amount of offense an opponent has gained against the 'Jacks this season.

SFA obliterated its previous season-low for rushing yards allowed (105 at Abilene Christian), by holding the Huskies to just 22.

To go along with Blumrick's career-high 221 passing yards, he tied a career-high with 42 rushing yards.

Saturday's victory snapped a three-game losing streak for the 'Jacks but was the first game against an unranked opponent in nearly a month. Prior to Saturday, the last time SFA played an opponent not ranked in the top 25 was on Sept. 23 at Abilene Christian.

The 'Jacks improved to 3-1 against unranked FCS opponents this season and owns a 3-2 record against Lone Star State schools, including a 3-1 mark versus FCS opponents in Texas.

Quotes

Head Coach Clint Conque

Opening comments on the game
"Certainly it's good to win, it's good to win on homecoming. We had a pretty good crowd out there today. I'm really happy for our players. We worked really, really hard all year. The past couple of weeks we have been right there at the end. This team could've backed up this week maybe and they didn't do that. We hung together with one heartbeat and punched through and I was very proud. I thought it was a team win, anytime you can hold your opponent to 10 points, 230 yards of offense, you rush for 262 and pass for 221, and breaking pretty much even in the kicking game. It's a good team win. I'm really happy for our players, I'm really happy for our coaches. Certainly the alumni and the students, all the people that came back to the campus today. I feel like Jake Blumrick is growing up, no question about it. I gave him the game ball. This is his first Division I win as a full-time starter. He continues to impress me with his toughness."

"We, obviously, have some things to clean up. It's a good win, a good solid team win. We are finding some identity I think right now, as far as who we think we can be offensively because we are missing a lot of pieces. We lost a couple of guys during the game today, two or three. I'm really excited to see what this team can do moving forward. I guess we are 3-1 now against in-state competition and we got a one more next week. We have Lamar next week for a chance to make it 4-1, which is really big for recruiting and for bragging rights for our players. Good crowd, good win, good solid team win today. We have some things we need to clean up. I was not happy with the unsportsmanlike penalties, we had a couple of those, and obviously the turnovers. We had three turnovers. We got to get that cleaned up."

On the reasoning for running counters
"Well, they are really good in the core. I mean those two linebackers #40 and #20 have been there for five years. They played there five years ago as a non-counter. They have got 20-something seniors and it's the same guys. I think they got a little dinged up on the interior D-line. We didn't feel that we could attack the interior until we attacked the perimeter. I thought our wide receivers did an incredible job and KJ will allude to that in a minute. We were able to get some explosive plays and we just felt like we had to attack the perimeter, so we put in a second counter. We have had one in, and we added another one this week and we felt like that was effective."

On if adjustments were made after the early HBU touchdown
"Not really. They have done that to just about everybody they have played by the way. Their first drive they go get either a touchdown or a field goal, against UCA, McNeese, and ACU. They have come out on point. They have got several different schemes. They run the option, zone, perimeter runs with a counter. They have got good, shifty backs and all of the OPO's of the counters and zones. Obviously they are searching at quarterback right now. I think all three of them are all capable players. Andrew Haidet got hurt. He is a redshirt freshman from Austin, good-looking kid. The Zappe kid was in a boot before the game. He came out and warmed up, then came to the sidelines in a boot. They felt like the needed to get him in there. He is a true freshman, just turned 18 last week. I think he us going to be a good player. That was a veteran offensive line, veteran receivers. Those guys have been there a long time. I think they were fourth in the conference in total defense. We did some good things today."

So. Quarterback Jake Blumrick

On getting the win
"I mean it was huge. The big thing for us is we played three top-25 teams in a row, just not getting down on ourselves. We knew who we kind of really were, we knew what we wanted to do and it would have been easy for us drop down from the three loses. But we know what we want, we have a lot of leadership on this team from the seniors. Some of the older guys just told us not to give up. Like coach Conque telling us not to give up, so that's just a big thing for us. No matter what happened the week before, the focus is on this week. That is what we focus on and not what happened in the past. This week we wanted to get a win, we knew what we had to do and it was good to go out there and execute. That was huge."

Sr. Running Back Kijana Amous

On his offensive production the last two games
"I just want to say that my teammates are doing a great job, we were practicing hard and it is starting to show. We are getting perimeter blocking and the offensive line blocking is looking good. So, I don't know want to take credit for that, because those are for those (O-line) guys. They do an awesome job at what they do and we're getting better every day."

-SFA-