TEXAS A&M 73 LAMAR 3

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COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Playing in front of a record-setting crowd of 104,728 Saturday night at Kyle Field, the No. 9-ranked Texas A&M Aggies overwhelmed Lamar cruising to a 73-3 win.

The attendance not only set a new Kyle Field record but is also the largest crowd ever to see a collegiate football game in the state of Texas. The fans had to wait through a 2:05 lightning delay, which postponed the start of the game until 8:43 p.m.

Lamar hung tough for the first half of the game, trailing just 21-3 after the first quarter and 31-3 at halftime. The outmanned Cardinals ran out of gas in the second half as the much deeper Aggies flexed their muscle in scoring 42 unanswered points.

“Texas A&M is a talented, deep team, and that’s why they’re ranked where they are,” head coach Ray Woodard said. “We were out-matched tonight, but I liked the way we fought and the way we kept playing. They gave us some chances, but we couldn’t do anything with them offensively. Their defense had a lot to do with that. We still did some good things and some things we can build on. I told the team that we’ll put this in our rearview mirror, and we’ll try and work on the mistakes we made.”

The Aggies struck first on their initial possession of the game, needing just three plays to cover 80 yards. Trey Williams scored on a 33-yard run to put Texas A&M up 7-0.

Lamar (1-1) answered with its only scoring drive of the game. Caleb Berry hit Mark Roberts for a 23-yard completion to put the ball in Aggies territory. Berry kept the drive alive by connecting with Michael Handy for a 30-yard completion on fourth-and-13 to give the Cardinals first-and-goal at the 4.

After two straight rushes by Carl Harris and an incomplete pass, Josh Davis put the Cardinals on the board with a 20-yard field goal. That capped a 14-play, 72-yard drive to make the score 7-3.

Texas A&M (2-0) added two more scores to close out the first quarter. Kenny Hill hit Ricky Seals-Jones on a 24-yard scoring strike. Hill connected with Sabian Holmes on a 51-yard TD with 2:15 left in the first quarter to make the score 21-3.

A Josh Lambo 20-yard field goal at 14:41 opened the second quarter scoring to push the margin to 24-3. Edward Pope hauled in a 9-yard touchdown reception at 7:48 to make the halftime score 31-3.

Lamar actually ran more offensive plays than the Aggies in the first half, 51 to 34. However, the Aggies outgained the Cardinals 358 to 177. The Cardinals managed just 28 yards on the ground in the opening half and 149 yards through the air.

It was more of the same in the second half as Texas A&M added two more scores. Malcome Kennedy hauled in an 18-yard TD reception from Hill on the Aggies opening drive of the second half. James White added a 1-yard run to push the lead to 45-3 at the end of the third quarter.

The Aggies added four more touchdowns against the clearly tired Lamar defense in the fourth quarter. White scored on a 3-yard run to push the lead to 52-3. Backup quarterback Kyle Allen hit Boone Niederhofer on a 2-yard TD pass and connected with LaQuvionte Gonzales on 33-yard TD strike to push the lead to 66-3. Brice Dolezal closed out the scoring with a 44-yard TD run with 1:27 remaining to make the final score 73-3, which is Lamar’s largest margin of defeat in school history.

Lamar returns home next Saturday as the Cardinals host Texas College in a 7 p.m. kickoff at Provost-Umphrey Stadium.

 

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