Hitting the road to Hammond

• Tweet
• Pin It

BEAUMONT, Texas – When the Lamar University football team (1-2/0-1 Southland) steps on the field Saturday evening to face Southeastern Louisiana it will be a matchup of two teams facing the same direction fighting for the same thing. The obvious answer to that statement is a win, which is true, but it is more than that. The Cards and Lions are two of five Southland teams (Sam Houston State is not included in this list because they have yet to play their conference opener) looking for their first win of league win of the season.

Although it is still early in the season, all five of those schools need a win because every coach will tell you just how important the first league victory of every season is. In addition to that, teams don’t want to give the leaders much breathing room and be forced to spend the rest of the season digging out of a hole.

In addition to getting its first league victory, Southeastern Louisiana enters Saturday looking for its first win of the year. The Lions are just one of two remaining Southland schools in that situation (Incarnate Word).

For the Cardinals, the game against Southeastern sets up a similar situation as last week’s opponent – Northwestern State. The Demons were winless heading into last week’s showdown but had played two very tough opponents close. Outside of SLU’s game against Central Arkansas, the same can be said of Lions.

Southeastern dropped a heartbreaking three-point decision at Louisiana-Lafayette in the first week of the season, only to return home to drop another close decision to Bethune-Cookman the following week.

The Cardinals will enter the second week of league action with a bit of chip on their shoulder. After trailing by 14 points in the fourth quarter, the Cardinals made a late rally but come up just short falling to Northwestern State by seven, 35-28. The thing that unfortunately will be remembered about that game will be LU’s 15 penalties.

“Surrendering 15 penalties in a game is outrageous and that has to get turned around this week,” said LU head coach Mike Schultz. “We cannot allow that to happen. Getting it corrected will have to be a team effort from the coaches on down to the players. We just can’t have that many mistakes in a game.”

The game will pit the league’s top two rushing offenses against each other. The Lions average better than 245 yards per game on the ground, while LU enters Saturday averaging 237 per game.

The Cardinals are being led by sophomore Kendrick King who has really settled into the role. King has set consecutive career highs in rushing yards and is coming off his first career 100-yard effort last week at Northwestern State. King currently ranks third in the league averaging just under 90 yards per game.

“We’re actually seeing Kendrick grow as a player and a runner,” said Schultz. “It is happening right in front of our eyes. The thing about Kendrick is that he’s not a big, physical, domineering back but you watch him in pass protection he doesn’t miss a block. When you have a smaller back stepping up doing things like that it’s a bright spot for your team.”

The Lions enter the week with the Southland’s leading rusher – Eugene Bethea. The senior Floridian is the only league player to be averaging over 100 yards per game on the season. He will present a tough task for an LU defense that has surrendered 232 rushing yards per game in the first three contests.

“Southeastern is a triple-option offense, which means you have to have a guy on dive, quarterback and pitch and if they’re not running triple option they’re running double option. They run some things that we have struggled with this season. We are going to have to be very disciplined on defense.

“Defensively, SLU is very active on the field. They have different fronts and different alignments they will show throughout the game. This is a very active team and they will be all over the place.”

LU quarterback Darrel Colbert jr. has been a touchdown machine for the Cardinals in the early stages of the season. Of the team’s 16 touchdowns, Colbert has been responsible for 10 of them (7 passing and 3 rushing). Colbert is currently tied for the second in the Southland with his seven passing touchdowns.

Saturday’s game is slated to kick off at 7 p.m. from Strawberry Stadium in Hammond, La. The game can be heard live on Newstalk 560 KLVI. Fans can also watch a live video stream of the game through the Southland Digital Network.

• Tweet
• Pin It