‘Jacks Trounce Lamar 34-7, Improve to 4-3 in Southland Play

Saturday, October 28

Beaumont, Texas (Provost Umphrey Stadium)

6:00 p.m.

Stephen F. Austin

4-5 , 4-3

Lamar

1-7 , 1-6

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Stephen F. Austin

Lamar University

Photo by: Jeff Kellum | Lamar Athletics

‘Jacks Trounce Lamar 34-7, Improve to 4-3 in Southland Play

10/28/2017 10:44:00 PM | Football

Box Score

SFA racks up season-high 571 yards of offense in road rout, overcomes five turnovers

By: Luke Bolanos | Assistant Director of Athletic Media Relations

BEAUMONT, Texas – Behind a season-high 571 yards of total offense, including a season-high 321 through the air and 272 on the ground, the Stephen F. Austin football team ran past Lamar 34-7 Saturday night on the road in Beaumont, Texas. The Lumberjacks (4-5, 4-3 Southland) used a balanced attack of rushing and passing inside Provost Umphrey Stadium and held the host Cardinals (1-7, 0-6 Southland) to just 222 yards of total offense, the fewest amount of yards SFA has given up in a game this season.

The 'Jacks overcame five total turnovers – three fumbles and two interceptions – and was able to hold Lamar to 101 rushing yards and 124 passing yards. Scoring all five trips down inside the red zone, SFA's offense was on the field for 12 minutes longer than Lamar's and scored 27-straight points after a 7-7 tie at the end of the first quarter.

After forcing the Cardinals to a pair of three-and-outs on their first two drives of the game, SFA drove the ball 65 yards on seven plays to score the first points of the night. Thanks to a 30-yard run by sophomore running back Josh McGowen (McAllen, Texas), the 'Jacks setup shop on the Lamar 16. Just two plays later, sophomore quarterback Jake Blumrick (Pearland, Texas) found a wide open senior tight end Will Taylor (Euless, Texas) between the hash marks for a 14-yard touchdown strike. Just Taylor's second touchdown of his career, the score put SFA 7-0 at the 6:26 mark of the first quarter.

On the ensuing Cardinal drive, junior safety Lawrence Ghansah (Cypress, Texas) forced a fumble and redshirt freshman defensive tackle Rayshad Nichols (Bridge City, Texas) pounced on the ball at the Lamar 25. However, the 'Jacks returned the fumble as the Cardinals' Jeffery James stripped Blumrick as he cocked back to pass. Recovering the ball on its own 26, Lamar marched 74 yards down the field in nine plays for its longest drive of the night. The drive ended on a trick play as wide receiver Kirkland Banks received the ball on a reverse handoff and passed it to an uncovered Andrew Allen for a six-yard touchdown pass that tied up the game at 7-7 with 1:21 to go in the opening quarter.

The first quarter ended with SFA's second turnover of the game when Blumrick found sophomore wide receiver Tamrick Pace (Brownsboro, Texas) for a 38-yard gain before the Cardinals recovered a Pace fumble. The second miscue did not result in any Lamar points as the Lumberjack defense forced the Cardinals back 11 yards.

SFA took a 10-7 lead early in the second quarter when the 'Jacks went 32 yards in seven plays before sophomore kicker Storm Ruiz (League City, Texas) knocked through a season-long 43-yard field goal. Blumrick was intercepted near midfield around the nine-minute mark of the quarter with the Cardinals taking over at the SFA 36. But once again, the Lumberjack defense pushed Lamar backwards and forced another punt.

Getting the ball with just over two minutes to go in the half, senior running back Kijana Amous (Mansfield, Texas) had the ball ripped away by the Cardinals' Chaston Brooks, who returned it to the SFA 44. The 'Jacks forced a fourth-and-two play and were able to halt the Lamar offense at the SFA 37 with 1:02 on the clock to get something going before the break. SFA did just that and went 63 yards in just 48 seconds, scoring on a perfectly thrown 19-yard pass from Blumrick to an in-stride Pace. The touchdown gave the 'Jacks a two possession 17-7 halftime lead.

Despite the four first-half turnovers, SFA outgained the Cardinals 323 to 121 in the opening 30 minutes of play and held Lamar to just 14 rushing yards on 19 attempts. The Lumberjack defense allowed Lamar to gain just 49 total yards in the second quarter.

The 'Jacks scored on just their second drive of the third quarter, going 71 yards on nine plays and using 5:46 of clock. A sideline pass to junior North Texas wide receiver transfer Terian Goree (Carthage, Texas) resulted in a 27-yard touchdown as Goree sprinted down the sideline for the score to put SFA ahead 24-7 with 6:51 to go in the third.

A 40-yard punt by junior punter Caleb Lewallen (Kingwood, Texas) near the end of the third quarter was muffed by the Cardinals as junior long snapper Chris Wilkerson (Waller, Texas) jumped on the loose ball, giving the 'Jacks possession at the Lamar 30. The Cardinals' miscue resulted in three more points by SFA as Ruiz made his second field goal of the night from 26 yards out, putting the 'Jacks ahead 27-7 with 13:27 left in the game.

Trailing by 20 points, Lamar was forced to go for it on fourth-and-10 on its ensuing drive but was unsuccessful. SFA took over on downs and marched the ball 65 yards down the field in five plays, taking just over a minute before scoring on a 12-yard touchdown run by Amous. Dodging defenders on his way to the end zone, Amous' score gave the 'Jacks a commanding 34-7 lead with 11:37 to go.

True freshman quarterback Zach Smith (Pearland, Texas) checked into the game and led SFA on an eight-play, 37-yard drive that chewed up 3:54 of clock. However, the drive was stopped with the Lumberjacks' fifth turnover of the night as the Cardinals' Nate Jones picked off Smith's deep ball down the sideline. SFA's defense held once again with Lamar getting just 29 yards out of its drive before being forced to punt. The 'Jacks made the 34-7 score go final by burning up the final 2:59 of clock with 30, 19 and five-yard rushes from McGowen.

Blumrick finished the night with a career-high 311 passing yards, going 21-of-34, while Smith completed two passes for 10 yards. Amous had his second 100-yard rushing game of the season with a game-high 111 yards on 21 carries. McGowen claimed a career-high 92 yards on the ground, averaging 9.2 yards per carry on 10 handles. Receiving, the 'Jacks got big nights from Pace, Goree and junior Texas A&M transfer wide receiver Frank Iheanacho (Houston, Texas). Pace totaled a season-high 145 yards on seven receptions as Goree made five catches for a career-high 73 yards and Iheanacho claimed a career-high 66 yards off of five grabs.

The Lumberjack defensive unit earned a season-high 12 tackles for loss for negative 42 yards. Senior defensive end John Franklin (Greenville, Texas), junior linebacker Ryan Woods (Pearland, Texas), sophomore linebacker Anthony Jacobs (Houston, Texas) and senior cornerback Trent Perriman (Miami, Fla.) combined for 24 total tackles. Sophomore linebacker Teddy Britton (San Antonio, Texas) tallied a career-high 3.0 TFL, while Ghansah had career-high 2.0 TFL and Franklin recorded a season-high 2.5 TFL.

Up next…

As one of only two teams that have yet to have their bye week, the 'Jacks will enjoy next weekend off for their open date. SFA will return to the gridiron Saturday, Nov. 11 with its final home game of 2017, hosting 23rd-ranked Nicholls for senior day. Kickoff from inside Homer Bryce Stadium is scheduled for 3 p.m.

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

Notes

The victory is SFA's first over Lamar since 2012 and marks the first time since 2011 the 'Jacks have defeated the Cardinals in Beaumont. SFA improves to 4-1 against Lamar since the Cardinals restarted their football program in 2010. The 'Jacks have now won six of the last seven meetings with Lamar.

Tonight's win gives SFA an impressive 4-1 record on the season against FCS opponents from Texas. It marks the first time since 1989 the 'Jacks have posted a victory over four in-state FCS opponents (then known as NCAA Division I-AA) in the same season and is the first time since 1995 SFA has defeated four Texas schools in one year.

Taylor's first-quarter touchdown was just the second of his four-year career and first scoring reception since his freshman year in 2014.

The 571 offensive yards by SFA is the most total yards the 'Jacks have claimed since registering 581 in last season's finale against Northwestern State.

Pace's 145 receiving yards is the most by a SFA player since Pace accumulated a career-high 187 on eight catches during last year's loss at Houston Baptist.

Quotes

Head Coach Clint Conque

On the offense rolling
"Well I thought some of our young players stepped up. They (Lamar) played a lot of man coverage so they gave us a lot of opportunities down the field and then in the run game, you can get through the initial interior of the line. Everybody is playing man on the perimeters, not a lot of over the top help. I'm very happy that we were able to score some points. Again, the turnovers is what kind of sticks in your stomach a little bit. We've got to play cleaner and a couple of them were, you know the deep ball there at the end of the fourth quarter, a little underthrown by a freshman."

"We're pretty shorthanded, we only traveled 60 players and I bet only about 52 played tonight. We lost some guys during the game, Hayden Scott the starting guard. We lost Rodberg (Sloan), a freshman, that will hurt us a little bit on special teams. Anyways, overall a good win. Anytime you can go on the road in this conference and win, those are precious. Could've played cleaner, we need to play cleaner moving forward. I thought the defense was smothering and dominant. The only touchdown they scored was on a trick play. I tried a little pooch kick there and it was there, we just didn't execute it and the defense made me right by making a stand there on the three-and-out. I thought the kicking game was solid. Trae (Hart) did a great job in the wind tonight fielding punts. We nailed all of our kicks and it was a season-long there for Storm (Ruiz), and that was into a little bit of a breeze. All in all, it was good to come on the road and win. It keeps the positive momentum going for us. We still have an awful lot to play for.

On the passing game
"We provided him (Blumrick) with better protection tonight. I think he was sacked once maybe but when you play man coverage, there's going to be those opportunities down the football field and certainly we hit some of them. That's what is going to happen in man coverage, you're going to hit some big ones and miss a few. I thought Tamrick (Pace) had a big night. We thought he could, just based on personnel and matchups and those kinds of things, but so did T. Goree and Iheanacho (Frank) early. So we were able to spread the ball around. Will Taylor had the touchdown pass, a little gadget play we ran. It was really good to get McGowen (Josh) back, you could see his speed he gives us when he can get a crease. But we are still a work in progress. A lot of changing parts on offense right now with injuries and youth but I think we are making progress. It's very uncharacteristic of our football team to turn the ball over like that. That's something that is going to be a big focus during the open week and, obviously, the rest of the season.

On the five turnovers
"I've got to go back and look at the video but we've just got to value the ball better. We've got to value the ball and understand that it's the most important piece of equipment in the stadium. We've got to do a better job of protecting that and we'll certainly address that and work on that in the coming weeks."

-SFA-