BEAUMONT, Texas – Lamar University junior Jojo Uga rushed for a career high 144 yards and three touchdowns as the 10th-ranked Cardinals defeated UIW, 38-35, Saturday at Provost Umphrey Stadium. The victory pushed Big Red’s win streak to four consecutive, as the team moves to 5-1 (.833) on the season and 3-0 in Southland Conference play.
As a team, the Cardinals racked up 398 yards of total offense, 275 of which came on the ground. In addition to Uga’s career day, senior Parker Jenkins added 68 yards on nine carries (7.6 ypr). The good guys averaged nearly 6.0 yards per carry as a team (5.9 ypr).
“I think our O-Line and tight ends are coming together as a unit and they communicate really well,” said Rossomando. “I think we have a really good core group (of backs) in Uga, Jenkins and McDowell. Those are three guys we can really count on in the run game. All those guys are really good players and game breakers. Just proud of how that group came together and proud of Aiden getting us in good runs against their defense.”
Junior Aiden McCown completed 12-of-22 (.545) passes for 123 yards and a score (a three-yard pass to Davin Driskell early in the fourth).
“It’s always great to win,” said LU head coach Pete Rossomando. “That is a good team played today. UIW has a championship pedigree. They have won a lot of games in the league, and it was good to get them at home and have the home field advantage.”
UIW finished the day with 386 yards of offense, but an early 24-7 Lamar lead was too much for the team from San Antonio to overcome. Senior Andrew Huff led LU with seven tackles, including two key sacks. Junior Mar Mar Evans added six stops (three solos) while sophomore T.J. Nelson made three tackles with a sack.
“I thought our defense did a good job of bending but not breaking,” said Rossomando. “They play a lot of snaps, but our defense got a lot of takeaways and fourth down stops which I count as takeaways. Overall, a great win, a conference win and it’s great to be 3-0 in the conference and protect your home field.”
Lamar jumped out to a 24-7 first half lead and it appeared was headed for a rout, but the league’s other Cardinals would battle back trimming the lead with a touchdown with just 11 seconds remaining before halftime. Lamar responded first in the second half on a four-play 75-yard drive that was capped by a 62-yard Jenkins run. Unfortunately, UIW would have an answer 1:03 later to pull back within 10, 31-21.
The Lamar advantage remained at 10 until three seconds into the fourth when McCown found Driskell in the right front side of the end zone for the score. The TD pass capped a five-play, 23-yard drive that came following a UIW fumble.
San Antonio’s version of the Cardinals wouldn’t go away quietly tacking on a touchdown just over two minutes later to pull back within 10, to go along with another score at the 5:02 mark to pull within three, the closest San Antonio’s Cardinals had been since early in the second quarter.
Lamar got the ball back with 1:11 remaining and despite UIW having two timeouts, LU went back to the ground game to run out the clock.
The Cardinals return to action Saturday, Oct. 17, when they travel to Hammond, La., to take on Southeastern Louisiana. The game against the Lions will kick off at 4 p.m. from Strawberry Stadium and will be broadcast live on Newstalk 560 KLVI and streamed live on ESPN+.
(Photo Credit Jarrod Brown)
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